Delmarva--BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH + 16 FOY

We spent 5 days on the Delmarva Peninsula, mostly at the Chincoteague NWR on Assateague Island. We stayed on Chincoteague Island, which is an island off the barrier island of Assateague.  Assateague Island is a very long island, the southern part in Virginia, the northern in Maryland. "Wild" horses ("world famous" so they say) are the tourist draw.

Photos: Shari Zirlin

There is a famous children's book, Misty of Assateague Island, which until this weekend I'd never heard of, that gives the horses (they call them ponies) a romantic, nostalgic cachet. I had expected to see herds of horses galloping along the beaches and through the foamy waves. Instead, what I saw, while looking for birds, were clumps of pie-bald horses grazing penned in fields accompanied by Cattle Egrets that stood nearby and snatched any bugs the horses attracted or stirred up. There are two herds, on one the Virginia side, the other in Maryland, and these herds, which are limited to 150 adults, are owned by the Chincoteague Fire Department in Virginia and the National Wildlife Service in Maryland. Owning "wild" horses (ponies) seems oxymoronic to me--perhaps the herds should be described as "free range horses."

Semantics doesn't stop everyone else from gathering at viewing sights to look at the horses eat grass. All that said, I admit it was amusing to one day find a horse who had busted out walking along a trail eating underbrush. And it was a fairly small horse--almost pony-like. I gave this one a fairly wide berth--horses bite as well as kick--wild or not.

The main attraction, to me, was the possibility of adding BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH to my life list, which I did on our 2nd day there, early morning in the parking lot of the Woodland Trail. Shari, who'd been to Chincoteague on an Audubon field trip a few years, said that the nuthatches stayed very high up in the tall pine trees and sounded like squeeze toys. Almost as soon as we were out of the car she heard one and pointed it out to me. I was able to see it briefly fly. Later, on the trail there were a couple more and one of them, climbing around a branched, tipped down for a moment into a beam of sunlight and I clearly saw its brown head. I was very happy

Other birds we saw that are either unusual for us to see or happen to be favorites were Green Heron (including one outside our hotel room), White Ibis, Marbled Godwit, Indigo Bunting and Blue Grosbeak.

There is another that mammal makes its home and what might be its last stand on Assateague: The endangered Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel. I don't usually pay much mind to squirrels, but I noticed that these squirrels had very bushy tails and were practically white. Apparently they need deep woods for habitat and there isn't much of that left on the peninsula.

I was surprised that we didn't see many Ospreys on the island. I only saw 2 occupied nests. One on the usual pole and the other around the chimney of the abandoned rescue station in Toms Cove.

I was pretty happy with the 79 species we found while there, especially considering that most of the time we were birding in gale force winds. In the woods it wasn't too bad, but try picking out peeps in a pond when you can barely keep the scope from flying away.

Our Virginia list:

