The Club has monthly field trips from September through May
Field Trip to Great Dismal Swamp
The April 11th field trip was cancelled to reduce COVID-19 exposure risk.
Saturday, 6:30 AM, Apr.11, 2020
Leader: Jason Strickland
Ready, set, go: This is a main rationale for having a bird club, so we can all catch the warbler migration at the Great Dismal Swamp during spring. The start time of 6:30 AM sets the formation of carpools at the parking lot of Bass Pro Shops, 1972 Power Plant Parkway in Hampton. The rendezvous at the Swamp will be 7:30 AM at Washington Ditch, which provides access to an elevated trail through the mucky woods. Parties arriving early could bird within sight along the dirt road running parallel to the canal. Cell phone text messages to 757-739-6939 are the best way to reach me. My email jmstrickland228@gmail.com is monitored less frequently.
PAST FIELD TRIPS
Field Trip to York River State Park
The March 14 field trip was cancelled to reduce COVID-19 exposure risk.
Saturday, 8:00 AM, Mar. 14, 2020
Leader: Jason Strickland
We’ll be the first to open the gates at 8:00 AM (and pay the $5.00 parking fee), then meeting at the Visitor’s Center. Some of the trails are steeper than those found on the lower Peninsula. Cell phone text messages to 757-739-6939 are the best way to reach me. My email jmstrickland228@gmail.com is monitored less frequently.
Report of the Field Trip to Back Bay by Tram Ride
Saturday, 7:00 AM, February 22, 2020
Leader: Jason Strickland
The species list for the trip can be reviewed in the newsletter at the following link. Bird Notes for March/April.
Report on the Field Trip to Beaverdam Park in Gloucester
Saturday, 7:30 AM, January 11, 2020
Leader: Jason Strickland
8687 Roaring Springs Road
Gloucester, VA 23061
Scattered middle level clouds, southerly winds of 10 mph, and a temperature in the mid 50s F greeted us around 7:30 AM at this premier park of Gloucester County. Jason Strickland led Dianne Snyder, Sue (Sook) Tominaga, Jane Frigo, Pete and Charm Peterman, Wendy and Ellis Maxey, Rochelle and Harry Colestock, Cindy Schutz, Susan Maples, and Tom Charlock. From the parking lot and the tiny docks of Beaverdam Reservoir, we quickly saw a pair of Bald Eagles, Ruddy Ducks, American Coots, Canada Goose, Muscovy Ducks, Buffleheads, Ringneck Ducks, and Pied Bill Grebes. Jason was able to spot a Belted Kingfisher clear across the lake. Walking southward through a yet-to-awake encampment of Boy Scouts, a small flock of Cedar Waxwings flew overhead. An Eastern Bluebird, Dark-eyed Juncos, a Pine Warbler and a Chipping Sparrow were seen by the trees near the shore.
Marching uphill: Jason Strickland, Ellis Maxey, Susan Maples, Rochelle and Harry Colestock
Marching uphill from the water’s edge on a road, a Hermit Thrush was found perched at eye level a mere 15 feet from the party. Jason called attention to its stillness and occasional slow pumping of tail. Turning toward the north and east, we chose the lower trail system through the woods. It’s mostly flat, very close to the water, has some gravel, and is a little wider than most trails on the lower Peninsula. We began to spot new species less rapidly, but it was a curious walk, eventually warming to near 70 F. At one point, 4 Pied Bills Grebes were seen in a fairly tight group. We returned on the upper trail a bit further from the water.
Overall, the topography of Beaverdam Park is similar to that of the Nolan Trail in Newport News, but its restrooms are much better than those porta potties around Lake Maury.
