Hi Virginia Birders
Very sorry for the delay in sending this summary of my trip to King William and
King and Queen Counties on Saturday March 3.
I birded E River Rd, Green Level Rd, The Pocket area, and the West Point bridge
in King William, then Shanghai boat landing and Walkerton in King And Queen,
and then finished up the day at my property, Riverwood, in Beulahville (King
William). When in King and Queen I tried to visit the landfill, but it closes
at noon on Saturday and this was mid-afternoon. I saw no gulls or eagles flying
around there.
I had 82 species with the following highlights
1. First Osprey of the year at the Walkerton bridge (Mattaponi R) but
surprisingly none in the Pocket (Pamunkey R) yet.
2. Lots of Pine Warblers singing (16). There were also 46 yellow-rumped
warblers, 5 phoebes, 8 ruby-crowned kinglets, 1 sapsucker, and 16 hermit
thrushes.
3. Decline in numbers of waterfowl but still some good variety especially at
The Pocket and Walkerton, including a Cackling Goose (Pocket), Canada Goose
(2490), pintail (2), american wigeon (52), gadwall (31), wood ducks (14),
mallards (148), black ducks(4), green-winged teal (4), lesser scaup (110),
ring-necked duck (364), bufflehead (24), hooded merganser (10) common merganser
(5), ruddy duck (13), coot (41), and pied-billed grebes (7). I have never seen
Horned Grebe in the Mattaponi before, but found 1 in Walkerton. There were 12
Horned Grebe in the Pamunkey at the Pocket, where I only very occasionally find
1. I found no swans all day.
4. At the West Point bridge over the Mattaponi R, looking from the King and
Queen side, I found a Great Blue Heron rookery that I never knew existed on one
of the power-line towers on the King William side of the RIver. There were 22
great blue herons there and it looked like about 18 nests, mostly on the lowest
horizontal beams, though the angles made it difficult to distinguish one nest
from another even with the scope. Some were sitting on the nests as if
incubating. ONe was bringing in sticks, Others were just standing around.
5. Also at the West Point bridge I scoped out 32 Brown Pelicans and my first 10
Laughing Gulls of the year on the dock pilings on the King William side.
6. For shorebirds I had 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 in Walkerton and 1 at The
Pocket, 28 snipe roosting on vegetation and a log in the Pocket which had very
high water covering any exposed mud, only 10 killdeer all day, and 3 woodcocks
peenting and displaying at dusk at Riverwood, where a Barred Owl and a chorus
of Spring Peepers were also calling.
7. Sparrows included 3 field, 18 chipping, 6 savannah, 4 fox, 109 song, 2
swamp, 157 white-throat, 81 juncos, and 9 towhees. I also tallied 81 cardinals.
8. Leopard Frogs, peepers, and upland chorus frogs were heard in multiple
locations during the day.
All the best
I hope you have a great week
Fred
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
