On Sunday May 11, I made a brief stop at LaGrange
Lane (off route 3, King George Co)around 8 AM and
then spent most of the day in the vicinity of
Leedstown (upper Westmoreland County). Both
locations had purple martins along with cliff,
rough-winged, barn, bank, and tree swallows.
Bank and tree swallows were the most abundant,
over 150 of each, and 40-50 bank swallows at
LaGrange La were checking out nesting cavities in
the banks of one of the sand pits. Each location
had 3 cliff swallows.
In Leedstown, along Leedstown Rd just after
Mothershead Tract of Rappahannock RVNWR, there is
a wheat field where there were 3 male dickcissels
singing, my first in this location. (I could not
find any at Mothershead which has suitable
habitat that will not be harvested, unlike the
wheatfields). The dickcissels seemed territorial,
stationed a hundred yards or so apart, singing on
utility poles, wires, and fence-line bushes. One
of them chased away a lingering savannah sparrow
and a singing blue grosbeak. When he was
displaced by a mockingbird, he held his ground
and continued singing from about 1 foot away, and
the mockingbird left. I could not find them later
in the day when it was raining.
Though I found very few warbler migrants in
Leedstown (redstart, blackpoll, northern
waterthrush, yellow-rumped) a lot of
probable-resident warblers were singing
throughout the nice assortment of habitats along
Leedstown Rd (prothonotary, chat, prairie,
yellow-throated, hooded, ovenbird, pine,
black-and-white, yellowthroat, and yellow).
A Rose-breasted grosbeak, several blue
grosbeaks, both tanager species, and many indigo
buntings added some bright color to this gray
day.
I also saw 4 harriers today, but no kestrels. One
of the harriers was seen from Muse Rd way out out
over the Potomac River flying very low above the
white-caps).
There was a very good variety of shorebirds
present in Leedstown. Visible from Leedstown Rd
at Parker Farm where the road makes a huge turn
near the river, were 14 semipalmated plovers (the
most I have seen in the county) and 7 least
sandpipers. The shallow, marshy duckpond with
muddy shores on a private farm managed for
wildlife (Trader) off of Leedstown Rd had my
first VA white-rumped sandpiper, as well as 3
semipalmated sandpipers, 3 semipalmated plovers,
15 least sandpipers, a brilliant dunlin, a
killdeer, a lesser yellowlegs, and several
spotted and solitary sandpipers. A greater
yellowlegs and 4 spotted sandpipers were also at
LaGrange Lane.
Flycatchers in Leedstown included acadian, wood
pewee, phoebe, kingbird, and great crested.
On PeeDee Creek where it goes under Layton
Landing Rd (Leedstown) a wood duck hen with at
least ten pudgy chicks splatter-splashed across a
swamp pool to the shelter of the flooded forest.
The only other waterfowl seen today were a
pied-billed grebe (Lagrange), two drake mallards
and two groups of Canada geese (15 each).
6 Bobwhites were singing in the Leedstown area,
(2 at Mothershead).
There was also a smattering of grasshopper
sparrows, meadowlarks and bobolinks (30 LaGrange
Lane, 50+ Leedstown).
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