Jason Strickland’s Beaverdam species lists (45+):
Canada Goose 44
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 10
Gadwall 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Mallard 2
Winter Wren 1
Ring-necked Duck 6
Carolina Wren 5
Bufflehead 6
Brown Thrasher 1
Hooded Merganser 53
Northern Mockingbird 4
Ruddy Duck 18
Eastern Bluebird 3
Pied-billed Grebe 8
Hermit Thrush 4
American Coot 9
American Robin 1
Ring-billed Gull 78
Cedar Waxwing 12
Herring Gull 1
American Goldfinch 5
Double-crested Cormorant 19
Chipping Sparrow 5
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Dark-eyed Junco 9
Belted Kingfisher 2
White-throated Sparrow 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Song Sparrow 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Pine Warbler 2
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 6
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Northern Cardinal 4
Northern Flicker (Yellow- shafted) 1
Muscovy Duck (Domestic type) 4
Blue Jay 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
American Crow 3
duck sp. 2
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 7
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Audubon Christmas Bird Count
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Leader: Bill Boeh
The Hampton Roads Bird Club’s (HRBC) Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) takes place just two months from now, on Saturday, December 14, 2019. By supporting this effort you’ll be participating in the nation's longest-running citizen science bird project; the first count was conducted in 1900. HRBC first participated in the CBC in 1952, the year after the Club’s inception. 2019 marks the 120th CBC and the 68th year that HRBC has participated. Our club has observed and recorded over 1,511,800 birds since 1952!
Why is this important? Birds are not doing well. You are probably aware of the reports that came out recently regarding staggering losses in North American bird populations since 1970. The following are excerpts from obtained from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website pages:
Nearly 3 billion birds gone since 1970: The first-ever comprehensive assessment of net population changes in the U.S. and Canada reveals across-the-board declines that scientists call “staggering.” All told, the North American bird population is down by 2.9 billion breeding adults, with devastating losses among birds in every biome. Forests alone have lost 1 billion birds. Grassland bird populations collectively have declined by 53%, or another 720 million birds.
How to help: To understand how birds are faring, scientists need hundreds of thousands of people to report what they’re seeing in backyards, neighborhoods, and wild places around the world. Without this information, scientists will not have enough timely data to show where and when birds are declining around the world. Enjoy birds while helping science and conservation: Join a project such as the Christmas Bird Count.
So here’s your opportunity to help! Participation entails counting birds in one (or more) of 13 sectors in our Newport News Circle. Typically counts are conducted throughout the daylight hours (but that’s ultimately up to each sector leader). But don’t worry if you can’t participate for the full day; go ahead and volunteer even if you can participate for only a few hours.
If you can’t join the field effort, you can still contribute by conducting a “feeder count”—you simply record the birds you observe in your yard on the count date. We had very few participate this way last year—would like to do much better in that department this year!
So, please sign up at the October or November Club meeting, or contact me (call or text 757-951-7959 or email at dolphrog1@yahoo.com). It’s great fun and a great way to help conserve the birds!
For more about the CBC visit the Audubon webpage: http://www.audubon.org/conservation/join-christmas-bird-count
Field Trip to Grandview
Sunday, 7:00 AM, November 24, 2019
Leader: Jason Strickland
We’ll meet at 7:00 AM on October 12 on State Park Drive in Hampton for an extended beach walk on Grandview Nature Preserve. Grandview is a gem of the Peninsula that provides 3 miles of completely undeveloped beach right on the Chesapeake Bay. If you’ve got a scope and are willing to carry it for a 3-4 hour hike in the sand, it would find good use for spotting sea birds. The wind at Grandview is often quite stiff and chilling. Cell phone text messages to 757-739-6939 are the best way to reach me. My email is jmstrickland228@gmail.com
For more information, please follow the following link: http://www.hmana.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/HMANA_Hawks_Guide_09.pdf
Field Trip to Fort Monroe
Saturday, 7:00 AM, October 12, 2019
This trip began 7:00 AM with a poignant washout but ended with a happy splash. The washout was due to coastal flooding caused by the generation of sea swell from a distant low-pressure system; we were unable to walk the marsh trail to Grandview Beach, our planned destination. Jason Strickland then detoured us to the north beach of Fort Monroe, where splashes exceeding twice a man’s height greeted us along the sea wall. The birding along fairly newly opened sections of that north beach was splendid. 60 species were observed in 4 hours.
At first there was no wind, and the mercury was below 50 F, but soon we had light wind with warming into the 60s. All morning there were scattered to broken thin cirrus clouds which generally provided good illumination for birding [many National Weather Service lidars do not detect high clouds, and the day’s official report at Newport News/Williamsburg Airport actually described our conditions as “fair” and “clear”].
