Week Ending March 16, 2014

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Since Sunday was the start of daylight savings time in Virginia, I finally am able to get out after work some nights to photograph the outdoors before the sun is completely gone. I would have enjoyed getting out on Tuesday night since it was a beautiful 70 degree sunny day, but I caught food poisoning from a local fast food joint and instead spend the evening and night vomiting and shaking with chills. I felt better finally by Thursday and it was a nice sunny day, though a big cold (in the high 30s) after a very strong cold front pushed through on Wednesday night. The winds were really howling but I went up to Pleasure House Point after work and hit the trails around 5 o'clock. I had seen on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's facebook page that someone had photographed a Harbor Seal resting on the beach at the park so I'd hoped I might be able to relocate it. I saw a pair of seals earlier in the year out on the first island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel but I have never seen any inland in the area. I didn't find the seal but I did see quite a number of birds. The winter waterfowl are still out in force, with Gadwall, American Wigeon, and Northern Shoverler dominating the estuaries around the park. Bufflehead, three Green-winged Teal, a single Ring-necked Duck and a pair of Mallards were also seen. The extreme winds made it a bit tough to photograph with a long lens, as holding it steady was tough, and the waves made it hard on any water birds to stay still. I had parked at the easternmost point of the park accessible by road and then walked the water's edge from east to west, then back from west to east.

Mourning Dove sitting on the beach at Pleasure House Point, where I'd hope to instead find a Harbor Seal.

One Northern Harrier flew over me, at about 50 mph, moving with the wind. Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Snowy Egret were all present again like with my last visit. I had hoped I might catch some warblers starting migration a bit early but it doesn't appear that any new ones have showed up to the region yet. Yellow-rumped Warblers were the only songbirds I really noticed, though I did find one American Robin, and saw a lone Mourning Dove early on also. I must have been walking pretty quickly because I made it back to the car by 6:15 after arriving around 5, which typically means I didn't see a whole lot (since I'd be stopping a lot to view), but I did rack up almost 30 species in that timeframe. The visitor's center currently being built has come a long way and the eastern half of the building now has plywood up on it's exterior. It really looks like quite an eyesore while walking the trails, but I maintain that it is better than the 1,000+ condominiums that were originally slated to go in on top of the park lands. I'll be interested to see how the building comes out when all is said and done, I do hope they plant a lot of vegetation around it to cut down on it's visibility. I'd hate for this to turn into the condo towers at Sandbridge that drive me crazy while hiking the Bay Trail at Back Bay NWR.

Greater Yellowlegs wading waist deep in the tidal waters of Crab Creek at Pleasure House Point Park.

I made it out of work at 3 PM on Friday and headed down to First Landing State Park for an afternoon hike. I'm loving having the sun out til 7 PM. From my office its only about a 15 minute drive down to 64th Street, which is really nice. I walked a 6 mile route, my typical Cape Henry to Long Creek Trail, Osprey Trail to Long Creek Trail up to the bridge at White Hill Lake Creek and then back out the same way. The Pied-billed Grebes were present again on Lake Susan Constant, and like yesterday, the wind was really whipping around again. It seemed to have kept most of the birds hunkered down. The ospreys have now fully returned to the area for nesting. The large nest next to the Osprey Trail just before reaching Broad Bay is being rebuilt, and I saw both the male & female sitting on the top of the dead tree that holds it up. When I reached Broad Bay, I was amazed to see that the water was extremely low, providing a huge beach that usually isn't visible or accessible. This was probably one of the lowest water heights I've seen in the park boundary. The large artifical oysters beds were all completely exposed to the air. Walking along the shoreline, around the pair of tidal inlets and over the twin bridges I went up White Hill. I didn't find anything on top, although I could hear Ground Skinks scurrying under the leaf litter on the ground all over the place.

Female Ring-necked Duck on a sunlit freshwater pond at Pleasure House Point Park.

This is the first time this year that I've noticed them having come out of hibernation. After I went down the other side of the high dune plateau, I found a male Ruby-crowned Kinglet in the canopy near the observation point of White Hill Lake. I was busy trying to get some photographs of it when I whole slew of Great Blue Herons came flying in from across the lake. I counted about 20 total, and some of them landed within photography range so I gave up on the kinglet and switched over to them. There is a large rookery about a mile east of this spot, on the north side of the Long Creek Trail in a freshwater marsh filled with dead trees. I expect that these herons are all part of that rookery and that they have begun building their annual nests in the area. When you walk by the rookery, its readily obvious that you're near it as you can hear the herons for a mile around it. They sound more like what I assume dinosaurs sounded like, or even what pigs do sound like, very gregarious. In addition to the herons, there was a small group of American Black Ducks out on the lake, and a larger group of Green-winged Teal also. It was neat to see both species close together since you could really see the size difference between the very tiny teals and the much larger black ducks. After walking up to the next bridge and turning around, I took a few more shots of the lake and the tidal marshes around it, since it was such a beautiful day out. The leaves still aren't out yet, but the blue sky made it a great target for photography. Coming back on the Osprey Trail I photographed the pair of Osprey nesting alongside it and kept walking eastward. I didn't really find anything else on the way back to the car to photograph, as I said, I think the wind must have had the birds kept hunkered down. 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at First Landing State Park. Great background, but couldn't quite get the bird to cooperate.

