Week Ending September 13, 2015

Since Monday was Labor Day, and a holiday for my company, I got the pleasure of spending the whole day out birding. Early on Monday morning I met up with Jason Strickland out at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, around 7:40 AM, though he'd arrived earlier in the park. We walked the Bayside & Bay Trails hoping to find a few migrant warbler species, but came up empty in those areas of the park. The waters of the bay near here were also very quiet and we didn't see any Pied-billed Grebes or waterfowl species though it is still very early in the season. The Bay Trail held a couple of Northern Cardinals, some overhead Red-winged Blackbirds, with some unidentifiable shorebirds passing over as well, but that was essentially all the activity we had. Arriving back at the southern parking area, we turned south and headed down the Loop Road's eastern side en route towards the East Dike Trail which is open this time of year while the West Dike Trail is closed. I had wanted to walk the beach to see if any Godwits might have been out, since I'd seen one last year this week, but with the sun still low on the water, walking the East Dike down and the beach back gives it some time to get higher in the sky so it doesn't obscure the views towards the waterline. Along the Loop Road we spotted a Yellow Warbler and at least a pair of American Redstarts in the scrub off to the east after hearing the sound of a White-eyed Vireo and stopping for a while to investigate. Carolina Chickadees were also seen in this spot. Typically Prairie Warblers are common in this area, and today was no exception, with a pair of them flitting about at the top of a Live Oak tree on the west side of the road. Along the East Dike Trail it was my hope that some lingering shorebirds might still be found at the double-90 degree bend about midway to False Cape SP, but upon arrival, this spot was devoid of any birds. Just a couple weeks ago it was teeming with shorebirds, dominated by Semipalmated Plovers but with one Pectoral Sandpiper out there as well. Unfortunately it seems as though the shorebird migration through our area has really tapered off.

A juvenile Willet feeds along the shore at Back Bay on Labor Day!

On the C-Pool there was at least one Little Blue Heron adult visible, with a white bird to its side that could have been either a Snowy Egret, though it wasn't actively feeding, or a young Little Blue Heron, but unidentifiable with any certainty. Also, one Greater Yellowlegs could be picked out, but the other birds visible were just too far out. The West Dike Trail would have afforded much better views, but this will not be open again until next April/May. Further south, along the next similar mudflat area on the duneside of the trail, we did get 2Spotted Sandpipers, and got to watch one of them in fluttery flight. Heading into False Cape State Park, the birds were pretty scarce, but one rather large Eastern Cottonmouth made for some excitement as it crossed the gravel roadway just north of the visitor center. More White-eyed Vireos were heard along the Barbour Hill Trail leading through the woodlands towards the dunes, and one gave a split second look as it dove down into the lower brush just prior to the campsites. The dunes were incredibly hot & humid as was expected, but reaching the ocean's breeze was rejuvenating. A few fisherman were scattered to the south, so no birds were in sight in that direction. Heading northward back towards Back Bay, we had a Caspian Tern and a few Royals, as well as some Sanderlings and Great & Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the beach. Traveling up the Back Bay portion of the beach, we were mainly seeing the same birds out over the water with Caspian, Royal Terns, and Ring-billed, Laughing (mostly juveniles), Great & Lesser Black-backed Gulls, though we did find a single Herring Gull as well. No Sandwich Terns were observed with certainty, though we had a couple cross quickly by us that could have been. A single Forster's Tern was also seen on the beach, and it flew off a couple times out in front of us, only to land in our path once more. The highlights along the beach actually came relatively far north, closer to the parking areas of Back Bay, where we added a few Black-bellied Plovers, with one beautiful juvenile bird that had me staring intently at it for a few moments to discount American Golden-Plover due to its skinniness. Also, we came upon one Whimbrel just a few hundred yards south of the Seaside Trail access to the beach.

The Whimbrel continues to be seen at Back Bay NWR!

This was likely the same Whimbrel that many others have observed over the past week or so in the same general area. As with the southbound trip, on the return journey the marshy patch next to the parking area was empty of any shorebirds, also having been a hotspot a week or so ago. No Piping Plovers were noted on this outing, and the only birds we saw at the higher side of the beach were Mourning Doves, and a few Barn Swallows flying along northward. After leaving Back Bay, Jason followed me over to Princess Anne Wildlife Management Area’s Whitehurst Tract to do a quick look around for migrating songbirds. We both parked and walked down the main road, searching the treeline for birds. After a quarter mile or so though, my legs were essentially done from the 10 miles we’d already walked, and so we headed back to the car. Hearing a strange sound that he thought might be a turkey, we investigated, but found it to be a young Blue Jay instead. Several Chipping Sparrows and Carolina Chickadees were seen flitting about in the trees near the road, but nothing out of the ordinary for this point in this season. What was nice to find out though, is that the farmfields along Morris Neck Road are starting to be cultivated, so these will likely hold some migrating shorebirds if we get heavy rains in the near future. Since songbird migration is starting to get going, I tried stopping off at a park in my neighborhood on the way home to see if I could locate any more warblers (like the Black-throated Blue Warbler seen on Sunday morning of last week). However, the only birds that were around was a few American Robins, and a Double-crested Cormorant circling extremely high up.

Another juvenile, this time a Black-bellied Plover seen at Back Bay NWR!

On Wednesday, after work had ended, I ran home and grabbed my gear and checked out a couple parks in Kings Grant. The first spot I went too was Middle Plantation / Bishop’s Gate Park located of Little Haven Road in Little Neck. I am truly not a fan of this style of birding, that is to say, standing around city parks with playgrounds just because there are tall trees that can hold warblers. I always feel like a weirdo standing in these areas with binoculars & a telephoto lens, but, this time of year, any park available can yield migrating warblers and it tends to be just a matter of being at the right one at the right time. Walking around the asphalt bike path that splits the park, I didn’t see a single bird moving around in the canopy. I did see a Red-tailed & a Cooper’s Hawk soaring high overhead though, but no Red-shouldered Hawks of course. So I spent about 20 minutes there in total, then I stopped at Kings Grant Lake Park, where Ron Furnish & Marie Mullins had spotted a Black-and-White Warbler a few days prior. This bird, an adult female, was still there, and it took just a few minutes to find it as it worked through the branches on the larger trees in the center of the park. I took a ton of photographs of this bird, and was able to get some nice ones after it had captured a caterpillar of some sort and then devoured it. It tried to stick to the tops of the branches to obscure my view, so I ended up having to get right against the tree’s trunk on some exposed roots, and stand on my toes to get a slightly better angle for photography. After watching around for other warblers in the treetops, and finding none, I headed back home for the evening. On Thursday after work I decided to check out the area I’d seen the Black-throated Blue Warbler just in case something else had shown up during the week. Once again though, this forested patch was very quiet, with just a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a few American Robins being sighted. This spot seems to have everything necessary for warblers, but perhaps it just too early still in the season, or perhaps it is too close to developed areas. Whatever the reason, so far that Black-throated Blue has been the one gem to come out of my trips here.

Black-and-Yellow Garden Spiders have overtaken the Bay Trail at Back Bay!

On Friday evening, I got out for my standard post-work hike. This week, there was a lot of excitement at Back Bay NWR, as Karen Beatty & Mary Catherine Miguez both posted photographs of a Northern Waterthrush seen along the Bay Trail. A few days earlier, Bill Oyler had reported it, and then later Jim Marcum also saw it. In addition to this bird, Bob McAlpine had posted a Cape May Warbler photograph into the HRWE group on Facebook. So with these two species being seen, I had figured Friday evening that was where I would be heading. However, I was getting reports during the day from Karen via Facebook, and it was much quieter there due to some rain bands that passed through in the morning. Because of this, I decided instead to go up to First Landing State Park to check for migrating songbirds, just as I had done the previous Friday. With shorebird migration essentially ending, I can now focus my efforts in the forests, looking for songbirds as their migrations ramps up, and soon, the raptors, and then waterfowl will begin their own journeys south. For now, I need to pick up as many species of transients (those species that pass through our area, but neither winter nor summer here, and are only seen traveling between their wintering ground further south of us, and their breeding grounds further north). So I headed up to First Landing at 3 PM, arriving about 3:20 PM at the 64th Street entrance. The nice thing about this entrance is there is parking outside the park on the street, so you can park and walk in without paying the entrance fee. First Landing is the most visited park in the state of Virginia, so I don’t feel bad about doing this either, it sees millions of visitors each year. Walking into the park and heading southwest down the Cape Henry Trail, I got my first bird, an Osprey that was sighted overhead up through the canopy. A close second was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a bird I don’t see too often in the park. Carolina Chickadees and Brown-headed Nuthatches were seen along the trail, and a Red-headed Woodpecker was also making quite a raucous in a tall, dead tree as I got closer to Lake Susan Constant. At the north edge of the lake, Pine Warblers were hopping all over the place, and I was able to photograph a few of them, along with a Downy Woodpecker, before heading up the road to the start of the Long Creek Trail.

