I reported on the King George part of my day earlier. From there I went to
Leedstown in Westmoreland Co where the highlight was an American Golden-Plover
along Leedstown Rd. I was hoping for buff-breasted sandpiper which I have seen
in this area before, but could not find any. Instead I found some Pectoral
sandpipers, a few semipalmated plovers, and least and semipalmated sandpipers.
I also found a few bobolinks. It was still raining pretty steadily so I drove
from there to King William Co. En route I stopped at Singerly pond in Richmond
Co where the only shorebirds were a least sandpiper and several killdeer. Then
I stopped in Tappahannock at the route 360 bridge and found 53 royal terns(16
juveniles) and 220 laughing gulls (only 6 juveniles) as well as several
forsters terns, ospreys, dc cormorants. The only other gull was an adult
ring-billed gull.
In King William I went straight to the road near Frog Hollow sod farm since
this is where I saw an upland sandpiper once from the road. The farm had a
corn crop and no visible sod, but across the road in that little pond, there
was my 199th King William species, a white juvenile Little Blue Heron as well
as a Great Egret.
From there I went to theTurf Farm along Woodbury Rd (off of Walkerton rd)
where there were a lot of shorebirds in a small section where the sod had been
harvested. This area must be viewed from the road only. I was unable to find
a buff-breasted or upland but did find a single baird's sandpiper, some
pectorals,and some stilt sandpipers as well as both yellowlegs, solitary,
least and semipalmated sandpipers. There were also a few hundred swallows here
including one cliff swallow. The most common swallow at this spot was barn
swallow, followed by bank.
