Yesterday, Dec 30, was the Walkerton Christmas
Bird Count on the upper Middle Peninsula of
Virginia. All sectors border the Mattaponi or
Pamunkey River, primarily in King William and
King and Queen counties (with a little sliver of
Hanover and New Kent). Despite steady cold rain
beginning around noon, and one truck stuck in the
mud, the 35 participants in ten parties worked
hard to find 98 species of birds. Two parties
were on boats in the rivers and 8 were on land. I
am particularly grateful to the many landowners
who gave us access to their wonderful farms and
to the hardworking, sharp-eyed birders that
arrived at the tally-dinner tired, cold, soggy
and happy. One drenched teen said with an
eye-sparkling smile, "I'm wet, I'm cold, but I'm
having a GOOD time!"
We had four new species for the count, a
PEREGRINE FALCON found by Neil, Liz and Peter
Losin at Island Farm, a HORNED GREBE at dawn in
the Pocket, 2 TREE SPARROWS found in Aylett by
Leslie Fellows, and a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW found
by Bill Portlock along the Pamunkey River. The
clay-colored and peregrine were the first records
I have received for the middle peninsula since
becoming the VSO regional compiler a few years
ago. Horned grebes are often seen at the Pocket,
but this was the first on a CBC.
Other interesting species included PINE WARBLER,
CATBIRD, a WOODCOCK and 175 HORNED LARKS by Nolan
Britt in New Kent, 9 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS by Bill
Portlock along the Pamunkey, 120 AMERICAN PIPIT
by Sandy Spencer and friends in the Pampatike
sector, and 53 PURPLE FINCHES (35 in the Elsing
Green sector). The previous count record for
this species was 12 and it had only been seen on
3 of the 13 previous counts. Most of the purple
finches my group saw were silent. We found most
of them by following the streams of tulip poplar
"helicopters" that were sailing from the beaks of
the purple finches as they ate the seeds. A few
others were eating ash seeds. Dana Bradshaw and
Bryan Watts found 24 WILD TURKEY, 5 WOODCOCK, and
our only 2 SCREECH OWLS in the King William
courthouse sector. The only BOBWHITES were a
single covey of 6 flushed from a weedy field
while searching for sparrows at Elsing Green.
Last year we found only 3 RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS
so it was wonderful to see the numbers increase
to 25 this year. As in the Birthplace CBC there
was a huge record-breaking number of 1308 CEDAR
WAXWINGS. There was a similar increase in
AMERICAN ROBINS. Their total of 4321 was only a
little shy of the previous maximum. 264
GOLDFINCHES, 167 HOUSE FINCHES, 57 CHIPPING
SPARROWS, 88 SWAMP SPARROWS, 35 RED-TAILED HAWKS,
68 WILD TURKEYS, 909 RING-BILLED GULLS, 891
MOURNING DOVES were all near their all time
highs.
We also had highs of the following species
followed by their previous maximum in
parentheses:
SAVANNAH SPARROW 127 (72)
HORNED LARK 204 (104)
As a compiler it is always difficult to determine
what the real totals are and when individual
birds are double-counted by two different groups.
This is particularly challenging for waterfowl,
eagles and huge flocks of blackbirds streaming
across a sector. The following descriptions are
made after trying to take account for any
possible overlap.
The boat coverage of the Pamunkey River this year
allowed us to survey several usually unreachable
areas enabling us to break several waterfowl
records for this CBC (previous record in
parentheses). I often wonder why the Pamunkey
River has so many more waterfowl than the
Mattaponi.
WOOD DUCK 120 (54)
MALLARD 1214 (1191)
GADWALL 420 (270) 350 were in a pond along
Pocahontas Rd near The Pocket.
AMERICAN WIGEON 20 (10)
LESSER SCAUP 38 (35)
RING-NECKED DUCK 887 (516) 600 of these were
found by Hayes Williams, Nick Flanders and
friends at 2 reclaimed mine ponds in Walkerton.
BUFFLEHEAD 470 (234)
RUDDY DUCK 580 (320)
AMERICAN COOT 628 (270)
We also saw more BALD EAGLES than we have ever
seen: 40 adults and 26 immatures. The immatures
tended to be away from the river where there were
often deer carcasses. My group of teens and
another teacher watched an immature eagle
repeatedly dive at a wing-shot mallard who
repeatedly dove underwater to get away from the
eagle. After several attempts in the rain the
eagle decided to perch and the mallard paddled
away. We also saw an adult eagle carrying a
fistful of grass over The Pocket towards its nest
in New Kent. (One curious student mused, "Why did
the eagle fly such a long distance just to find
some grass to line its nest? Does it require a
special kind of grass?" A great question which I
am still wondering about. )
There were tremendous clouds of BLACKBIRDS
swirling and streaming across the sky in a few of
the sectors. The majority of these birds in the
flocks that were close enough to be identified
were red-winged blackbirds. They seemed to total
between 250 and 300 thousand birds.
A few birds appeared in below-average numbers
including 30 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS (ave 99), 10
EASTERN PHOEBE (ave 17), and 15 TUNDRA SWAN (ave
35).
Wishing you all a great 2008 full of lots of
wonderful bird-finds enjoyed with friends.
Happy New Year
All the best
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