A sneaky Southern Leopard Frog sighted at the west end of the Bay Trail!

The trail was very quiet, until I reached the old junction of the Osprey & Long Creek Trails. Here, a few birds were seen overhead, high up in the forest canopy, and after a few minutes of working into a good spot with the sunlight, and some luck, one of them came into view just long enough to identify as Baltimore Orioles, a new addition to my County Big Year, #188! At least 4 of the birds were seen, but they quickly flew off deeper into the forest, staying high up in the treetops. I did get an identifying photograph showing their bright white wing bars, and overall orange colors, but they were quite drab still in their fall plumage. From there I walked the Osprey Trail to Broad Bay and back, as I’d done the previous Friday as well. Along the trail, I had a nice surprise when a Red-eyed Vireo hopped into view in a short tree, and actually gave me one decent photograph. Typically these birds have been very difficult to capture with the lens, hiding high up in the canopy. That was essentially the only bird I saw along this patch of trail though, and I didn’t spot any transient warblers like I had last week with the Black-and-White and American Redstart. On my way back east on the trail, I did pick up another Ovenbird, likely the same one I’d seen the previous week as it was right in the same area. But, again, I managed not to get a shot of this one since it was quick to retreat to the forest floor and hide from view. Walking around Lake Susan Constant, a Belted Kingfisher was heard, and then seen flying low above the water, and repeatedly crashing into it. I’ve never seen one actually hunt this way, perhaps it was just trying to take a bath. Also in the area, another Baltimore Oriole flew into view, landing on a branch high up in a tall Yellow Pine tree. I realized quickly why the bird had flown from its previous site, as a Peregrine Falcon appeared, and sailed into the patch of canopy where it had been. I watched the Peregrine for about 20 minutes, hoping it would come out into better view, or take off, and afford me some flight shots before it reached top speed. However, it stayed put and so I continued on without good photographs. One bird was seen hopping around it in the tree, about oriole size but not looking the same, so I’m unsure of the species. It was funny to think that the small birds can get away with harassing the falcons when they’re stationary, but that same bird would be dinner if it tried to harass the high speed dynamo in flight. This outing was the first in which I noticed just how much earlier the sun is starting to set around here. Though, I was in the forest, so the light starts to disappear even earlier due to the trees blocking it out, by 5:45 PM when I had exited the forest, it was getting quite dark, and it’ll only get worse as the days go on unfortunately. However, I’m quite looking forward to winter, when I can work on my website without being out hiking every day of the week, things calm down a lot when the sun sets while I’m still at work!

An adult female Black-and-White Warbler feasts on the caterpillar it found at Kings Grant Lake Park!

With the addition of the orioles on Friday evening, I was feeling quite good to start Saturday morning. I got an early start, heading to Back Bay NWR and arriving just before 7 AM! The weather forecasts were all calling for a complete washout for the weekend, but it looked as though the rain might hold off for a couple hours in the morning, which is why I wanted to get there so early. That, and the warblers that migrate through tend to be much more active early in the morning as opposed to later in the day. So as soon as I got there, I set off down the Bay Trail, walking slowly, being careful to look for any signs of movement in the trees. Carolina Chickadees and American Robins were in motion along the trail, and by the time I was about halfway out, I spotted a Yellow Warbler up in a dead tree on the south side of the trail. Continuing slowly around the boardwalk portion of the trail I spotted a couple of Baltimore Orioles up in another dead tree, and they were joined by more robins. I think it is funny that the orioles were a species I had never seen in the county until Friday, and not even 24 hours later I added more of them to my list. When I’d reached the end of the Bay Trail, I was in for quite an alarming sight as the skies now visible to the south over the bay were an ominous black color, and moving my way. I figured I had about a half hour before the skies let loose on me so I headed back towards the car. However, near the shoreline of the large pond, where the memorial placard is placed, I caught a quick bit of motion, and got about a 2 or 3 second view of the Northern Waterthrush as it jumped into the open! While raising my lens to get a photograph, it jumped off its branch and flew west across the trail, then banked to the north and disappeared. I was a bit bummed I couldn’t photograph the bird, but seeing it up close still allows me to add it at #189 for my County Big Year!

One of several Fowler's Toads that were spotted on the Osprey Trail at First Landing State Park!

Right after this, two birders approached down the boardwalk, and I recognized Donald Freeman immediately, having conversed many a time in the HRWE group on Facebook. His friend, Dennis Tompkins was also a member, but someone I wasn’t familiar with since he doesn’t post often. We chatted for about 15 minutes, and I then departed to try to make it back to the parking area before the rain dumped. I failed in that endeavor, as I was just about half way back when the rainfall began, slowly at first, then to a steady downpour. I jogged the remainder and hopped in my car to sit the storm out. Amusingly, another car was parked two stalls to my right, and as the rain appeared to let up a bit, I rolled the window down, as did the other driver, who I recognized as Mike Collins, another HRWE member that I’d never met, but you can’t help but see their profile photos when they post in the group, so the faces stick with me in much the same way that even birds I haven’t seen before are readily identifiable since I’ve seen them in field guides so many times before. He said the radar was showing the storm lasting a bit longer, so we kept waiting. Donald & Dennis eventually made it back to their car, 2 stalls to my left, soaking wet of course, and they opted to not wait out the rain and instead left the park. After they left, another car pulled into the spot immediately to my left, easily recognizable as Betty Sue & Ken Cohen, who I seem to be running into almost every outing the past few weeks. So the three cars all sat out the rain, and when it did stop about 45 minutes after starting, the 4 of us walked the Bay Trail again together. Incredibly, the birds were out and singing as soon as the rain stopped, and at the first clearing, we got several American Redstarts and Yellow Warblers up in the trees. We ended up walking the trail two times as a group, so I can’t recall exactly on which trip we saw which birds, but we did add a Black-and-White Warbler, a beautifully colored male, as it flew over us and then landed up in a tree.

The ominous clouds approaching me early on Saturday morning at Back Bay NWR!

We also were treated to a single River Otter diving and surfacing repetitively off the overlook at the end of the Bay Trail. Yellow Warblers, and Common Yellowthroats were the most common birds along the Bay Trail though, and we also saw some more Baltimore Orioles. Betty Sue was racking up life birds on the outing so it was neat to be in a position where I could actually help a newer birder out. 99% of the time I’m out birding alone, so I’m 100% focused. With having others around, it becomes a bit harder to focus completely, but it does also lend more eyes and ears to the cause. Unfortunately, after a half hour or so of walking the trail, the inside of my lens completely fogged up and I couldn’t use my camera for an hour and a half until it cleared itself. I think when I had the lens opened up at Canon a couple weeks back to be cleaned, that they didn’t vacuum seal it properly. Some moisture from the rainfall must have seeped into it, and the sunshine that followed must have caused it to evaporate and condensate on the inner lens. It sure was a helpless feeling though, with no means to clean the inside off, and it just becoming useless. When it cleared though, I started shooting again, though I missed a few great shots of Eastern Cottonmouths, Yellow Warblers, American Redstarts, and the Black-and-White Warbler…and a Green Treefrog. After walking it twice as a group, Betty Sue & Ken headed over to another section of the park, and Mike & I walked over to the E-Pool to check for shorebirds. Only a Great Blue Heron, a few peeps (likely Leasts) were visible, and one Semipalmated Plover was sitting way at the back side. Here, three White-tailed Deer were also seen as they walked right across the now fairly dry marshy patch. Since my camera wasn’t working at the time, I pulled my cell phone out and actually got a video of the deer, and a couple still shots, though, I’d take my camera over that method any day. After the marsh, we walked the Bay Trail one more time, though not adding anything new, and not finding the Waterthrush again. We did see a few Yellow-billed Cuckoos, which was a bird Betty Sue was trying to find. So, when we finished our hike, and the Cohen’s were again right back at the base of the trail, I walked one additional trip with them to see if I could get her a cuckoo. Of course this time, we didn’t see any cuckoos. Again I arrived back to the start of the trail, and this time, Ron Furnish & Marie Mullins were there looking for warblers, so I walked a trip out and back on the trail with them. I think I ended up walking about 5 miles just on the Bay Trail, something I never do, but each time seeing less and less birds as the day went on. I ended up heading out from the park after noon, so after 5 or more hours of being there searching out warblers. Fortunately, I added the waterthrush, but I still wished I could have gotten a photograph.