We got another beautiful day on Saturday, where temperatures actually reached into the low 70s! The wind was still pretty strong but not as bad as it had been. I was a little wore out after the past couple days of walks so I went down to Back Bay NWR, knowing that I could only walk around 4 miles at the most since the dike trails are still closed to the public til the end of the month. I made it down around 9 o'clock, and the first thing I noticed was that the bay had finally recovered back to a normal water elevation after that nasty nor'easter went through last week and moved all the water to the south end of the bay. I walked the boardwalk trails out to the Bay Trail and saw a few sparrows. I couldn't locate any ducks, geese, or swans out on the water, but with the wind, I could hear them from a long way off. I walked the Bay Trail and again spooked an American Bittern near the large pond at the west end. Thats the second time I've managed to scare it off without even getting to raise my camera up to it. It flew over the pond and back out onto the marshes and disappeared very quickly. Between here and the end of the trail I found some Carolina Chickadees, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, but couldn't seem to get into a good position to photograph the little buggers so I ended up just walked back to the Loop Road. I walked it around counterclockwise like usual. The large rabbit I photographed a few weeks back was sitting out on the shoulder in it's usual spot. However on my way to photograph it, I scared an American Coot into moving out of the shoreline grasses of Pool E, and so I turned to photograph it. When I turned back, the rabbit had disappeared. I came upon another rabbit about a half mile further south and it also got away before I could get onto the sunlit side of it. I rounded the southern part of the loop and came back up the east side. This is the location where I've been seeing Field Sparrows every time I'm out, but this time I didn't see any of them. When I got up near the Dune Trail, I could see another Coot out on the Pool D, so I photographed this one as well.

The Ospreys are back to Hampton Roads! This is one of the many, many nests in First Landing State Park.

Fortunately this one was in the right lineup with the sun and the photographs came out a bit better than with the other one. After that I headed down the Dune Trail to the beach. Along the beach, there was plenty of Northern Gannets hunting far out along the coast, and I saw a TON of Red-breasted Mergansers streaming southward pretty far out. Some smaller ducks were mixed in but it was just too far out for me to ID. I didn't find any huge collections of gulls like I had the last time out, but I found some Ring-billed & Great Black-backed Gulls feeding on a dead fish right at the waters edge. After reaching the north end of the beach I headed back inland over the Seaside Trail, and then worked the Bay Trail once again. The trail was quiet, with no Bittern to be found so I walked back around the the boardwalks, saw a turtle at the very small pond west of the contact station. I also saw a young Bald Eagle flying inland from the coastline with what I believe was a large fish in it's talons. After this, I hit the Kuralt Trail. There was a few Eastern Towhees scavenging for food underneath the dead leaves on the ground along the Kuralt Trail, and I could hear them very easily, but it was much harder to get eyes on any of them. They make quite a racket, almost as loud as a squirrel when they're trouncing around the forest floor. After walking the Kuralt Trail (saw yet another young Bald Eagle, this time flying down the coastline) I headed back to the car and went home to grab some lunch. On the way back I was driving down Kings Grant Road when I spotted 4 Wood Ducks in the lake on the west side of the road right up near the roadway! I pulled an immediate u-turn and parked on the street, assembled my camera, and went and took some photos. I finally got some decent shots of these very very weary birds before they took off into flight. There was 3 males and 1 female, I'm guessing they were vieing for the females attention as the breeding season is just about here. They are incredibly beautiful birds, and I hope to see more of them around the neighborhood lakes. This is one bird I didn't get to see when I lived back in Norfolk, so its another reason I made the move in November down to Kings Grant / Little Neck in Virginia Beach! 

Male Wood Duck showing off his new brightly colored breeding plumage! Taken on a small freshwater lake in the Kings Grant area of Virginia Beach.