The area behind the north beach fronting on the Salt Ponds has live oaks and wax myrtles, and sections have zones thick with vines and berries. There we saw northern mockingbirds, gray catbirds, brown thrashers, eastern bluebirds, and northern cardinals. Birders bold enough to venture in the low undergrowth emerged with dozens of burrs which required removal by the pliers of a multitool. One large puddle was populated by several killdeer; another sported male mallards in peak eclipse plumage.
Old bunkers of medium size closer to the sea wall were surrounded with dense vegetation containing songbirds. Two cooper’s hawks posed for photos near one such structure. Jason had Cindy Schultz, Stuart Sweetman, Ellis Maxey, Rochelle and Harry Colestock, and Tom Charlock drive closer to the original Fort, where a least sandpiper and a few semipalmated plovers were observed on the rip rap. Species seen:
Canada Goose
Mallard
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dave
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Royal Tern
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Yellow-crowned Night-heron
Osprey
Cooper's Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tree Swallow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
House Wren
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
House Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Meadowlark
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Parula
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Field Trip to the Eastern Shore
Saturday, 6:30 AM, September 14, 2019
Leader: Jason Strickland
Is a rain-free morning in the Cape Henry vicinity a guaranteed winner for birding during fall migration? Not always. But we did enjoy the warblers that we spotted on our first stop of two hours at the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Butterfly Trail.
Jason Strickland had mustered Stuart Sweetman, Bill Boeh, Wendy and Ellis Maxey, Jane Frigo, James Abbott, Ryan Walsh, Don Brunk, Lisa Rose, Rochelle and Harry Colestock, and Tom Charlock well before dawn on the south entrance of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We headed north with broken to scattered mid-level clouds, temperatures in the 70s, and light easterly winds. Highlights at the NWR included black and white warblers, American redstarts, northern parulas, yellow warblers and an ovenbird. A yellow-billed cuckoo perched in a tree about 20 feet from the road, in the northeast corner of our 2-mile circuit. We heard the strident but merry song of a white-eyed vireo. Jason’s list of 31 species at end covers only those seen in the first 2 hours at the NWR.
Jason Strickland, Brian Tabor, Lisa Rose, and Stuart Sweetman focus on a variegated fritillary.
Shifting to Kiptopeke State Park, it was easier to spot raptors (half a dozen ospreys in one binocular field of view, an American kestrel closely circling a bald eagle...), but songbirds were surprisingly sparse. So what else? The sky cleared and a deck of fair weather cumulus shortly then appeared. In the photo above, Brian Taber of the Williamsburg Bird Club draws attention to a variegated fritillary butterfly. The image below has Harry Colestock leading the charge to a tree wherein Stuart Sweetman observed a northern waterthrush. Stuart later entertained by handling a green snake in the woods. The group fragmented around noon. Birds seen:
Mourning Dove 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 7
Laughing Gull 2
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Brown Pelican 79
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 2
Great Horned Owl 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Kingbird. 4
White-eyed Vireo 2
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 4
Fish Crow 2
Carolina Chickadee 4
Carolina Wren 7
Gray Catbird 2
American Robin 5
Common Grackle 4
Ovenbird 1
Black-and-white Warbler. 3
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 9
Northern Parula 3
Yellow Warbler 4
Summer Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 5
Field Trip to Hog Island
Saturday, 7:00 AM, May 11, 2019
Leader: Jason Strickland
Hog Island is actually a 3,908-acre peninsula that juts into the brackish waters of the James River, creating a mosaic of tidewater habitats that include marsh, tidal channels, swamp, and beach. Agricultural fields and loblolly pine forests surround freshwater sources such as Lawnes Neck and Lower Chippokes Creek. This diversity of habitats, including the large shallow impoundments of Fishhouse Bay and Homewood Creek, attract a vast number of birds, and an exploration of the area will produce a large number of species at any time of the year. Birding the area effectively requires leaving the main road and striking off on foot along the trails that separate the peninsula’s major impoundments. Taken from the Virginia Game and Inland Fishers web page. Click here for link.
