Category: Birding

I was taking Monday off and started the day at TRP. The highlights were probably the Virginia Rail (always good) and 10 Mississippi Kites. I arrived at 8 and left at 10:30 to make a speed run to Knoop Park to chase down a report of a Wilson’s Warbler.

Species seen or heard:

• Dickcissel
• Barn Swallow
• House Sparrow
• Northern Mockingbird
• Mourning Dove
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Baltimore Oriole
• Eastern Bluebird
• Turkey Vulture
• Wood Duck
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Carolina Wren
• Carolina Chickadee
• Common Yellowthroat
• Yellow-breasted Chat
• Green Heron
• White-eyed Vireo
• Fish Crow
• Indigo Bunting
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Mississippi Kite
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Blue Jay
• Tufted Titmouse
• Black-and-white Warbler
• Virginia Rail
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Black Vulture

I started the day at 4 AM to meet Dan and Samantha at Craighead at about 7:45. Angie had planned to come but was not feeling well. I got what I thought was first of season Canada Warbler (turns out I had photographed one the day before at Allsopp). We had a reasonable count but nothing remarkable so after about 2.5 hours we went to Wappanocca which is about a 45 minute drive down Highway 63. We did see a number of birds there but again nothing extraordinary. I did manage to get two first of seasons, one at site, Least Flycatcher and Forster’s Tern. We saw three terns at Wappanocca, one smaller than the other three. We, well Dan, identified one as a Forster’s so most likely we had Caspian and Forster’s or Forster’s and Least terns.

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Species seen or heard at Craighead:

• Least Flycatcher *
• Canada Goose
• American Robin
• Blue Jay
• Fish Crow
• Tufted Titmouse
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Downy Woodpecker
• Carolina Chickadee
• Chimney Swift
• Pine Warbler
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Blackburnian Warbler
• American Redstart
• Mallard
• Philadelphia Vireo
• Blue-headed Vireo
• Chestnut-sided Warbler
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Black-throated Green Warbler
• Canada Warbler
• Summer Tanager
• Mourning Dove
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• Northern Cardinal
• Carolina Wren

Species seen or heard at Wappanocca:

• Forster’s Tern
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Northern Cardinal
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• American Crow
• Indigo Bunting
• Carolina Wren
• Prothonatary Warbler
• Black-throated Green Warbler
• White-eyed Vireo
• Philadelphia Vireo
• Carolina Chickadee
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo
• Great Egret
• Common Grackle
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Turkey Vulture
• Great Blue Heron
• Mississippi Kite
• Summer Tanager
• American Goldfinch
• Northern Flicker
• Dickcissel
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Tern sp.
• Anhinga
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Double-crested Cormorant
• American Coot
• Wood Duck
• Common Yellowthroat

Upon returning from the library, I saw several emails on AR-Bird reporting that Karen Holliday had seen Whimbrels, Ruddy Turnstones, Caspian Terns, and much much more at Lollie Bottoms. So, we loaded up the car (well, I put sodas in the cooler) and took off. It was almost 6 PM then and about 6:30 before we got there. It was mostly cloudy and the light was dimmer than ideal, too dim for a camera, but we were able to make out the Caspian Terns, 3 Whimbrels, Dunlin, Stilt, Least and Western Sandpipers. The Whimbrels and Western Sandpipers were life birds and I got three more year birds.

*=First of season, **=Life Bird.

Species seen or heard:

• Whimbrel **
• Western Sandpiper **
• Caspian Tern *
• Dunlin *
• Stilt Sandpiper *
• Dickcissel
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Indigo Bunting
• Mourning Dove
• Blue-winged Teal
• Canada Goose
• Chimney Swift
• Killdeer
• Great Blue Heron
• Least Sandpiper
• Mallard
• Long-billed Dowitcher
• Blue Grosbeak