A beautifully colored Common Yellowthroat that arrived after the heavy rains on Saturday morning at Back Bay!

On Sunday morning, the weather was an exact repeat in that it was supposed to be a washout after about 7 AM, so I again made a dash first thing in the morning to Back Bay, arriving at 6:50 AM this time. This time though, the temperature was actually only in the 60s (F) when I first got out of the car, much cooler than we’ve had in recent days. It was really the first day that felt like Fall to me, ironically the NFL also had their first Sunday games today, so football and Fall always seem to go hand in hand. But, back to the birding, I walked the Bay Trail immediately as I had done on Saturday. Right off the bat, I spotted what I assume were the same 3 White-tailed Deer that I’d seen Saturday, this time near the bench along the Bay Trail, providing me some nice photographs. Walking slowly, I again knew I was the first one down the trail since I kept walking through spiderwebs that hadn’t yet been broken by anyone else. This is the summertime’s version of seeing footprints ahead of you in the snow during winter. Birds were quiet. My second observation was that the waters of the bay were extremely high, and could be seen in the normally dry areas to both sides of the Bay Trail. The persistently strong southwestern winds we’ve had over the last couple of days have pushed the waters of the bay northward, inundating this section of the shoreline. Because of the southwestern winds, I also thought that perhaps the warblers seen yesterday would have remained here since they wouldn’t want to continue on their southward migration with a strong headwind slowing them down. The walk westward on the Bay Trail though, seemed to tell a different tale, as I didn’t see a single bird until just before reaching the spot where I’d seen the Waterthrush Saturday.

My second Black-throated Blue Warbler over the past week (and in my life), this time an adult female!

This one though, was not the same bird but I instantly recognized it through the thick cover as an adult female Black-throated Blue Warbler! It was just one week ago to the day that I finally added this bird to my life list, so it was pretty neat to see another one on this outing. It just continues what I always say about life birds, once you add them, it is like they become much more accessible to you, and will start showing up more and more. I don’t know if it is because you’ve got the confidence in identifying one properly after having worked through the first or what, but it isreally uncanny how it can take 30 years to find a bird, then the next week you’ll see another of the same species. I was able to snap some photographs, since my camera was again clear of fog this morning, and performed properly throughout the day as it should. Hopefully it continues to do so. Walking back east on the trail, I picked up an American Redstart about midway to the connector boardwalk to the Bayside Trail, but this was the only other bird I managed to find on the trail. I did have a Marsh Rabbit with very wet fur from the high waters, stop on the trail and give me some more photographs before jumping back into the watery environment they call home. These are the rabbits that are quite adept at swimming, though I’ve only seen it once, it was quite a sight to behold. After not doing so well on the Bay Trail, I recalled how Jim Marcum had a Northern Bobwhite last Monday near the parking area, and how earlier in the winter, Ron Furnish also had an American Woodcock in the same area. So, I figured, I might as well check around the parking area for birds, and boy am I glad that I did! Passing around the visitor center, I walked up the east side of the parking area, and began to see some birds in the treeline about 50 feet east of a small wooden fence that I felt I needed to stay on the parking lot side of.

A new life bird for me at Back Bay NWR on Sunday morning: the Lark Sparrow!

Brown Thrashers, Northern Mockingbirds, and Gray Catbirds were the first birds, so nothing too exciting since all are year-round residents, and quite common in the park in any season. But, the longer I watched shrubs, the more activity I could see. And then, I spotted something that got the heart pumping. A small sparrow landed on a branch, showing a strong central chest spot, like a Song Sparrow would have, but it did not have the facial markings of a Song, and instead, it was a Lark Sparrow, a life bird, and #190 for my County Big Year!! It hopped from branch to branch, then to my amazement, flew closer and landed on the ground where I could get better photographs of it with the green grass and gray branches as a background rather than the overcast skies that tend to such all the color of birds. I watched it for about 5 minutes before it flew back into the shrubs, and I didn’t see the bird again. About this time, I texted Ron Furnish, and send a message to Karen Beatty as well alerting them to its presence. Ron was planning to come down in a little while, and I didn’t think about til afterwards, but Karen was probably at or on her way to church. After sending out word, I walked the Kuralt Trail, hoping to add some more birds. Along the trail here I got a Yellow-breasted Chat, some Carolina Chickadees, a few Blue Grosbeak females, and a pair of Pied-billed Grebes just off the overlook in the water. Walking back to the parking area, the activity continued, and I had several birds moving about including Black-and-White Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Red-eyed & White-eyed Vireo, even aHouse Wren, a bird I’ve only seen one time this year in Virginia Beach. And then, one bird appeared that again sent a lightning bolt through my body. This bird, with a black and orange-brown face, and small stature, hid back in the darkness, then as I raised my lens and fired, flew out into the open.

An amazing second life bird in the same day, a Worm-eating Warbler at Back Bay NWR!

My photo, actually came out focused on the head, providing an identifying shot. The bird, a Worm-eating Warbler, was another life bird, and #191 for my County Big Year! After flying out, it landed again in a shaded spot, but I got a few more photographs of it for good measure. I was very blessed this outing to get photographs of both lifers that I saw, perhaps a bit of evening out after my bad luck with the lens on Saturday, and missing a shot of the Northern Waterthrush. Whatever the reason, it felt great to get these birds on camera since I’m sure the report looked crazy to people at first since both are rare species, though during Fall migration, anything goes! After the activity started to die down, I walked the Bayside Trail and Bay Trail, seeing some Common Yellowthroats again as I did Saturday in the same spot. At the end of the trail I ran into Steve Coari, and we walked a bit together, finding the Black-throated Blue Warbler again in the same shrubs I’d seen it earlier. On our way back, things were pretty quiet, outside a pretty cooperative Red-eyed Vireo seen at the base of the Bay Trail where people often stop and look for warblers. I walked around the visitor center to check out the parking area one last time, but it was now down to just European Starlings, and Thrashers, so I headed out from the park, still beyond excited from the activity I’d gotten to see earlier in the morning from about 7-8 AM. Just after leaving the park I stopped along the road to chat briefly with Ron & Marie, who were about to arrive at the park. Fortunately, they did get a Yellow-throated Vireo, a good find, but the feeding flock I encountered wasn’t seen again. Late in the day on Sunday, Chip Allen and Lisa Rose both posted a photo of an American Avocet in the HRWE Facebook group that was at Pleasure House Point, so given that, I knew what I was going to have to try for come Monday, but that’ll be in next week’s report. So I ended the week with 4 added species to my list, and very grateful for it!

Probably my best shot of a Red-eyed Vireo to date, as it finally paused in the "open" for a little while at Back Bay on Sunday!

Week Ending September 6, 2015

Some may have noticed (at least I hope) that I took a break from my weekly blog last week, and there was no update posted. After about 70 weeks straight with no interruptions to my weekly blog entries, an event last week arrived that was finally worth disrupting my work on the website: My Wedding! On Saturday, August 29, 2015, after just over 10 months of being engaged, my then-fiancé, Ruth, and I were married at the Oceanaire Resort Hotel at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Of course, Saturday was the culmination of 10 months of planning, and a week of getting to see family & friends and they trickled in to our area for the event. We had a beautiful day right around 80 degrees, but with the ceremony on the 10th floor of the building, outside on a large veranda, we were able to enjoy a nice breeze and could see all up & down the boardwalk in both directions. I was also told that during our ceremony, an Osprey flew by with a fish, but for the first time in my life I wasn’t paying any attention to the wildlife around me, and instead had my eyes & hands interlocked with my now-wife’s, who looked absolutely beautiful in her perfect wedding dress! After we said our “I do’s”, and made it official, we & our bridal parties & family members took some photographs on the boardwalk while the rest of our guests enjoyed a beautiful cocktail hour on the second floor reception area. Afterward, everyone moved back up to the 10th floor veranda for our “Lovebirds” themed reception! The reception went perfectly, and it was incredible to see all the little details that Ruth had put in to make sure it was a perfect setting for a wedding in which I was a part of, from the bird cage centerpieces holding flowers at each table, to fact that all the tables were named out as bird names, rather than numbers, everything was perfect. She even got a special surprise cake made to look exactly like my Canon EOS 6D camera! Most folks left the area on Sunday, but some stayed through Tuesday, so it wasn’t until then that I got back on the wagon of outdoor adventures. Also, since I knew I wouldn’t have time for photography during the Wedding weekend, I dropped my camera off for a professional cleaning with Canon the prior Wednesday since the amount of dust inside the lens, and on the sensor were becoming just too much for me to have to edit out of each photograph I post on the site. Ruth had a couple days off after the wedding, and was able to pick both camera & lens up for me on Tuesday of this week, so I was ready to be back in action, though several hundred dollars later unfortunately.