After a couple hours of rest, Ruth & I went down to the north end of the oceanfront to walk along the beach in the gorgeous 70 degree & sunny weather. We parked down at 64th Street and were walking north along the beach when I caught sight of a Royal Tern. This is the first of the year for me in the area, and its still listed as a rarity on eBird for the area at this date in the year. I was pretty excited to see one, since it's been about 6 months since I saw my last one. They're summer residents in the area, and are very entertaining to watch from the beaches as they dive bomb fish all day long. They make me able to tolerate laying on the beach all day long on the hottest of summer days! After seeing the Royal Tern, I also got a great new surprise! I saw my first Red-throated Loon just a hundred yards off the shoreline, close enough to get clear enough photographs for a positive ID. I ended up seeing quite a few more Red-throated Loons also as we headed further north towards Fort Story. Like earlier this morning at Back Bay, there was a large amount of Red-breasted Mergansers streaming out over the water a few hundred yards out, and there was groups of them on the water as well.

Sanderling striking a pose along the north end of Virginia Beach's oceanfront.

Combined with a never-ending flight of Northern Gannets, this might be the most birds I've ever seen out while walking around at the oceanfront. After turning around at the north end of the beach and heading back south towards 64th Street, the sun was starting to dip fairly low. A lot of Brown Pelicans were seen flying northward, possibly heading to some spot to roost up for the night in a large colony, or maybe back at Lynnhaven Inlet where I saw a ton of them on Thursday night. The lower the sun dropped, the tougher it was for me to get photographs since the colors started to get washed out by the low angle of brightness emanating from the sun. I got some more shots of Sanderlings, and Great Black-backed Gulls along the beach, and got some of an Osprey which was hovering over the shoreline as well. We ended up cutting back inward at 67th Street after falsely coming to the conclusion that we must have missed our 64th Street boardwalk. Fortunately it doesn't really matter where you cut back across the dunes to the street, they all link up in a nice grid at this part of the oceanfront. Next week I will be out of town Friday through Sunday, and as such will not have a blog to post. I am heading down to Charlotte, NC to take part in some non-birding entertainment, being the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament, aka March Madness. 

A Brown Pelican cruising along the oceanfront, catching the light off the setting sun.

Week Ending March 9, 2014

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With the return of warm weather throughout the week, I set out for First Landing State Park on Saturday morning to kick off my hiking. I got a later start than usual since it was cloudy early on, and got down to park towards late morning. I realized right away why this is not the best time to be there, as I encountered tons of people out on the trails. I parked outside the 64th Street entrance and walked in like usual, taking the Cape Henry Trail south and west around Lake Susan Constant. The water was extremely high in the lake as we had just had a nasty Nor’easter pummel its way through the region on Thursday night & Friday. We got a lot of rain from the storm so basically all the lower lying areas in the park were inundated with water. The water was actually so high in the lake that the partially submerged tree that the cormorants always sit on was completely submerged for the first time. With the high amounts of ponded areas, I saw my first Spotted Turtles of the season, one along the Long Creek Trail near the eastern junction with the Osprey Trail, and another at the very far west end of the Long Creek Trail.

Golden-crowned Kinglet along the Osprey Trail at First Landing State Park.

On the Osprey Trail I photographed a Golden-crowned Kinglet, which stayed still just long enough to get two photographs of it. These tiny birds are extremely hyperactive and I really haven’t photographed them much in the past because of it. When I reached the waterfront of Broad Bay, there was a Turkey Vulture & a Herring Gull feeding off the corpse of a large fish (presumably a Red Drum) that had washed ashore. I later found another one further down the shoreline, and I’m guessing the Nor’easter might have had something to do with the fish kills. Along the bay, I saw a large adult Bald Eagle cruise across, but didn’t see much else. The weather was gorgeous, sunny skies and right around 60 degrees, but the birds seemed to not be very active today, maybe it was the large number of people out on the trails. I saw the typical songbirds, and waterfowl throughout the hike, catching a Hermit Thrush on the way back was probably the rarest of my sightings today. Having walked all the way to the west end of the park (4.5 miles each direction), I would have thought I’d see more but at least it was a beautiful day.

Field Sparrow along the loop road at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Sunday, the same weather conditions stuck around and it looked as though it might be a rainy day when I first woke up around 8. But after an hour or so the skies cleared so I packed up my stuff and went down to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Last night we turned the clocks forward in observance with the beginning of daylight savings time, so from here on out I can actually do things outdoors after my work day and don’t need to live in darkness during the weekdays anymore. I got to Back Bay around 10:30 AM, so I was expecting to see a crowd, but fortunately, there was only a couple of cars there. The water in the bay was at an all time low level from my memory. When we get these strong Nor’easters along the coast, the northeasterly winds they produce push the surface water in the bay south towards Pamlico Sound. Since the winds are sustained over a period of a day or two, the water takes a while to rebound and the bay ends up becoming very shallow along the northern portion. The same effect happens to the Chesapeake Bay during these storms, which is why our area (on the south side of the bay) gets inundated by tidal flooding. It’s neat to see the opposite effects on Back Bay & Chesapeake Bay since they are so close to one another here. Since the bay was so low, all the waterfowl were very far out in the still deep sections. I could see a large number of Tundra Swans, Gadwall, Canada Geese, and American Wigeons way out but the photographs were out of range.