We’ll meet at Huntington Beach Park (in the lot closest to the James River Bridge), Newport News, 6:00 AM to car pool or caravan to Hog Island, arriving at about 7:00 AM. The huge American white pelican is often at Hog Island during early May. A $50 entrance fee will cover the entire group, and the cost will be split between the participants. Bring photo identification. You will need it to pass the security checkpoint of the Surry nuclear power plant. We will hike a few miles, mostly on a flat, dirt road with little shade. Some water, a snack, a hat and bug repellent would be welcome. Contact Jason Strickland for questions at 757-739-6939 or jmstrickland228@gmail.com
Field Trip to the Dismal Swamp
Saturday, 7:00 AM, April 13, 2019
Leader: Jason Strickland
The April field trip for The Hampton Roads Bird Club is to The Great Dismal Swamp NWR in Suffolk, Va. The trip to the swamp during spring migration is a favorite for many and a bit of a tradition for the club. The swamp is a unique place full of unique habitats for migrating species on their way to there nesting grounds as well as a somewhat easy chance to see resident species that call the swamp there home during the spring and summer months. The swamp has canals and many water filled ditches to offer great hiking and diverse scenery for all types bird and mammal life for everyone to enjoy.
There is a change. The paticipants will meet at the Jericho Ditch parking area at 7:00 AM instead of Washington Ditch because the Washington Ditch road remains closed. Contact Jason Strickland for questions at jmstrickland228@gmail or (757) 739-6939.
Field Trip to Grandview
Saturday, 7:00 AM, March 9, 2019
Submitted by Jason Strickland
We will meet at the entrance of Grandview Nature Preserve on State Park Drive in Hampton at 7:00 AM on Saturday, March 9, 2019. There will be a few miles of hiking, most of that on sandy breach. Bring your windbreaker. I can be reached at (757) 739-6939 or jmstrickland228@gmail.com.
Newcomers to Hampton Roads should be sure to take advantage of Grandview. On one side, you have the shore of the Chesapeake Bay; the other has a dune, behind which is a great salt marsh. Visitors are surprised that, within the city of Hampton, there are miles of scenic, undeveloped beach.
Back Bay Tram Ride to False Cape State Park
Saturday, 7:00 AM, Feb. 16, 2019
Submitted by Andy Hawkins
We will meet at Bass Pro in Hampton at 7:00 AM and will leave at 7:15 AM heading for Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge (BBNWR) in Virginia Beach. We will bird around the Visitors Center until 8:50 AM or so, and the tram will pull out at 9:00 AM. BBNWR has huge, controlled ponds to attract migrating birds, and we are mostly confined to the tram when traversing the Refuge. The tram is open so dress accordingly. As in years past, we are generally free to walk once we reach False Cape State Park. We’ll stop the tram along the way to view waterfowl, hike to the beach and return to the Visitors Center at 1:00 pm. There is an $8.00 charge per person for the mandatory tram ride. This trip is a great way to see wintering waterfowl and other animals. The trip is limited to 24, so a waiting list will be started if 24 is reached. Sign up at the meetings or contact Andy Hawkins at andrewcurtishawkins@gmail.com
Field Trip to Sylvan Bird Park in North Carolina
Saturday, 9:00 AM, Jan. 19, 2019
Submitted by Andy Hawkins
Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Scotland Neck, North Carolina is an amazing place. It has one of the largest collections of waterfowl and other birds in the world. They are generally kept in natural settings, rather than cages, and in January most should be in breeding plumage. We will meet at Huntington Park in the lot closest to the beach, on Saturday January 19 at 9:00 AM. We will leave at 9:15 AM and carpool to Scotland Neck, a 1 ½ hour to 1 ¾ hour drive over mostly pleasant countryside, and then have lunch at a local BBQ restaurant. We should arrive at the Park around noon and spend two to three hours. There will be an $11.00 entrance fee, $10.00 dollars for seniors.
I highly advise you to go to their website (shwpark.com). Sylvan Bird Park is not an opportunity to miss, for I know of no similar facility nearby. You will see birds from all over the world in natural settings; and have splendid photo opportunities. We will see many of our regular winter waterfowl visitors up close with great views. There will be a good bit of walking but for an additional fee, a guided tour in a golf cart can be arranged. Reservations for a cart tour need to be made in advance. If you are interested in the cart tour, let me know, and I will get you in contact with each other.
