Yesterday I spent the day in very rural King William and King and Queen
counties near Beulahville, Walkerton, and the Pocket, finishing up with a
nightjar survey for Center for Conservation Biology in the Newtown area of
upper King and Queen. I entered 13 ebird lists and 85 species.
A non-breeding plumage Common Loon in the Pocket was my latest record for
Virginia. A lone double-crested cormorant was also there. A male Ring-necked
Duck was in a kitty-litter mine pond on private property near Walkerton. A
Pied-billed Grebe was visible from the county road at the private Frog Hollow
Sod Farm pond in King William. I wonder if represents a breeding pair here. It
is my latest Virginia record until they start to appear again in mid July.
A whip-poor-will was singing near Beulahville.On the nightjar survey in King
and Queen each of the ten stops, 1 mile apart, lasted for 6 minutes from near
the start of Spring Cottage Rd (628) to near Newtown Dragway. I found 2
chuck-wills-widows singing at the last stop. 13 whip-poor-wills were at 9 out
of 10 stops. Most were quite distant, though very close birds were at stops 1
and 10.
The Walkerton bridge over the Mattaponi had at least 15-20 active cliff swallow
nests. It was fun to watch the swallows gathering mud right near the upriver
boat ramp (great for photography you photographers). House sparrows were
nesting in several of the cliff swallow nests
No migrant passerines were found. Because of the rural nature of this area,
some pretty cool birds that are harder to find in some areas were quite
common:lots of chats, prairies, blue grosbeaks, summer tanagers,
yellow-throated warblers, and 5 bobwhites.
All the bestFred
Frederick D. Atwood
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