My first Iceland Gull sitting just offshore at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge!

I started out along the bay boardwalks but didn’t do the Bay Trail since a pair of people had just started out on it and I didn’t want to be right behind/in front of them since the trail is short. I figured they’d scare everything off anyway. So I did the loop road, between the visitor center & the dike trail gates first. Nothing much to see along the trail outside of 3 Wilson’s Snipes that I saw fly over the marsh quite a ways out. Coming back northward on the loop road I found the Field Sparrows in the same spot I’ve seen them the past few visits, and they were joined by a Northern Mockingbird and some Carolina Chickadees. I reached the Dune Trail and took it east towards the ocean. The high winds really did a number on the trail, having moved a mass amount of sand and actually filled in the cut through the final dune to the beach. This is the first time I’ve seen this big of a shift at the park, usually the cut is about 10 feet wide and a few feet high, but now the dunes are leveled off and you have to climb up and over it. On the beach right off the bat I could see a large flock of seabirds off to the south. I started walking in that direction and noticed that someone on a bike was heading back towards me so I waited to see if they’d scare all the birds off…and of course they did so I turned around. However, I got to thinking that maybe I’d see something neat in the flock so I again turned back towards them. This time I got around them without scaring too many away and now lined up south of them, I could actually take photos without the sunlight ruining them. While I was standing there taking photos of the Lesser Black-backed / Ring-billed / Herring / Great Black-backed Gulls I saw an all white one fly in over my head and land on the water close to shore. I thought at first it was a Glaucous Gull since I’d recently see one at Rudee Inlet and knew them to be all white. It wasn’t until I got home and reviewed the photos, and sent them off for confirmation that I found out it was an Iceland Gull (Kumlien’s race).

Lesser Black-backed Gull sits in front of the large flock of gulls along the beach.

This was the first time I’d ever seen one of these, and so far it hasn’t been re-sighted by anyone on eBird.com. With those photos, and a lot more of the other gulls, I’m very glad that I changed my mind and turned back around to see the flock. Having taken plenty of shots, and adding more of some Double-crested Cormorants and Brown Pelicans, I walked back north towards where the Seaside Trails comes down to the beach. On the way, I had one Northern Gannet come very close to shore, and got some photos. The other gannets I saw were all very far out, like they usually are, so having one fly in close was awesome. I saw some Surf Scoters and Red-breasted Mergansers through my binoculars, but too far out for my camera lens. I headed back over top of the dunes on the Seaside Trail and walked the Bay Trail since I’d missed out on it earlier in the day. I didn’t find much on the way out, just some Yellow-rumped Warblers that always seem to know which side of the sunlight to stand on, making it impossible to photograph them. Also saw some White-throated Sparrows again like last visit. On my way back down the trail, I scared off a hawk that I’m guessing was a Sharp-shinned as it was small, I just didn’t get a good look at it. It was perched just off the trail and I was paying attention to a Yellow-rump when it took to the air and disappeared rather quickly. I finished up my hike along the boardwalks & the Kuralt Trail, but didn’t photograph anything more, outside of a Northern Mockingbird that stayed out in the sunlight for me. 

This Northern Gannet flew in close enough to shore for me to finally get a clear shot of one!

Week Ending March 2, 2014

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Another work week came & went (very slowly), and we had a gradual warmup of weather. This weekend was expected to be a good one. After feeling a bit sick on Friday evening though, I wasn't expecting to get a whole lot of hiking in. Saturday, my girlfriend was going to go shopping up at the Prime Outlets in Williamsburg, about an hour or so northwest of here. I decided to go with but instead go hiking around that area since I haven't been up there to take photographs in quite a while. I have hiked a few times in an area called the Greensprings Interpretive Trail which is actually in James City County and not Williamsburg, but is very near the border. Recently, this trail has been added onto and now connects to the Powhatan Creek Trail. The Powhatan Creek Trail is very similar to the walking/biking paths I've spent a lot of time on in Fairfax County. It wanders through the canyon of a drainage basin. Since the terrain follows the creek, the ground gradually slopes downhill. The local entity in charge of collecting sewage (James City Sewer Authority) also used these areas for their collection systems (underground), since it is easy to slope the systems downhill to allow gravity to drive the passage of sewage towards their wastewater treatment plants. The reason I mention this is because there is a growing trend to place bike paths in these types of areas so they can double as access for vehicles that perform maintenance on the sanitary sewer mains & manholes you'll find scattered along the paths. It's kind of nice that this is occurring, because it is providing outdoorsfolk with lots of extra miles of paved walkways that provide easy access for birding & photography. I actually worked on a project through my company where we analyzed all the sanitary sewer systems of James City County so I feel like my true work experience finally has bled over a little bit into this blog.

