MIDDLE PENINSULA
Yesterday, Aug 18, I visited King William Co from
Beulahville to The Pocket, and Walkerton (King
and Queen County).
At Riverwood in Beulahville, where I was hoping
for some migrant warblers, I saw very little of
note. All the warblers were probably residents
(parula, pine, prairie, prothonotary and a dapper
male hooded). A sharp-shinned hawk passed through
and 2 wood ducks caught insects among the pond
lillies. At Dorrell Rd and the pond on Green
Pastures Lane there were 6 killdeer, a great
egret, a green heron, and a solitary sandpiper.
The farm "pond" at the intersection of routes 600
and 30 had 15 killdeer and 2 horned lark.
Woodbury Turf Farm off Walkerton Rd in King
William had a cooper's hawk, 2 horned lark, 41
killdeer, 5 pectoral sandpiper, 1 lesser
yellowlegs, 1 semipalmated sandpiper, and 12
least sandpipers.
Frog Hollow Sod Farm along Horse Landing Rd near
King William courthouse had the most exciting
bird of the day, my first Virginia Upland
Sandpiper. If you go to look for it, please be
aware that cars sometimes drive very quickly
along this road so parking between the house and
the hill is not a good idea. Also, the owners
here would not like you to step onto their
property or park on their grass so please be
considerate. There were also 18 killdeer, and in
the pond across the street, were 2 least
sandpiper and 3 spotted sandpiper.
At the Walkerton bridge over the Mattaponi River
I was amazed by the size of the flock of Purple
Martins perching on the electric wires at 3 PM
(but they were not there at 4:30). I have never
seen so many. I carefully estimated 2400 birds.
Of these only about 5% (120) were adult males.
This same ratio was evident in the other flocks I
saw at The Pocket and Elsing Green (King William)
later in the evening. There I saw 1750 martins
in 4 different groups (on different sets of
electric wires). I do not know if these are part
of the flock that I saw at the Walkerton bridge 7
or 8 miles to the NE.
I was also surprised by the number of
wood-pewees. I saw/heard 18 at Elsing Green near
sunset.
Two barred owls were also hooting here at dusk.
Also saw 23 blue grosbeaks along the way.
The tide was high and rising while I was near the
Pamunkey and Mattaponi Rivers, so there were no
exposed mudbars.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15 UPPER NORTHERN NECK
Visted the ponds along route 3 in King George Co,
a brief stop at Pope's Creek at Washington's
Birthplace National Monument, and the Leedstown
area (Westmoreland Co) including three private
properties. Though I found over 150 chigger
bites on me the next morning because I forgot to
put on insect repellant and then waded through
lots of tall grass and herbaceous vegetation,
there were no mosquitos, ticks or deer flies.
Highlights included 2 bobolinks flying over, a
grasshopper sparrow still with food in beak for
young, 4 spotted sandpipers and a blue-winged
teal at KG Ponds, 9 Great Egrets at the Trader
farm in Leedstown and a good mix of landbirds,
all being resident species, not northern
migrants.
warblers: yellowthroat, yellow-throated, yellow,
ovenbird, pine, parula, prairie (8 at KG ponds),
prothonotary, redstart.
Vireos: 22 red-eyed, 8 white-eyed, 2
yellow-throated.
Flycatchers: 2 great crested, 3 kingbird, 3
phoebe, 11 pewee, 1 acadian
sparrows: field, song, chipping, grasshopper
30 gnatcatchers
4 spotted sandpiper
1 summer and 2 scarlet tanagers
1 baltimore and 12 orchard orioles
3 yellow-billed cuckoos
only 6 purple martins
2 bobwhites
29 blue grosbeak
23 indigo bunting
3 kestrel
At dusk at Troy Creek Farm along the Rappahannock
River in Leedstown I watched a river of a 3-4
thousand swallows flying north. Of the birds I
could identify about 60% were tree swallows, 30%
were bank swallows and 10 % were barn swallows. I
saw only a couple of rough-wingeds and no cliffs
or martins in this flock.
All the best
Good to be home
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