A juvenile Red-tailed Hawk seen at Pleasure House Point!

On Tuesday evening I got out on a post-work jaunt through Pleasure House Point with Ruth. After retrieving my camera, I must say that I was very pleased with the results, the camera shoots as if it was brand new all over again. I should have taken it in long ago and got it done properly rather than investing all the time I had over the past months editing out dust spots, and having to use the manual focus when the autofocus just would no longer pick up objects properly because of all the dust. Anyways, my wife (still getting used to saying that) and I parked along Marlin Bay Drive and walked into the park towards Pleasure House Creek before heading east along the shoreline trail towards the primary point of the park. Yellow-crowned Night-Herons were seen frequently along the way, with about 15 individuals counted during the walk. Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, and 3 Green Herons were noted as well, representing the wading bird species that are most common in the park. For the first time in a while I didn't note any White Ibis or Tricolored Heron juveniles, which have been present for at least the past month. The tide was extremely low, probably the lowest I've actually seen the water here. Given that, I had high hopes for the mudflats, as long as recreational boaters weren't pulled up on them. Arriving at the point adjacent to the new Brock Center's Pier, I was happy to find no boaters around. However, there wasn't much out on the flats outside of a group of 23 American Oystercatchers loosely scattered along the far edge. Several species of gulls dominated by Laughing, with smaller numbers of Great Black-backed & Herring, and a few Royal Terns with one Caspian Tern were seen from this spot as well. No other shorebirds though unfortunately, again, to my amazement. I thought perhaps the area had just been freed up by boaters, so we made another pass across the park to give it time to allow birds to return, however, upon the return trip, it was the same situation with the oystercatchers being the only birds walking around. Other species sighted were a couple of Clapper Rails thanks to the very low water levels, and a pair of American Goldfinches on the main point, which I don't see all that often there. We had a great surprise near the second largest pond when a perched Red-tailed Hawk jumped up from a branch overhanging the trail to another tree as we passed, but then stayed there for quite some time. I took a number of shots of this particular bird, and Ruth got some great looks through my binoculars at close range, really able to see all the feather details up close like this. We walked away with the bird still in place, so it was nice to get to observe but not completely scare off this raptor. A single Osprey, and a flyover by a young Bald Eagle rounded out the other raptor sightings. Songbirds were essentially nonexistent at the park outside the goldfinches and a pair of singing Eastern Towhees. But, it felt good to get back out, and I know their migrations will heat up in the coming month, so I'm looking forward to hopefully tracking down some other species soon.

My second Yellow-billed Cuckoo sighting at First Landing State Park!

My next outing was a post-work hike on Friday. Leaving at 3 PM like I always do on Fridays, I headed out the door to find some extremely windy weather. I had initially planned to head down to Back Bay NWR for one final beach walk looking for shorebirds, despite Karen Beatty’s suggestion to try warblers instead with the weather moving in. However, upon feeling the winds, I decided to trust in her experience and seek the songbirds out instead, so I drove to First Landing State Park for the first time in a while. Arriving about 3:30 PM to the park or a few minutes early, I walked in from the 64th Street entrance and immediately began walking with a craned neck, searching the canopy for birds. At this point in the year, the warbler migrations are just beginning, and the leaves are still fully on the trees, which can make for some tough viewing. Also, most of the warbler species have very worn feathers now, and their bright plumage from the breeding season is now a distant memory. These drab Fall plumages make the warblers even more challenging to see and identify to species. My first bird sighting wasn’t a warbler actually, it was a Ruby-throated Hummingbird zooming around high above the first boardwalk after the entry station on the Cape Henry Trail. Following the trail, I added some Carolina Chickadees, some Osprey, American Robins, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Downy Woodpeckers before even reaching Lake Susan Constant. Continuing on towards the Long Creek Trail, then following it towards the Osprey Trail, I added a few more chickadees, then a Northern Parula that was seen high overhead moving through the leaves of a tall deciduous tree. Pine Warblers were also heard in this area, with a couple of them being seen high up feeding among the long needles of the Southern Yellow Pine trees. Walking the Osprey Trail, I had a flurry of excitement as I spotted a small bird moving through the leaves that I finally identified as a Red-eyed Vireo, and a larger bird to my right flew off through the trees, but landed nearby and slowly stalked through the branches, thinking it was well enough hidden. Fortunately I had my eyes on this second bird the whole time and was able to sneak up near it, close enough to realize that it was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo! This is only my second Cuckoo sighting in the park, my first having been on August 20, 2010! Why do I remember this without having to look it up? Because I met my now-wife later that same night. I find it a bit amusing that the first sighting was just prior to meeting Ruth, and my second sighting was on the first time out since marrying her, 5 years later!

The second Black-and-White Warbler I've seen in Virginia Beach this year, a female again, seen at First Landing State Park!

Continuing down the Osprey Trail, I picked up a Black-and-White Warbler, that was very inquisitive with my ‘pishing’, and came down pretty close for a few shots, though never sitting still in the same spot for more than a second or so. Also nearby, an American Redstart became the 5th warbler species sighted on the day, though it stayed mostly in the shade of the thick foliage, making photography tough. I walked up just to the last hill prior to reaching Broad Bay, and then turned back again, seeing the same Redstart and Black-and-White a second time, and then further down also finding what was likely the same Ovenbird again, still in the same area. This bird though would not allow any photographs, and stayed concealed down in the underbrush. Walking back out of the park to the car I was pretty satisfied with the sightings, though no new birds were added to my yearly county list, the Cuckoo & Black-and-White Warbler were only the second sightings I’ve had, and the Vireo & Redstarts were only the 3rd. Hopefully in the coming weeks, more species show up and I’m able to add a few life birds to my list since it currently has quite a few holes in it in terms of migratory warblers. In some disappointing news, for the last couple of weeks I had been signed up for a pelagic offshore trip to the Gulf Stream with about 35 other birders, leaving from Rudee Inlet on Sunday morning at 3 AM. Well when I got home from my First Landing outing on Friday, I found an email saying that the cruise had been cancelled due to the strong winds we were going to get over the weekend. My hope was that I’d get to see my first true seabirds, since shearwaters, petrels, storm-petrels, and maybe even an albatross, are birds that you almost never see from shore. So sadly, this won’t be happening on Sunday, but maybe down the road someone will try to get one going again. On the plus side, I don’t have to get up at 2AM on Sunday morning, so, there’s that.

The American Redstarts are showing up all over the region right now!

On Saturday, we had expected a dreary, rainy day in Virginia Beach, so I went with Ruth up to the outlet malls in Williamsburg in the morning, heading out about 9:30. Reaching the peninsula, the weather was actually quite clear and I probably should have just brought my hiking stuff up there with me, since with the warblers arriving. When we arrived back down in the afternoon it had indeed clouded up, and apparently was that way through most of the day in Virginia Beach at least so I didn’t mind having a day off. On Sunday, it alternated between rain and just dreary all day long, but during the morning Ron Furnish had a sighting of a female Black-throated Blue Warbler at a location I will not disclose until after Fall migration is over since it is a spot near our places that should yield some good birds for us in the coming weeks. I headed over to check out the site, not finding any birds at all for the first half hour. However, as I was standing staring into the trees, I heard a crash to my left as a large hawk (likely a Red-shouldered, but possibly a Red-tailed) came screaming down through the trees in hot pursuit of a Gray Squirrel that was on the ground. The hawk missed, and the squirrel made quite a racket from beneath a fallen log. As I watched the spectacle, a small bird flew across my field of view and I turned my attention immediately to that. After a few agonizing minutes of trying to photograph it, I finally got some clear enough shots to identify it as Ron’s Black-throated Blue Warbler, a new life bird for me, and the 200th species I’ve seen in Virginia Beach (lifetime that is)! It is also the 187th species I’ve seen so far this year, so it gets me another step closer to my goal of reaching 200 species in a single year here in the county. Getting a lifer on the day I was supposed to be out on the pelagic trip surely took the sting out of the trip’s cancellation. After leaving this spot behind, I went and checked out another nearby park, noting a pair of American Redstarts before the falling rain stopped me from watching any further. With that I headed home, though not a lot of hiking this weekend, it was a good transition back into photography with my rehabilitated camera & lens. Monday is also a holiday, Labor Day, so I plan to get out for a full day of hiking, but that’ll show up in next week’s blog!