Northern Cardinal along the Powhatan Creek Trail.

Anyway, James City County has a great start now to a network of walking paths through their drainage basins. You can catch up with the Powhatan Creek Trail right behind a small elementary school on Ironbound Road (just south of John Tyler Highway). From there, walking westward and southward along the trail will bring you to a large wooden bridge that has been built to pass over top of Powhatan Creek. Along the creek I saw a large number of songbirds (Northern Cardinal, Eastern Bluebird, Carolina Chickadee, White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco). The main reason there was so many songbirds here is that, again, as I mentioned, the trail follows the terrain along the creek, and on both sides of the creek the ground slopes upward to where the land has been developed. Basically the trail meanders along the drainage with residential housing backyards butting up against it. Therefore, there are a lot of feeders situation in the yards and it draws in the birds. When they're tired of feeding, they move back down into the creekbed forests. After photographing many songbirds here I kept walking southward until I reached a backyard with a large number of grackles/blackbirds/starlings. You could hear them all gregariously feeding, and while listening I saw a large fast-moving shape cruise through the trees towards them, it was a large Cooper's Hawk. It didn't manage to grab any birds, but it definitely caused quite a commotion and the sky lit up with blackbirds dispersing in all directions. I never got a chance to photograph the hawk, but fortunately, after walking another mile or so, I did hear another one!

Eastern Bluebird near the junction of the Greensprings & Powhatan Creek Trails.

This time though, it was a Red-shouldered Hawk and I got close enough to take some shots before I realized I was even there. I tried to get in better position to align the sunlight on it properly but caused it to fly off instead. The Powhatan Creek Trail feeds into the Greensprings Interpretive Trail very near here and I walked this one clockwise. I saw a White-tailed Deer in the same spot that I've seen a few in the past and then made a turn along the trail to cut through the center of the wetlands that the main trail encircles. Nothing much was around in the swamps yet, but soon they'll be full of waterfowl as they start to migrate northward. Having cut east across the wetlands, I hit the main loop trail again and turned north (counterclockwise) and wrapped up and around the northern portion of the trail before again meeting up with a Red-shouldered Hawk that dropped out of the sky very swiftly. I checked again for the deer I'd seen earlier and yet again it was there so I snapped some photos, and again made the same cut across the wetlands. This time though, after crossing, I cut to the south back in the direction of the Powhatan Creek Trail's connection. It was 2 years ago, the last time I had walked this trail, that I'd found a hawk nest nearby, and photographed the fledgelings, believing them to be Red-tailed Hawks. Now I'm thinking they may have been Red-shouldered Hawks, which might actually make those my first such hawks, I need to check my records. Yet again, I found a nest, in a large pine tree at the northern edge of the forbay (drainage basin area that filters out trash) that sits right next to the trail. I'll have to come back in a month or so to see if it is indeed a hawk nest, but it sure looked like it was, and given that I'd seen the hawk twice nearby it almost must be. I hit the Powhatan Creek Trail again, and caught a lot of Eastern Bluebirds, but the last part of the 6.3 mile hike was pretty quiet, not having seen a whole lot more.

My first Red-shouldered Hawk on the year. This one might have a nest nearby!

I think I might have overdone it a bit though since after I finished up my walk I really didn't feel all that great. I picked Ruth up at the outlets and we headed back towards Virginia Beach. I decided to stop at Fort Monroe in Hampton on the way, just to show her the views over the bay and to check if anything interesting might be hanging out near shore. We saw the usual gulls, and Sanderlings, but not realy anythinng noteworthy before we took off in the car again. Whether its allergies or a cold, or something I ate, really doesn't matter, all I know is I felt real bad on Saturday night and just laid on the couch, and fell asleep by about 9. Sunday though, I woke up around 7 and it was very sunny outside. I didn't want to waste the day but I still didn't feel that great so I asked Ruth if she wanted to just do a couple miles at Back Bay NWR. She said that was fine so we went down and made the park by 9 o'clock. Walking my typical route (Bay Trail, around Pool D, Dune Trail, Beach, Seaside Trail, Bay Trail once more, and Kuralt Trail), we didn't really uncover a whole lot. 

