Occoquan 11/07/10
A decidedly chilly start to Sunday morning found Chrystal and I at Occoquan NWR for a local Audubon walk led by Rich Reiger and helped by Kurt Gasklil.
While we waited for the group to assemble, we saw the only Waxwings of the day, a flock of 30+ birds over towards the Ringing station. By the time we got around there, they were nowhere to be seen however. Good numbers of bluebirds were around, maybe a flock of 40 to start with and several others around the reserve. Also in good numbers, Kinglets, and unusually Golden-crowed out numbered Ruby-crowns, with maybe15 of the former and 4-5 of the latter seen during the morning
Out in the bay huge flocks of Gadwall and Coot predominated - maybe a 1000 of the duck (including later flyover flocks of a couple of hundred) and 600 Coot. Pied-billed Grebe were plentiful with maybe 30 seen, undoubtedly there were more.
In one of the streams leading down to the bay a fine Rusty Blackbird was feeding less than 30 feet away, a excellent look at a species that is often hard to see this well.
A couple of Palm Warbler were found along the 'shore' but no sign of the Orange-crowned Warbler photographed by another birder coming up from the point.
While we waited for the group to assemble, we saw the only Waxwings of the day, a flock of 30+ birds over towards the Ringing station. By the time we got around there, they were nowhere to be seen however. Good numbers of bluebirds were around, maybe a flock of 40 to start with and several others around the reserve. Also in good numbers, Kinglets, and unusually Golden-crowed out numbered Ruby-crowns, with maybe15 of the former and 4-5 of the latter seen during the morning
Out in the bay huge flocks of Gadwall and Coot predominated - maybe a 1000 of the duck (including later flyover flocks of a couple of hundred) and 600 Coot. Pied-billed Grebe were plentiful with maybe 30 seen, undoubtedly there were more.
In one of the streams leading down to the bay a fine Rusty Blackbird was feeding less than 30 feet away, a excellent look at a species that is often hard to see this well.
A couple of Palm Warbler were found along the 'shore' but no sign of the Orange-crowned Warbler photographed by another birder coming up from the point.
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