I just got back from a week in Virginia. It was awesome!
Since I went with my Air Cadet squadron, the main focus of the week was the military bases that we would be touring. However, for me, the focus was to enjoy the tours and find as many birds as possible during them.
I made a list of 27 birds that I could possibly see while I was down there, and I was very happy that I was able to find eight of them. The first one was Brown Pelican, which is the bird you could say I wanted the "most".
It took awhile before I could get a photo of a Laughing Gull, despite them being in almost every parking lot we visited. I probably could've gotten more if I had a better camera (I only brought my small one with terrible quality).
Fish Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Boat-tailed Grackle, and Northern Mockingbird were also new additions to the good ol' life list.
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Boat-tailed Grackles....I Swear! |
The final lifer I obtained was a pair of American Oystercatcher. I was quite shocked to see these birds as they were walking along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay right along a residential area. Unfortunately I was too stunned to even make an attempt to photograph them (it would have done no good anyway, as the bus was going quite fast).
I didn't only see bird lifers, though. I saw a Gray Fox and unfortunately the highly invasive Kudzu plant, which has actually recently been discovered in Leamington.
I saw 72 species in total for the trip. This included Yellow-rumped Warblers, an Osprey on nest, various gulls, Great Blue Herons, starlings, and many, many more. The trip list will be on the bottom of the post.
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European Starling |
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Yellow-rumped Warbler |
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Great Blue Heron |
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Great Black-backed Gull |
The scenery on the way up and down was quite spectacular (we drove through NY, PA, MD, and part of VA). The Appalachians remind me of Algonquin park because of all the uneven land and pockets of wetland. The window was fairly dirty, so again, not the best quality.
The weather was cold, but at least it didn't really rain or snow while we were down there. However, the states north of VA got hammered. The guy sitting in front of me fell asleep in Virginia and was surprised to have woken up in Maryland with 3 inches of snow on the ground!
The military bases were quite cool as well. We first toured the
USS Mason.
It was one of the few ships in the American Navy that has actually been fired upon and successfully defend itself.
Some Hawkeyes were flying overhead around the ships as well.
The next day we toured Langley. This place is the home of the F-22 Raptor, which is quite a cool fighter jet. The base also is in charge of the aircraft fuel for the area.
On our last day in VA we toured NAS (Naval Air Station) Oceana.
Here they had my personal favourite of the fighter jets...the F-18 Super Hornet.
Afterwards we went shopping at the NEX (Navy Exchange), which was quite fun.
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I would look good as a Sea Cadet! |
We also visited the Virginia Aquarium, which I thought was very interesting. They had everything from an aviary with the common birds of Virginia (that Prothonotary Warbler is still evading me) to the stingray touch tank. I would definitely go back!
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Northern Bobwhite (captive) |
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Seaturtle |
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Cow nose Rays |
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Here fishy, fishy, fishy! |
We spent the last night in the barracks running outside every time we heard a Hornet fly over. Sometimes we got lucky and would see some flying out over the tree line.
By the way, here are the barracks.
While the trip was fun, all of us were happy to arrive home and see this.
Even more exciting is that we started seeing this all over the place again.
Overall, it was an extremely awesome week, and I can't wait to go on next year's March Break trip to South Carolina!
Trip List:
- Canada Goose
- Wood Duck
- Mallard
- Green-winged Teal
- Ring-necked Duck
- Bufflehead
- Common Goldeneye
- Hooded Merganser
- Common Merganser
- Ruddy Duck
- Red-throated Loon
- Common Loon
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Horned Grebe
- Red-necked Grebe
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Brown Pelican
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Black Vulture
- Turkey Vulture
- Osprey
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Cooper's Hawk
- Bald Eagle
- Red-tailed Hawk
- American Oystercatcher
- Killdeer
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Bonaparte's Gull
- Laughing Gull
- Ring-billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Lesser Black-backed Gull
- Greater Black-backed Gull
- Rock Pigeon
- Mourning Dove
- Belted Kingfisher
- Red-headed Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- American Kestrel
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Fish Crow
- Tree Swallow
- Carolina Chickadee
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Tufted Titmouse
- Brown-headed Nuthatch
- Carolina Wren
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Eastern Bluebird
- American Robin
- Northern Mockingbird
- European Starling
- Cedar Waxwing
- Pine Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- American Tree Sparrow
- Chipping Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Song Sparrow
- Northern Cardinal
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Common Grackle
- Boat-tailed Grackle
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- House Finch
- American Goldfinch
- House Sparrow