All,
Yesterday Rebecca Wilson, our excellent Eastern Region Preserve Steward and
Plenipotentiary, came upon a flock of about 30 white ibises at Hughlett
Point in lower Northumberland County, Northern Neck. She said two of the
birds appeared to be adults, the rest were juveniles.
My wife and I just returned from there this evening and, while we saw no
ibises, we had a nice flight of great egrets and a mixed flock of 6 snowy
egrets and 5 tri-colored herons fly by in perfect light. There were also two
adult mute swans and two mallards in the northern lagoon and a few least
sandpipers around the edges. Red-headed woodpeckers and brown-headed
nuthatches infest the dead pines along the edge of the woods.
BTW, the section of beach that had been posted to allow for a small colony
of least terns has been reopened. The tern nests were raided by predators
and the adults all abandoned the site.
Tom Saunders
Kilmarnock
