Coastal Virginia, 11/14-18/16

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

November 15 afternon; Pleasure House Point

Walt Childs and I only had a couple of hours of good sunlight for birding, so we decided to go to Pleasure House Point even thought it was now close to low tide. We hoped that we might see some shorebirds. When we arrived, sections of the trail that had been submerged in the morning were now clear, but still damp in places. We saw many of the same species that I had seen in the morning, plus a few new ones.

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Lesser Yellowlegs

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Great Egret

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Royal Terns

When we stopped at the point where I had seen Nelson's Sparrows two years ago at high tide, we were amazed to see a dozen or more salt marsh sparrows in the tall grasses. They weren't supposed to be active near the tops of the grasses at low tide! Perhaps the supermoon high tide was too much for them, and had thrown them off schedule. Some of them were clearly Nelson's Sparrows. [11/25/16 update: most of the feedback I have gotten has been that all of the salt marsh sparrows I saw at Pleasure House Point were Nelson's Sparrows. The darker gray Nelson's Sparrow is an "Acadian" sub-species.]

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Nelson's Sparrow

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Nelson's Sparrow

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Nelson's Sparrow

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Nelson's Sparrow

At least one of them appeared to be a Saltmarsh Sparrow. Note the heavy flank streaking and clearly delineated facial features.

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Saltmarsh Sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow.]

One of the sparrows looked to me like it was a Seaside Sparrow because of the yellow supercillium between its eye and bill, and its fairly dark breast.

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Seaside Sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow - "Acadian" sub-species.]

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Seaside Sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow - "Acadian" sub-species.]

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Seaside Sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow - "Acadian" sub-species.]

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Seaside Sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow - "Acadian" sub-species.]

Another sparrow had characteristics of all three salt marsh sparrow species.

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Unidentified salt marsh sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow]

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Unidentified salt marsh sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow]

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Unidentified salt marsh sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow]

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Unidentified salt marsh sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow]

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Unidentified salt marsh sparrow [11/25/16 update: Nelson's Sparrow]

I am not an expert on these salt marsh sparrows and welcome comments on any of these birds. As we were hiking back along the beach trail to the car, I saw the American Bittern flying towards us - almost certainly the same one I saw in the morning, but this time was able to get some photos.

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American Bittern

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American Bittern

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American Bittern

Click here to continue on the next day of birding, November 16

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