March Break...What a Week!

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.

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.

European Starling

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Great Blue Heron

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.

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!

Northern Bobwhite (captive)

Seaturtle

Cow nose Rays

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:

1. Canada Goose
2. Wood Duck
3. Mallard
4. Green-winged Teal
5. Ring-necked Duck
6. Bufflehead
7. Common Goldeneye
8. Hooded Merganser
9. Common Merganser
10. Ruddy Duck
11. Red-throated Loon
12. Common Loon
13. Pied-billed Grebe
14. Horned Grebe
15. Red-necked Grebe
16. Double-crested Cormorant
17. Brown Pelican
18. Great Blue Heron
19. Great Egret
20. Black Vulture
21. Turkey Vulture
22. Osprey
23. Sharp-shinned Hawk
24. Cooper's Hawk
25. Bald Eagle
26. Red-tailed Hawk
27. American Oystercatcher
28. Killdeer
29. Greater Yellowlegs
30. Bonaparte's Gull
31. Laughing Gull
32. Ring-billed Gull
33. Herring Gull
34. Lesser Black-backed Gull
35. Greater Black-backed Gull
36. Rock Pigeon
37. Mourning Dove
38. Belted Kingfisher
39. Red-headed Woodpecker
40. Downy Woodpecker
41. Pileated Woodpecker
42. American Kestrel
43. Blue Jay
44. American Crow
45. Fish Crow
46. Tree Swallow
47. Carolina Chickadee
48. Black-capped Chickadee
49. Tufted Titmouse
50. Brown-headed Nuthatch
51. Carolina Wren
52. Golden-crowned Kinglet
53. Eastern Bluebird
54. American Robin
55. Northern Mockingbird
56. European Starling
57. Cedar Waxwing
58. Pine Warbler
59. Yellow-rumped Warbler
60. American Tree Sparrow
61. Chipping Sparrow
62. Dark-eyed Junco
63. Song Sparrow
64. Northern Cardinal
65. Red-winged Blackbird
66. Eastern Meadowlark
67. Common Grackle
68. Boat-tailed Grackle
69. Brown-headed Cowbird
70. House Finch
71. American Goldfinch
72. House Sparrow