White-tailed Deer just outside the wetlands in the southern half of the Greensprings Interpretive Trail loop.

I did spot an American Bittern at the end of the Bay Trail, but only after I had spooked it from afar. Heading towards the Dune Trail, one Northern Harrier was spotted searching for a meal, but I never saw it again unfortunately. Along the beach, there was some Gannets in very close, but not much else. A few Ring-billed, Herring & Great Black-backed Gulls were aflight, and one Forster's Tern as well. I took a photograph of some ducks in flight way out over the water which I believe were White-winged Scoters, and I think I may have actually gotten some Red-throated Loons finally in a photo but they're just to far out to be certain. I couldn't ID any with binoculars either so they still haven't been added to my life list, one of these days I'll get lucky though! It was the second time in a row that Back Bay has been very quiet in terms of birds, but at least it was a beautiful day out. I'm actually writing this on Monday, as I got to leave work early since we are getting a nasty freezing rainstorm, which really is making me appreciate how nice the weekend was even though I didn't feel that great, but am feeling a lot better now.

Black-backed Gull (unsure on whether Greater or Lesser as I did not see the leg color, though the patterned head does lean towards Lesser) at Back Bay NWR.

Week Ending February 23, 2014

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After several weeks of frigid weather (by Virginia standards), this week we finally got a warm up. On Wednesday, temperatures went up to 70F, and I got my first opportunity this year to get out for a neighborhood walk (6 miles) after the work day. The weather stuck around through the weekend. Saturday morning I was able to get an early start. It was mostly blue sky, except for some clouds that were stacked up right on the coastline. Unfortunately, the sun also rises over the ocean so it was hidden by these clouds. I opted to go to First Landing State Park since I wanted to at least get a long walk in if I wasn't going to get good light for photographs. I was down at the 64th Street entrance right at 8 o'clock, and found a parking spot outside the park to walk in from. I had no plans to detour around my usual walking routes, and stayed to the Cape Henry Trail southbound from 64th Street as always. I didn't find any birds in the strip along Lake Susan Constant, not even any ducks, grebes or cormorants this time. Once I crossed over 64th Street and linked up with the Long Creek Trail's eastern terminus it started to get better though. Deep in the woods, I was amazed when I frightened an adult Bald Eagle that had been perched in a pine tree right over the trail. This was the first time I'd spooked an eagle right on one of the trails, typically they are far off, and much higher up in the tallest of trees, or circling out over Broad Bay.

Pine Warbler at First Landing State Park.

It caught me so off guard that I didn't get any photographs before it was gone from view. At the junction with the Osprey Trail, I took it and found few birds along it til I reached the beach at Broad Bay. Here, some Ring-billed and Herring Gulls were in photo range on the tidal flats, which were completely exposed by a low tide cycle. I scanned hard in the first salt marsh for Clapper Rails, but didn't hear or see any. I've only seen one rail in this marsh, but it seems like perfect habitat aside from the highly used trail being right next to it. If there is any place in the park that you'd find them though, this & the next tidal creek to the west are the only places I'd expect them. After crossing the first bridge, I found some songbirds causing a raucous in the marsh before the second bridge. Some Eastern Bluebirds were flying around & perching in the dead trees out in the marsh, and what I later found out was a Pine Warbler, was calling relentlessly. I had previously thought their song was a Northern Parula's, but I'm glad to have been corrected before I claimed to have heard some on eBird incorrectly. A Northern Cardinal and some Tufted Titmice were also present here, as well as a Downy Woodpecker. Next up on the trail was the western tidal creek, which was also barely running with water, and surprising held no shorebirds or herons. I expected to find some feeding on the mud flats but couldn't spot any. Heading west from the 2nd bridge, you go up the White Hill, here I spooked a pair of Mourning Doves. I always find them in pairs wherever I go, I'm wondering if they mate for life, or if it is just a coincidence. Once topped out on White Hill, the trail hits another junction with the Long Creek Trail, here I took this trail, continuing westward along the high dune plateau and then down the far end towards White Hill Lake.

Canada Goose at First Last State Park.