A new Life Bird, and #200 in Virginia Beach (all-time), a beautiful female Black-throated Blue Warbler!

Week Ending August 23, 2015

As with the previous weeks, I didn’t get any serious birding in until Friday evening. However, on Monday evening, Ruth & I made a special trip down to Sandbridge to view the “blue tide” that has showed up along the beaches. Made up of Dinoflagellates, this blue coloration has been showing up when the sun drops down and the skies turn dark. They possess a bioluminescence that lights up the water, similar to the film The Beach’s depiction of what they called ‘plankton’. Several folks had posted photographs of the anomaly to Faecbook and the local paper even ran a couple articles about it. So Ruth & I wanted to check it out, and we parked near the large condominium tower near Little Island Park, walking south at about 9:15 PM towards the Back Bay NWR boundary line where I expected it to be extremely dark, and hopefully giving good views. Unfortunately, the winds over the last day must have shifted much of the Dinoflagellates out further to sea away from the coast. The blue wasn’t visible, but we did get to see how the sand beneath our feet glowed as we walked along, presumably also from some that had been washing in with the tide. They’re microscopic though and unable to be seen, so it wasn’t like we were stepping on a bunch of color creating crabs or anything. Speaking of crabs though, Ruth used the flashlight application on here iPhone to light up the beach around us on a couple of occasions, and we were always surrounded by Ghost Crabs. It reminded me a bit of the film, Pitch Black, in which people on an alien world are hunted by predators in the dark that fear the light, never staying far away from their torches. Fortunately for us, the Ghost Crabs aren’t dangerous, and they’re mostly just amusing to watch as they scatter away from you, though we did get close enough to actually touch a few. I was a bit bummed we missed the blue tide since I’d passed on going out the night before, which sadly was the last night it was visible. You snooze, you lose. After that nice outing though, Tuesday, Ruth & I also got out for a 4 mile walk through the neighborhood. I didn’t bring my camera on the outing, but we did see some of the typical suburban birds like American Robins, American Crows, Northern Cardinals, Gray Catbirds, and a few others. On Wednesday, we had an intense downpour hit right in Kings Grant, and while viewing the rainfall from the safety of my screened in porch, I watched a very vibrantly colored Eastern Box Turtle running for the cover of the woods behind the apartment. It was definitely the fastest I have ever seen a turtle move, and it made it quickly to safety out of the heavy downpour.

Species #186 in Virginia Beach this year! The Pectoral Sandpiper!

On Friday, as I’ve done the past 5 weeks, I went straight from work at 3 PM to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, arriving at about 3:40 PM. I parked on the east side of the visitor contact station, sprayed up with deet, tossed some sunblock on my neck and face, and started down the Loop Road towards the Dune Trail, with plans to walk the beach to False Cape State Park and back, as I’ve done 5 Fridays in a row. However, as I was passing by the marshy area to the southeast of the parking lot, my plans switched. On this marsh was a large variety of shorebirds, in good numbers. Willets, Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitcher, plenty of Least Sandpiper, and a number of Killdeer & Semipalmated Plovers were observed in a short period of time. Additionally, a Little Blue Heron juvenile, a Snowy Egret juvenile, and a Great Egret were all in close to the road, affording nice views of the characteristics that help separate these species from one another. While viewing a group of Least Sandpipers, I noticed one behaving strangely, with its wings flapping up in the air. As I viewed it through the binoculars, I couldn’t tell what was going on, but then realized that it was a Least, that was being eaten whole by a large Eastern Cottonmouth! I’ve never observed a snake predating on any bird species, so this came as a huge surprise to me. The wings were still sticking out of the snake’s mouth, and to my surprise, many other Leasts were in very close to the snake. You would think after they just watched their buddy bite the dust, that they’d at least move over a few feet away from the snake, but apparently not the case with these birds. Given the excitement that I found along this small marshy patch, I decided to forego the beach walk, and instead focus my efforts in the marshy patches along the East Dike Trail, as I had done last Sunday at the park. My hope was that the marshy fields might yield a Pectoral Sandpiper, which is the most ‘common’ bird I have yet to log this year in Virginia Beach, being reported to eBird in about 2% of the reports historically during the month of August. So having decided to do so, I headed south on the Loop Road, reaching the gate to the East Dike pretty quickly. At this point in the year, the impoundments of the park, barely viewable from the East Dike, are grown tall with vegetation, providing hiding places for deer and other animals, but preventing photographs like myself from seeing most of the wildlife that inhabits them.

Killdeer were seen in high numbers around Back Bay NWR this week!

Along the East Dike, I did see some Blue Grosbeaks, Indigo Buntings, Red-winged Blackbirds, which are all typical species here. The first marshy field that I reached was that at the dog-leg about 1.5 miles south on the East Dike. Here, the road takes two quick ninety degree turns, first to the west, then to the south. On the duneside corner of the road, there is a large field marsh, which during drier periods becomes more like a field with shortgrass growing in it. Semipalmated Plovers and Killdeer were instantly recognizable in good numbers out in the grasses. And, to my excitement, one larger shorebird species was also quickly observed. I walked around a bit to get into the closest spot for viewing, and when I got my binoculars on it, it was very obvious that the bird was a Pectoral Sandpiper, #186 in Virginia Beach on the year! Pectorals, which pass through our area in the fall on their southward migration, are larger than the Semipalmated Plovers, but slightly smaller than the Killdeer. Having both species present allowed for a good comparison in size. Also, the Pectorals have similar features to the Least Sandpipers, with their yellow legs the most obvious similarity. Seeing the two species together though, shows off just how much smaller the Leasts are, probably less than half the overall size, making the Pectorals look like giants by comparison. For about a half hour I watched this one bird, and took about 200 photographs of it as it meandered through the taller sections of grass searching for food that the smaller sandpipers weren’t feeding in due to the difficulty of using their short legs to propel them through the higher grass.

On of several American Bullfrogs hanging out along the ditches of the East Dike Trail at Back Bay!

After taking a sufficient number of photographs to document the bird, I decided that I was going to head back northward towards the parking area, since this was my main target on the day, and I wasn’t sure of any other targets that might be in the vicinity to search out. On the northward trip I saw a few American Bullfrogs sitting out on the dry shorelines of the ditches that have now dropped in water level during the last few weeks. Also on the shorelines was a Spotted Sandpiper juvenile that I had also seen on the way south, watching as it fluttered along with it’s almost butterfly like wing motions. Some of the bullfrogs were pretty close and provided some nice photographs. Also, in non-bird sightings, I had a pair of Eastern Cottontail rabbits stick close to the Loop Road and again give me some nice shots before heading up to the parking area again. On the final marsh, near the parking area, most of the same birds were out again, though I didn’t notice any Cottonmouths feeding on birds this time. A mother & daughter walked past and chatted for a few minutes (finding out later in the HRWE group that it was Tina Masters), and they were hoping to see the Bobcat kittens that had been sighted a couple weeks back along the Bay Trail. Of course, Bobcats are tough to come by, but the youngsters might be a little more likely to be seen closer to where people are more common. I think the older they get, the more weary of humans they become, hence why it took 31 years before I finally saw my very first (and still only) Bobcat here at the park back in April. After viewing the marsh, I took a few photographs of a young Northern Mockingbird near the car, and then hopped in and headed back towards home.

An Eastern Cottontail seen at Back Bay NWR on Friday!

