Winter trip to Eastern Shore rewards birder

During winter months, many waterbirds head to Virginia to escape the cold weather that has blanketed their feeding grounds with snow and ice. These include such seasonal visitors as geese, swans, ducks and a few shorebird species as well as our backyard favorites, juncos and white-throated sparrows.

The best place in the state to find migratory waterbirds is the Eastern Shore. A favorite winter destination of many Virginia birders is the 14,000-acre Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

On your way up the shore, there are a number of regular haunts that usually reward birders, especially when arctic winds push waterfowl southward. There are no guarantees of what one will find on a trek along the Eastern Shore -- it can be an all-or-nothing experience.

A mid-January foray, with freezing temperatures and stiff winds, turned into a surprising bonanza of unexpected species, loaded with variety and numbers of birds.

On island number one of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the only stop allowed until reaching the Eastern Shore, there were purple sandpipers, long-tailed ducks, lesser scaup and both black and surf scoters. These sea ducks, along with several common loons, bobbed on the surface and dived together in search of small fish.

Just beyond the bridge, a second stop for birders is the pond along Wise Point Road on the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge. The surface was frozen but at the end of the road hooded and red-breasted mergansers -- and a very photogenic red-throated loon -- fished near the boat launch.

A few miles north at the village of Oyster, a surprisingly large number of brant fed in the shallow inlet among the fishing boats. Brant, a smaller and darker cousin of Canada geese, often travel in small numbers and can be difficult to locate. On this trip, however, a noisy flock of 50 fed together not far from several American oystercatchers and greater yellowlegs.

At Willis Wharf, the marshes were laced with mudflats at low tide and a flock of marbled godwits probed the mud for insects and aquatic creatures. At least two Hudsonian godwits foraged in the flock, a closely related species that is usually found along the central flyway in the Midwest.

Bayside at the village of Saxis, a lone northern harrier glided back and forth over the seemingly empty marshes and an adult bald eagle watched from the top of a bare oak tree.

Bitter winds swept Chincoteague refuge, and most of the pools were frozen except for small patches of open water. Ducks and tundra swans crowded together as they foraged while snow geese crisscrossed overhead searching for shelter from the wind.

Returning home, a stop at Kiptopeke State Park brought close looks at scoters and loons near the fishing pier and concrete ships, and at York River State Park near the village of Croaker a large flotilla of canvasback ducks swam below the river bluff.

An overnight trip to Virginia's Eastern Shore tallied 16 species of ducks and an overall total of 90 species. Although the high tally was very lucky, you, too, can expect such a thrilling foray when you visit just before and after an arctic blast crosses the Eastern Shore.

Contact Jerry Uhlman at .