The hill itself is about 50 feet high, which doesn't sound like much, but it gives quite a view in all directions, especially over Broad Bay to the south & west. When you come down the west side, you hit a small observation area on the south shore of White Hill Lake. Typically there are Hooded Mergansers / Great Blue Herons all over, but today it was full of Double-crested Cormorants and Ruddy Ducks, as well as a lone Canada Goose. Continuing westward on the trail, you find around the southwest corner of the lake, and an overflow area during high tide, before reaching a large wooden bridge built over White Hill Lake's outflow creek. On the downstream end, there is a large salt marsh which today was home to several Great Blue Herons and Double-crested Cormorants. The bridge sits just south of another trail junction, this time with the White Hill Lake Trail. If you head eastward, it takes you into the center of the park back to the Cape Henry Trail. Heading westward though takes you further along the bay & creeks so that's the way I went. When I hit Broad Bay again, there was plenty of Buffleheads out on the water, common here in winter time, as well as Hooded Mergansers. I spotted another adult Bald Eagle high up in a lone pine tree in a spot where I've seen them several times. Winding around the trail, now very near Bay Island across the creek, I stopped for a drink of water on the big dune where the Long Creek Trail ends. At it's end, the Fox Run Trail continues west so as usual I took this. I found a Common Loon in Long Creek that was feeding on some type of crustacean, and also got some shots of a Brown-headed Nuthatch that had 3 leg-bands on it.

Brown-headed Nuthatch hanging out in a pine tree along the Long Creek Trail at First Landing State Park.

Afterwards this trail heads towards the western boundary of the park before looping back up towards the Shore Drive entrance's visitor center. I always stop at the furthest point west, then just turn around so I avoid the crowds of people that walk the trails closest to the visitor center. At this far western point, there are some marshy ponds nearby that are home to Spotted Turtles in the springtime. I could hear tons of frogs calling for the first time this season, but couldn't locate any of the tiny turtles. We are actually supposed to get snow next week again somehow, so I hope all the frogs that have already come out of hibernation manage to survive the coming cold weather. Heading back eastward now I chased a Tufted Titmouse around for a few minutes while only succeeding in getting several poorly focused photos of branches. After this, there was fairly long spell without any birds in sight. It wasn't until I got up near the White Hill Lake creek that I finally saw something worth noting. I had been hearing loud scraping sounds up in a tree, and finally locked in on the location. It was coming from a very tall pine tree, but only about 20 feet off the ground. I could see a dark shape behind pine boughs and thought at first it must be a Raccoon scraping bark off the tree for some reason. When I got into the right position I could finally see that it was actually a subadult Bald Eagle with a large fish in it's talons. The sound was from the fish scraping off the loose bark when the eagle tried biting into it. I took some photos of it from behind cover, trying not to scare it, and surprisingly two different sets of people walked by with dogs and it didn't flush. I wandered out into the marsh to get some better shots, and it finally flew off when the next round of un-leashed dogs came by. Still under cloudy skies, the photos could have been better, but the blue sky just didn't want to make it's way over to Virginia Beach, you could just see it hanging out to the northwest. I walked past White Hill Lake and up White Hill to the dual tidal creeks where I didn't find anything new. It wasn't until I'd almost reached the park entrance that I heard Snow Geese flying overhead and counted around 100 of them in one long line spanning across the sky. The was the first time I've seen them flying over the park, and they appeared to be heading south, must be on the way to meet up with the large flock that has been feeding in Pungo fields the last week or so. After that, my 9 mile hike was over with and I headed home for some lunch. 

Subadult Bald Eagle (note head not all white) eating a large fish in a pine tree at First Landing State Park.

Ruth & I decided to go out for pizza for lunch at Pungo Pizza (first time there, delicious), and then went to the Hunt Club Farm petting zoo afterwards. While there, the sun finally reached Virginia Beach, so I wanted to get back out to take photographs. I took her up to East Beach to try and spot the Iceland & Black-headed Gulls that were reported in the area. We quickly caught up with two Black-headed Gulls that were surrounded by several people with telescopes & cameras and were apparently from a NC birding club. We didn't get to find the Iceland, but while looking, a flock of 9 Brants flew in over the bay and landed out by the easternmost jetty. I didn't get close enough for good photographs but the ones I got were good enough for IDs. It turned out to be quite a beautiful afternoon, in the 60s and beautifully sunny. We drove to the tip of Willoughby Spit before heading back home for the evening, but didn't happen upon any Snowy Owls, though one had been "seen" in the area last week. 

Ring-billed Gull showing off his side-stepping moves at East Beach, Norfolk, VA.