On Saturday morning, I was driving down I-264 heading west between First Colonial and Lynnhaven when I spotted a hawk sitting up on a power pole. I was certain that the bird was smaller than the typical Red-tailed Hawks that are frequently observed on the poles, so I ran home, grabbed my stuff and headed back out to photograph it. I headed east this time from Lynnhaven, and found the hawk still on the same pole. I pulled off on the shoulder, tossed on the hazard lights of my car, and then got the binoculars up on the bird. I took about 25 photographs, thinking for sure it was a Red-shouldered, the only common hawk that I haven’t seen here this year, and headed onward towards my initial hiking destination of Pleasure House Point. Heading over the Lesner Bridge the water looked very high, and only a tiny spit of sand was viewable above the waterline where the sandbars are during lower levels. With no rush to reach this area since there would be no shorebirds present, I parked along Marlin Bay Drive. I walked into the park, hearing a couple of Eastern Towhees immediately, and the cawing of some American Crows. As I looked up to see the crows, a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk cruised on past me overhead, with the crows following in chase mode. When I’d walked up to the creek and turned eastward, the hawk again made a couple circles overhead of me, this time being chased by a pair of Eastern Kingbirds, which eventually halted their pursuit and landed atop a nearby pine tree. The Cooper’s Hawk sped off into the distance, disappearing from view into the forest across the second largest pond. From the trail, I also saw a juvenile Tricolored Heron fly on past over the creek, and shortly after ran into a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and juvenile White Ibis sharing a tree roost together. The ibis is probably the same one that has been present at the park the past few weeks. And of course, the Yellow-crowns are quite common in the park this time of year. A single Laughing Gull was sitting out on the water of Pleasure House Creek, but gulls & terns were otherwise nonexistent at the park. I walked up to the main point, but realizing a lot of folks were out on the beach there, and more were out in the water on kayaks, I just turned around and headed back to the west.

Still showing it's spots, this is a juvenile Northern Mockingbird!

While doing so, a pair of Tricolored Herons flew in over me, landing up in a pine tree, and being joined by a third juvenile. It seems all the Tricoloreds I’ve seen this year at the park have been immature birds, at least in the last month or so. I’m a bit curious where their more colorful parents might be hiding at this point in the season, perhaps they’ve already headed further south ahead of the youngsters to get some peace and quiet. Taking a few photographs of them, plus a Snowy Egret in the area, I headed into the woods briefly, hoping to spot a warbler or two. It seems some have been seen already as their migration will get started pretty soon. Karen Beatty had an American Redstart in her yard this week, which is one of the less common warblers here, though I’ve seen a pair so far on the year. I’m hoping more for Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Blue, Cape May, or Nashvilles, some of the real rare warblers, but late September and October will be the time to seek those out as they are found, I have a few locations upmy sleeves. Walking the remainder of the trail westward, I got some nice views of a couple American Goldfinches that had perched right above the juvenile White Ibis, just a few trees down from where I’d seen it initially on the day. Still no waterfowl (ducks/geese/swans) were encountered at the park, and I haven’t seen a single one since May here. Mallards are clearly populous at some of the local ponds, along with Canada Geese, but for the most park, waterfowl are tough to find here in summer. The only other species that even breeds here is the Wood Duck, and while you may see them at Kings Grant Lake year-round, the majority of their species are off in their more native, wooded marshy habitat deep in forests like the Great Dismal Swamp. Waterfowl will begin showing up in good numbers when October rolls around, yet another major migration to go hand in hand with the songbird migration. Additionally, raptors (hawks/falcons/eagles/etc) should begin in a month or so to show up in numbers around the area. The Hawk Watch sites in the state have begun recording observation, though I haven’t yet seen anything from the Kiptopeke Hawk Watch, which is the one nearest to me. Last year’s Hawk Watcher at the site, Katie Rittenhouse, actually has been doing work in western Minnesota this summer, and thanks to Facebook I got to see some photographs she took along the North Shore over the weekend, namely at Cascade River State Park, one of my favorite places to visit when I am back in my semi-home state. Anyways, I’m rambling, back to Pleasure House Point. After the goldfinches gave me some photographs, I spotted a Green Heron and an adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, but then headed back towards the car. On the way, I almost stepped on one very large spider, a species I’ve never seen before. I snapped a photo, but as yet have not gotten an identity on it, though it was quite ominous looking, so I stayed back from it (see photos below). After this, I called it a day and headed home to get out of the heat and relax. Also, I wanted to get a look at my hawk photos from earlier, however upon inspection, I was a bit bummed to realize that the hawk was not the Red-shouldered I thought it was, and was instead another Red-tailed Hawk, the much more common species here. It was apparently in heavy molt, losing its feathers and therefore looked a bit different than they typically do. Also, it had the brown belly band that the young Red-shouldereds do not have, so it was an obvious call once I looked at it long enough, and had folks online make the call as well. So, no new birds on the day unfortunately!

Juvenile White Ibis seen at Pleasure House Point on Saturday!

Early on Sunday morning, about 7:30 AM, I headed out towards Back Bay for another visit. Going into it, I was hoping perhaps I’d see a Marbled Godwit on the beach, or a White-rumped or Stilt Sandpiper along the East Dike Trail. First though, I decided to walk the Bay Trail since I’ve neglected it over the past couple of months. In the summer time, the Bay Trail is one of the most humid areas of the park since little wind can penetrate the thick vegetation that grows tall on both sides of it. Thousands of Dragonflies can be found here during July especially, zooming all around you while walking through it; it is pretty neat! However, bird activity falls off greatly along this trail after spring migrations are finished up, so it really isn’t productive again until fall migration begins. However, I wanted to give it a tree. Walking westward I mainly saw insects and arachnids. Black-and-Yellow Garden Spiders have set up webs all along the trail, and seemed to be doing quite well for themselves. I saw one spinning up a large grasshopper for a later meal, in fact, the grasshopper was larger than the spider. And these spiders get quite large, probably 4 or 5 inches from tip of front to back legs, they can be a little alarming if you aren’t used to them. After walking both directions and not really noting any birds outside of 1 Blue Grosbeak, I headed south again on the Loop Road as I’d done on Friday. This time, at the marshy patch southeast of the parking lot, I ran into Una Davenhill and her husband Hugh. This is actually the 3rd time in a month or so that I’ve run into Una out in the field, so she must have the same mindset I do when it comes to where we might find interesting birds.

The most beautiful of the insects observed over the week, this is a Tiger Swallowtail!

Or it is blind luck, one or the other. The marsh again held some good variety, with Yellowlegs, and mainly Least Sandpipers, Killdeer and Willets, with one Great Blue Heron standing in close to the roadway. Heading down the Loop Road to the East Dike didn’t turn up much in the way of birds, probably given how hot and humid it already was. Along the East Dike, I saw some Great Egrets, another Great Blue Heron, and an Osprey out over the C-Pool, but not much else. Reaching the dogleg bend about 1.5 miles south of the parking area, there was again good numbers of Semipalmated Plovers and Least Sandpipers in view, but the Pectoral Sandpiper I had seen Friday was nowhere to be found this time. Here I again decided to head back north since there just wasn’t a whole lot going on. Back on the Loop Road, I did spot a Spotted Sandpiper, that I suspect could be the same one I’d seen Friday since this one also was a juvenile. After this though, I headed back to the vehicle, snapping some shots of the Great Blue Heron for my birding identification guide that I’ve been working on, so will add those this week. I headed out from the park, and gave another hopeful bird a shot. Marsh Wrens are currently the most ‘common’ bird I’ve yet to see this year in Virginia Beach, and since I didn’t see any at Back Bay where they are most commonly found, I thought perhaps I could find some along the roadways leading to the western shore of the bay in Pungo. I drove down Muddy Creek Road to Horn Point Road, but didn’t turn any up there. I did see some Eastern Bluebirds here though which was neat, and then tried Drum Point Road, but couldn’t spot any there either. Marsh Wrens are a bird I just recently added to my life list down at Mackay Island NWR, not far away as the wren flies, but in North Carolina, so a whole state away as the lines are drawn up.

A Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider lays in wait for unsuspecting prey at Back Bay's Bay Trail!