Species                      Location
Canada Goose      Comfort Suites
American Black Duck      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Mallard      Comfort Suites
Hooded Merganser      Comfort Suites
Double-crested Cormorant      Assateague Island
Great Blue Heron      Chincoteague NWR--Swan Cove
Great Egret      Comfort Suites
Snowy Egret      Comfort Suites
Little Blue Heron      Comfort Suites
Tricolored Heron      Chincoteague NWR--Black Duck Marsh
Cattle Egret      Chincoteague NWR--Marsh Trail
Green Heron      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
White Ibis      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Glossy Ibis      Chincoteague NWR--Black Duck Marsh
Black Vulture      Chincoteague NWR--Marsh Trail
Turkey Vulture      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Osprey      Chincoteague NWR--Toms Cove Visitor Center
Bald Eagle      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Red-tailed Hawk      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Clapper Rail      Little Toms Cove
Black-bellied Plover      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Semipalmated Plover      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Piping Plover      Assateague Island
American Oystercatcher      Comfort Suites
Greater Yellowlegs      Chincoteague NWR--Black Duck Marsh
Willet      Chincoteague NWR--Toms Cove Visitor Center
Lesser Yellowlegs      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Marbled Godwit      Chincoteague NWR--Swan Cove
Ruddy Turnstone      Chincoteague NWR--Toms Cove Visitor Center
Sanderling      Assateague Island
Semipalmated Sandpiper      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Least Sandpiper      Chincoteague NWR--Marsh Trail
Dunlin      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Short-billed Dowitcher      Chincoteague NWR--Black Duck Marsh
Laughing Gull      Comfort Suites
Ring-billed Gull      Chincoteague NWR--Swan Cove
Herring Gull      Comfort Suites
Great Black-backed Gull      Comfort Suites
Least Tern      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Common Tern      Assateague Island
Forster's Tern      Comfort Suites
Black Skimmer      Assateague Island
Rock Pigeon      Comfort Suites
Mourning Dove      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Ruby-throated Hummingbird      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Northern Flicker      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Eastern Wood-Pewee      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Acadian Flycatcher      Chincoteague--Black Duck Trail
Great Crested Flycatcher      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Eastern Kingbird      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
American Crow      Chincoteague NWR--Marsh Trail
Fish Crow      Comfort Suites
Purple Martin      Main St., Chincoteague
Tree Swallow      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Barn Swallow      Comfort Suites
Carolina Chickadee      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Tufted Titmouse      Wallops Island NWR
BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Carolina Wren      Chincoteague NWR--Visitor Center
House Wren      Chincoteague--Black Duck Trail
American Robin      Chincoteague NWR--Visitor Center
Gray Catbird      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Northern Mockingbird      Comfort Suites
European Starling      Comfort Suites
Ovenbird      Chincoteague NWR--Marsh Trail
Common Yellowthroat      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Magnolia Warbler      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Yellow Warbler      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Pine Warbler      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
Northern Cardinal      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Blue Grosbeak      Chincoteague--Black Duck Trail
Indigo Bunting      Chincoteague NWR--Marsh Trail
Red-winged Blackbird      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Common Grackle      Comfort Suites
Boat-tailed Grackle      Chincoteague NWR--Wildlife Loop
Brown-headed Cowbird      Chincoteague NWR--Visitor Center
Orchard Oriole      Chincoteague--Black Duck Trail
American Goldfinch      Chincoteague NWR--Woodland Trail
House Sparrow      Comfort Suites Daytime & sunset views from Comfort Suites Hotel room

To get there we decided to take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry--it takes longer but is much less driving. Coming back, though we worked our way up the peninsula--I didn't want to be on a ferry with winds from a tropical storm licking the coast.

We made a stop at the Maryland section of Assateague but were afraid to stay because bad weather seemed to be constantly looming. We were able to add Eastern Bluebird there to our trip list. We drove up ahead of the storm to Bombay Hook, completing the peninsula trifecta. A fairly quick circuit around the refuge turned up some good birds, but the best, by far, and possibly for the whole trip save for the nuthatch, came as we were at the turnaround by Finis Pool. Suddenly from nearby we heard "Who cooks, who cooks for yooooo." Barred Owl, unmistakable. And then another, from deeper in the woods returned the call and for five minutes we had owl call and response. Very unusual to hear in the middle of the day.
38 species there, including 3 FOY
BOMBAY HOOK
Canada Goose  6
Mallard  3    Bear Swamp Pool
Wild Turkey  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  15
Snowy Egret  4
Glossy Ibis  3
Turkey Vulture  1
Bald Eagle  1
Clapper Rail  1
Semipalmated Plover  1    Bear Swamp Pool
Black-necked Stilt  1    Bear Swamp Pool
Willet  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1000
Least Sandpiper  100
Dunlin  1000
Short-billed Dowitcher  50
Forster's Tern  1
Barred Owl  2    Calling at Finis Pool
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Calling at Finis Pool
Northern Flicker  2
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1    Heard
Willow Flycatcher  1    Heard
Eastern Kingbird  2
Blue Jay  2
Purple Martin  5
Tree Swallow  10
Barn Swallow  1    Bear Swamp Pool
Carolina Chickadee  1    Finis Pool
Marsh Wren  2
Eastern Bluebird  5
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  1    Finis Pool
Common Yellowthroat  2
Yellow Warbler  6
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Common Grackle  10
Brown-headed Cowbird  4

All in all, we had a Delmarvalous time.