On Sunday, I woke up extremely exhausted from the 16-odd miles I'd walked the past few days. I decided I didn't need to do another long hike today so I went down to Back Bay NWR. Off to a slightly later start than normal, I got to the park close to 9:30, which, is a little embarassing for a self-proclaimed outdoorsman. I parked in my usual spot northwest of the visitor's center and headed out. While passing the small freshwater pool nearest the kayak launch I saw John Coleman, who told me he'd seen the American Bittern hanging around earlier in the morning. Clearly, the early bird gets the bird in this case. I walked the boardwalks out to the Bay Trail, then headed west on it towards the observation area. The trail was exceedingly quiet this morning, with no birds on the sides running around or flying from tree to tree like is typical. I actually didn't see anything en route to the observation area, and nothing on the way back towards the visitor's center. Heading south on the gravel road towards the west dike access I scared up a couple of Mallards but again this part of the park seemed relatively quiet. I did see some Tundra Swans very high up, and some Red-winged Blackbirds though. Rounding around the D Pool and then heading back north on the east dike gravel road I finally started seeing some more wildlife. In the same place I've been seeing them lately, several Field Sparrows made appearances on the shrubbery, and then ran along the ground in an attempt to hide. In the same area, I could see a large number of turtles (guessing Yellow-bellied Sliders) sitting on the banks of the D Pool. They always managed to slide back into the water before I get too close, so I decided to just leave the lot alone.

Beautiful day along the coastline at Back Bay NWR in Virginia Beach.

I reached the Dune Trail boardwalk and headed up towards the beach. On the way, I saw a small Ladybug sitting on one of the handrails. This was the first one I've seen this year so I was pretty excited, being that it was in the 50s today, and had reached about 70 yesterday, it seemed as though spring was definitely getting here. However, Virginia is notorious for flip-flopping temperatures in February & March, and even April so it's hard to get too excited by the random nice days that are then followed by 30 degree temps. But, for now, it was exciting. The views over the dunes onto the ocean were incredible today, the clear, dry air made the blue a vivid blue, and the few clouds & jet trails added to it some much needed contrast for my photographs. The waves weren't huge, but were steadily coming in from the east/southeast. On the beach, it was the gulls that were most abundant, as is usually the case. I didn't see any loons or ducks today which is not very common, especially this time of year. But at least the Ring-billed & Great Black-backed Gulls provided some photo ops. Reaching the north end of the beach, I watched as a truck was driving in the restricted area between the Back Bay NWR boundary to the north, and the restricted access boundary at the south. I was waiting to see if it came close enough for photographs of the license plate, which I intended on giving to the park officials, but when it got close enough I realized it was actually a park owned vehicle.

Another shot of the beautiful shoreline of Back Bay NWR.

I get really irritated when I see random folks walking, and especially driving in this restricted area, so I was happy to see it was an official parks vehicle. I headed back up the Seaside Trail boardwalk and reached the visitor's center. As usual, I gave the Bay Trail another try. This time I saw a few White-throated Sparrows on my way westward, but some oncoming pedestrian traffic prevented me from photographing them. I reached the large pond at the end, and just as I did, a pair of female Hooded Mergansers came in for landing. They must not have noticed me at all, and I very slowly raised my camera and took a couple of shots. As soon as I tried to move my legs though, they spotted me, and the water erupted very swiftly and they zoomed out of sight. I headed back towards the visitor's center for a second time on the day, and finally got my photo ops. The White-throated Sparrows that had been spooked earlier were back at it, feeding in the thick brush adjacent to the trail, so for about 15 minutes I patiently took photo after photo of them moving through that brush, and did finally get a couple ID worthy shots, though the sunlight didn't work out to well where I was shooting from. I walked again over the boardwalks along the bay and say some folks with spotting scopes set up. An older couple, they were showing a younger child some Redheads through the scope...always nice to see kids showing interest in birds. I hit the Kuralt Trail boardwalk next, and saw a Gray Catbird, but as with most catbirds, this one made it deep into the foliage before I could even try to take a photograph. I didn't come across any other birds on the short trail, so I headed back to my vehicle and left the park. On my way out, I saw an American Bittern standing in one of the entry road's ditches. It was like a big sign that said "get here earlier next time". 

Ring-billed Gull in the surf at Back Bay NWR, Virginia Beach.

I stopped off at the Little Island parking area and walked the short trails across the road just to see if any wildlife might be out there. This spot seems to be a good one, and the water body here is referred to locally as "Little Cove". The cove held one Great Egret, which actually was in a great spot for some pretty photos, situated on the outlet creek between two shores of reeds. I spotted a pair of female Buffleheads also before I went back to the car and headed northward. My girlfriend, Ruth, was up on the boardwalk at the oceanfront riding her bike in the gorgeous weather, so I went up to Rudee Inlet to meet her. While waiting I checked out the jetty for the Glaucous Gull that has been being sighted, and it was out there yet again! This time, I got some better photographs of it from the north jetty, still about 700 feet away, and past the limits of my camera lens for 'quality' photographs, but some did turn out well enough to again verify the ID of the bird. After I finished up at Rudee, I was ready to take a break from the camera and lay down for a bit, it had been one heck of a week, and until next week, I hope you enjoyed the blog entry & all the photos that came with it!

Great Egret in the tidal marsh near the Little Island Kayak Launch.