With finding a Marsh Wren clearly not in the cards, I decided to go after another bird that is pretty high up on my target list, and one that I know was seen this week at Stumpy Lake: the Red-shouldered Hawk. Bob McAlpine spotted one at the park and posted it on Facebook, where it was verifiable as such, much better than a lot of the reports that I still suspect are Red-tailed Hawks (just like mine turned out to be yesterday). So I went up to Stumpy Lake to check it out. I walked the figure-8 trail through the woods, which were extremely quiet of birds, but full of insect song. Cicadas, grasshoppers, everything was singing. I did find one feeding flock of songbirds (Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, and White-breasted Nuthatches), but that was it along the 2 mile loop. After this, I tried my luck along the causeway outside the forest. Walking along the road I turned up a Chipping Sparrow that posed nicely for a couple of photographs, and I had a good chuckle to myself that this was one of the tougher species to locate this year, though I’ve now seen them on my past two visits to the park. Further down along the roadway I found a pair of Great Egrets, two Laughing Gulls, and very, very high up I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk circling around. The bird was so distance I could barely make out the reddish tint to its flared out tail feathers while looking through my binoculars. Shortly after, it was joined by another hawk, and again I was so sure it must have been a Red-shouldered Hawk. Being so high up, and continuing to ride on thermals even higher, I snappedwhat photographs I could, and headed home to view them without the sunlight making it impossible to see them. However, these photographs shared the same fate as my shots from Saturday. When I got home it was readily apparent that the second hawk I’d photographed was also a Red-tailed Hawk, so the Red-shouldered Hawk remains off my list for the year. Maybe in the next week or two I can knock this one out, or possibly during the raptor migration when perhaps more of them are seen in Virginia Beach. 

One of the species that took me a while to find this year, but now seems to be popping up everywhere; the Chipping Sparrow!

Weekly Outing Galleries

Stumpy Lake Natural Area, Virginia Beach, VA - Sunday, August 23, 2015

​Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia Beach, VA - Sunday, August 23, 2015

Pleasure House Point Natural Area, Virginia Beach, VA - Saturday, August 22, 2015

I-264, Virginia Beach, VA - Saturday, August 22, 2015

Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia Beach, VA - Friday, August 21, 2015

Week Ending August 16, 2015

A hectic work week, and extremely hot temperatures (again in the 90s) this week didn’t allow for any outdoor ventures until Friday evening. After work, I again walked the beach from the parking area at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge to the boundary with False Cape State Park & back. One hope of mine for this outing was that perhaps I’d get another look at some Black Terns, or possibly seeing an early Marbled Godwit somewhere along the beach. Interestingly, shorebirds were almost nonexistent at the park over the first mile walking south along the beach towards False Cape, however, the further I got along on my walk, the more they began popping up. In terms of shorebirds, the Semipalmated Plovers were down in number from last Friday, but Black-bellied Plover & Ruddy Turnstones were both present in much higher numbers than I've seen on any outings over the past 5 weeks. Sanderlings and Willets were again the most numerous birds, though there wasn’t hundreds of Sanderlings like there has been in the past couple of weeks, in fact, had I been keeping an accurate count, the Willets may have actually come close to outnumbering them. There was also a lot of immature Laughing Gulls flying along the coastline, mostly moving along with the wind at their backs, with plenty of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the air and on the beach as well. Herring, Ring-billed & Great Black-backed Gulls also present in low numbers. Royal, Common, and Least Terns all present in high numbers with a few Sandwich Terns, and I got a fabulous surprise on my northward trip when a single Gull-billed Tern flew from north to south past me, affording me my first photographs of this species for the year, though being the second sighting I’ve had. The last one I saw was in May, and I just wasn’t able to fire off any photographs before it had disappeared, so this was a nice redemption, as I always like to have a photograph of my species for my yearly lists, that removes any doubt from other birders that I did see what I reported having seen, and gives me of course a nice shot to go back to.

A young Snowy Egret seen near the parking area at Back Bay NWR!

Additionally on the northbound trip, while viewing some Black-backed Gulls in the distance I noticed that a smaller bird was harassing them at high speed. I instantly thought that it could be a Jaeger (a word that I learned from the film Pacific Rim is German for “hunter”). Jaegers typically live along the coastline, but further offshore than most terns & gulls. They feed by harassing gulls and terns into dropping their own catches, being very opportunistic feeders. There are three species that can show up along the Atlantic seaboard including Parasitic, Long-tailed, and Pomarine, however, the Parasitic is the most likely according to all my field guides to be seen from shore. So when I saw this bird chasing after the gulls, it seemed to fit the bill (pun intended), but as I got closer I realized that I was mistaken. Instead, what I was treated too, was a juvenile Peregrine Falcon, the second I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks. The behavior reminded me of one I had seen a couple years ago during the springtime at First Landing, when a Peregrine chased a gull all the way across Broad Bay, not allowing it any time to recover, constantly taking dives at it with intense velocity. This falcon today also took several sweeps through the gulls, banking at seemingly break-neck speed and then quickly gaining altitude, only to come screaming back in towards them. It did this at least 3 times before rising up above the dunes, and catching the wind blowing southward, speeding off along the coastline. Of course, this bird stayed right in line with the sun, meaning the side I could see was all in shadow, but I did get a couple of photographs that were worthwhile shots to include in my weekly gallery at least! After this excitement, I finished the last mile or so of the beach, and headed back over the dunes to the Loop Road, turning north towards the parking area. At the marshy patch next to the parking lot, a pair of Greater Yellowlegs, a Willet, Great Blue Heron & Snowy Egret were all seen. So unfortunately this week, there was no Whimbrels, Piping Plovers, or Black Terns noted on my hike, but I was greatly excited to get my first photograph of a Gull-billed Tern and any day I get to watch the fastest bird on the planet (Peregrine Falcon), is a good day! So I headed back home to get some dinner (Ruth cooked up a recipe she found for mahi, but used swordfish as a seasonal replacement, and it was absolutely fantastic), and get some sleep for the next day of outdoor ventures.  

Run away! A Great Black-backed Gull being chased by the waves at Back Bay!

Saturday was August 15th, and last year on this date, Bob Ake spotted a Ruff at the Whitehurst Tract of Princess Anne WMA. Two days later, on the 17th (a Sunday), was the first time I ever visited the park, in the hopes of finding this same bird. On that particular outing, I ended up meeting David Gibson of Chesapeake, and together we attempted to find the vagrant! However, inexperienced with shorebirds at the time, I'm not sure if I would have been able to ID the bird even if I'd seen it. Since then, I have been to the park a good dozen or more times, and have become much more comfortable with identifying the shorebirds that pass through coastal Virginia. This week, while browsing back through my photographs from that outing last year, I was able to pick out a Stilt Sandpiper (likely the same one noted on eBird that day by Rexanne Bruno & Tracy Tate), and it was confirmed as such via the Hampton Roads Wildlife Enthusiasts Group on Facebook. With the excitement of adding a Life bird, though a historic one, combined with the date of the Ruff sighting last year arriving, I decided to head out early in the morning to the WMA in search of shorebirds. Of course, I've also birded this area pretty heavily over the last 6 weeks, hoping for some shorebirds to stop on the impoundments as their southward journey progresses. What I failed to recognize on my prior outings was the lack of suitable habitat. Thanks to looking through the photographs from last year's outing I realized that the entire northern cell of the southern impoundments was covered in very short grass, a great environment for the shorebirds to land and feed on. This year, all but a very narrow stretch in the center of this cell isn't overgrown with 2-3 feet of grasses. I do not know the reason for this change in habitat, perhaps different policies on the upkeep of the park? But, what I do know is that it has surely resulted in less shorebirds.

Loads of juvenile Laughing Gulls were sighted this week!

Today, I saw only 1 Spotted Sandpiper in the park. I take this as a good lesson though, that habitat does change from year to year, and birders must also adjust their strategies to match this change. While frustrated a bit after turning up just the 1 shorebird, I kept on walking around the preserve, and was greatly rewarded for the efforts of walking through high grasses, and getting soaked by the morning dew. In the same area I'd heard & seen the Northern Bobwhites recently (near the abandoned farmhouse at the northeast corner of the property), I had a Hairy Woodpecker fly in and land very close to a Downy Woodpecker! Now, Hairy Woodpeckers seem like a common species, but there are not too many verifiable observations of them each year here in Virginia Beach. This was the the first I've seen this year that was completely distinguishable from the much more common Downy Woodpeckers, and it was pretty neat to see them in the same view through the binoculars and also through the camera lens (see gallery at link provided below). That was species #185 in Virginia Beach for the year, so yet another step closer to hitting my initial yearly goal of 200! After seeing the Hairy, and jumping up and down doing my celebratory dance that no one else is ever around to see, I walked back along Munden Road towards where I’d parked. Along the roadway, as is pretty typical, I spotted some Indigo Buntings and Blue Grosbeaks, and even an American Goldfinch, which is always a good sight to me since I don’t have bird feeders, which is where most folks will see these birds. Also, a Yellow-breasted Chat was calling its rather bizarre sounding call from a shrub on the south side of the road, and several Field Sparrows could be heard singing in the distance, though I never did see any of them. Also, while exiting the park (and entering earlier), I noted that the corn field on the northeast corner of Munden & Morris Neck Roads has been completely cleared. This field produced my very first Horned Larks earlier in the season, and I’m sure plenty of Eastern Meadowlarks use it when the crops are taken out of the equation. Also, it could be a place to locate shorebirds after heavy rains in the next month or two. So far, it is the only field I’ve noticed being cultivated in southern Virginia Beach. Once others follow suit, it’ll be easier to spot wildlife that would otherwise be able to hide.

A Least Tern transitioning from breeding to nonbreeding plumage!

Continuing onward from this area, I drove down into southwestern Virginia Beach, across the Pungo Ferry Road bridge over the North Landing River, and down Blackwater Road to the Nature Conservancy’s Milldam Creek Boardwalk. Here, I was excited to here & then see a bright yellow Prothonotary Warbler over the first creek crossing on the boardwalk, which follows through the marshes around the creek for about a quarter mile or so. Along the boardwalk, I kept my eyes peeled and ended up spotting quite a number of Green Treefrogs clinging to reeds, ranging in size from youngsters only a half inch or so in length, all the way up to the larger adults about 2 inches in length. These frogs like to curl up against the green foliage during the daytime to remain camouflaged from predators, since they are mostly active at nighttime. Every time I see them here, I’m reminded of Ruth & I’s visit to her friend Amy’s father’s home in North Carolina, where they came out by the hundreds as the sun set, and clung all over the outside of the house. It was awesome to see. Most of the frogs at Milldam Creek were visible as shaded patches on the backside of their leaves given how I was walking with the sun hitting them. That made it a bit easier to find them, just looking for a dark patch, then checking the other side of the leaf or reed for the cause. Lots of grasshoppers and Black-and-Yellow Garden Spiders were out as well. In fact, I even saw one of the massive spiders wrapping a large grasshopper up in its silk for a later meal. Nature is brutal. On the way back towards the car I was stopped dead in my tracks as a Northern Bobwhite called out several times to the north of the first creek crossing. I of course was never going to see this bird since it was far off across the creek, in ground littered by dense vegetation. After leaving the Milldam Creek parking lot, I drove south on Blackwater Road until just before it crosses into North Carolina. There I turned down Reed Road, which took me across the state line, and another right turn onto Middle Gibbs Road eventually wound me back into Virginia Beach land. This area at the very southwestern corner of the city boundary is very rural, with long gravel roads leading up to many of the homes. Actually, the homes out there are gorgeous, and have a lot of land between them, making it a nice part of the city that I doubt many people every travel through. Because of the lack of people, my hope was that perhaps I’d be able to find some Wild Turkeys here (a species that is very tough to find in Virginia Beach, though quite common throughout the rest of the state, even being seen often from the interstate highways) to add to my yearly list. While driving along Crags Causeway & Baum Road, it was apparent that all of the fields are still fully grown with corn & soy beans. Hopefully in the next couple months, the grains are harvested, and the fields become a location that birds can be found in from the roadways.

Willet in flight against the crashing waves!

Sunday, August 16th, was my fiancé Ruth’s 32nd birthday! Of course, she wanted to spend time at the beach, so in the morning we went in opposite directions, with her heading to the oceanfront, and me heading out for a bit of birding (though we met back up in the afternoon and had a great dinner at No Frill Bar & Grill, our favorite, followed by some frozen yogurt from Skinny Dip nearby). But anyway, as for the birding that was done, since this is a birding blog… On Sunday morning, after pondering the evening before just where I might be able to find a Pectoral Sandpiper, I headed out to Back Bay NWR for the second visit of the weekend. Instead of walking the beach like I have been doing each Friday evening after work, I opted instead to try my luck on the East Dike Trail. From April 1 to October 31 each year, the park staff opens the East & West Dike Trails to the public, in an alternating fashion, keeping one open and the other closed. From November 1 to March 31, both remain closed in order to protect the wintering waterfowl (ducks, geese, swans), and a few other species that use the flooded waterways like grebes and wading birds. Typically on April 1, the West Dike is the first to open, however this year the staff decided there was still too many waterfowl present on the impoundments, and instead opened up the East Dike to kick off the season. In May, the West Dike was opened up, and in July, the switch was made again to the East Dike. Now, I tend to like the West Dike much more than the East because it provides better views of the interior impoundments, and of Back Bay itself. The East Dike, in the summertime, is one of the hottest places to be in Virginia Beach, with no shad along its several mile path, and a usual lack of wind due to the dunes to the east stopping the breeze off the ocean. What the East Dike does have though, is several small fields along ditches that this time of year are a perfect spot to see migrating shorebirds that don’t prefer the beaches. This includes birds like the Pectoral Sandpiper, and often Killdeer. So anyway, I started off in the parking area, heading south on the Loop Road for the first 0.75 miles until reaching the gate to the East Dike Trail.

An adult Great Egret takes flight at Princess Anne Wildlife Management Area!

From here, the trail continues south another 3 miles or so until it reaches False Cape State Park. There are no access paths to the beach through this section of the park, so once you commit to the trail, you’re pretty well stuck on it. My first sighting of the day wasn’t that of a bird, it was actually a Black Ratsnake that was sitting off on the grassy shoulder, that I only noticed because I was getting off the trail to allow bikers to get around me. There was probably more bike riders out today than I have ever seen in the past actually. At the ‘dogleg’ bend, a double 90-degree change in direction, there is a good sized field, and today it held a number of Semipalmated Plovers, with either Least or Semipalmated Sandpipers also see but too distant to make out their leg colors to differentiate them two species. If any Pectorals had been there, they would be much larger than these species by comparison, looking like a giant version of a Least Sandpiper, also with yellow legs. After this, I heard some crows cawing loudly, and immediately thought that crows in groups will do this if a raptor is in the vicinity. As I turned around to see the crows, sure enough, a Red-tailed Hawk cruised on ahead of them, being chased off by the group. They will also do this with owls, so if you hear crows, it is always worth taking a second to check them out to see what is bothering them. Over the remainder of the southward journey, the remaining small fields turned up more Semipalmated Plovers, but no Pectorals like I had hoped for.

The Monarch's lookalike, this is actually a Viceroy!

I considered heading into False Cape SP, and then walking the beach back to the parking area, making it about a 10 mile loop, but my legs were still a bit cut up from the past couple days outdoors from my jeans rubbing, so I opted for the shorter, 7 mile out-and-back trek. On the northward journey, I again stopped at all the same viewing spots along the fields, and while I did add a juvenile Spotted Sandpiper, and a juvenile Willet, I didn’t find any Pectorals. Though, I am convinced if I’m going to find them anywhere in Virginia Beach this summer, it is going to be here, or possibly in a flooded farmfield in Pungo, but that would be moreso in the fall after the fields have been cultivated. Also of note, a male Common Yellowthroat was calling along the trail in some shrubbery and he responded quite abruptly to my “pishing” (saying pish pish pish out loud), which birders use to get warblers to come investigate them, so they’re actually visible in the brush. This time of year, since breeding is all done, I don’t mind doing this, but during the breeding season, when the birds are all hyperactive, and territorial, I prefer not to bother them, though I see nothing ethically wrong with doing this, since it is basically akin to saying ‘here kitty kitty’ to my cat at home. While reaching the parking area again, the marshy patch to the east held a couple of Snowy Egrets, a Great Egret, a Great Blue Heron, some Killdeer, and what was likely the same White-tailed Deer fawn that I had encountered a couple weeks back on my Friday hike. While I didn’t get my bird today, I at least made it through the weekend with another species added (the Hairy Woodpecker), so I still sit with 15 remaining to reach my goal of 200 species. Fall migration in September & especially October will be the key to either completing my goal or not. Any species I can grab before then is a bonus, and takes some pressure off finding the rarer birds as they blitz through our region! 

A young Green Treefrog resting on a reed at Milldam Creek in southwestern Virginia Beach!