Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory: A Magical Week: Double Rainbows and Golden Eagles

Monday 10/21:

On Monday morning, I held a bird photography workshop for Birding Eastern Shore. It was so much fun discussing a topic that combines two of my passions: birding and photography. A big thank you to the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge for hosting this workshop! And thank you to Birding Eastern Shore for helping to organize this event, you were great students! Here is a link to the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge's and the Birding Eastern Shore's websites if you are interested in learning more about them. The refuge is an amazing place to visit, and Birding Eastern Shore is a wonderful group that helps visiting birders find the best places to see birds on the Eastern Shore. On November 6th, Anna Stunkel will be holding a bird drawing workshop at the refuge with Eastern Shore Birding. If you love art and birds, I highly recommend attending if you can!

About to start my workshop (Martina Coker)

Reviewing camera settings (Martina Coker)

(Martina Coker)

Photography workshop participants testing the recommended settings on their cameras (Megan Murante)

Yellow-rumped Warbler, photographed in practice portion of the workshop (Megan Murante)

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Megan Murante)

At the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch, the week started off quite well with 157 raptors seen on Monday. A good number of the birds were accipiters, with 46 Sharp-shinned hawks and 44 Cooper’s Hawks. It was interesting that we had almost the same number of each accipiter species, since we tend to see more Sharp-shinned Hawks in general. We also had a decent falcon flight for this late in the season, with 10 American Kestrels and 19 Merlins.

Cooper's Hawk (we have named him Charlie) stretching on the T-pole (Megan Murante)

Even though we are past the peak of migration, we are still seeing plenty of interesting travellers. We were amazed by how many large groups of scoter species were flying on this day, and Anna estimated that there were around 830 scoters total. In addition to scoters, we also saw 28 Great Blue Herons, 19 Common Loons, 3 yellowlegs species, and 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

Flock of scoters (Megan Murante)

Tuesday 10/22:

This day was truly bizarre. The morning was very quiet, with almost no birds moving up until 11:30. All of a sudden, the skies cleared of clouds and birds started flying over very low. We had a really great view of a Red-shouldered Hawk that flew directly over the platform.

Red-shouldered Hawk (Megan Murante)

There were quite a few low flying Peregrine Falcons and Bald Eagles. We were lucky to witness a bald Eagle chase after an Osprey with a fish. The Osprey gave up fairly quickly and dropped the fish, which the eagle successfully caught.

Bald Eagle with a fish pilfered from an unlucky Osprey (Megan Murante)

The final raptor numbers turned out to be fairly good, especially with how slow it was in the morning. There were 104 raptors, with 8 Bald Eagles, 19 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 10 Cooper’s Hawks, 18 Ospreys, 23 Merlins, and 12 Peregrine Falcons.

Peregrine Falcon (Megan Murante)

American Kestrel (Megan Murante)

Cooper's Hawk chasing a crow past the moon! (Megan Murante)
(I felt like I deserved ice cream for these photos)

Cooper's Hawk (Megan Murante)

Turkey Vulture (Megan Murante)

Palm Warbler visiting the platform (Megan Murante)

Bald Eagle (Megan Murante)

Northern Harrier (Megan Murante)

Immature Bald Eagle (Megan Murante)

At the end of the day, it started to rain and a Cooper’s Hawk visited the t-pole. As it sat there, a double rainbow appeared behind it! This hawk has been hanging around and sitting on the t-pole quite a lot. We are pretty sure it has been the same Cooper’s Hawk each time, so we have decided to call him Charlie. It was a perfect and magical way to end the day.

Cooper's Hawk stuck in the rain (Megan Murante)

Cooper's Hawk drying off on the T-pole in front of a rainbow (Megan Murante)

Wednesday 10/23:

We had our first two Golden Eagles of the season on Wednesday!!! They were pretty distant, since they were flying on the East Side. Many of the birds were sticking to a flight path on that side of the peninsula, likely due to the winds from the Northwest. It was also a very good day for seeing Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks, since there were 22 and 19 respectively. There were 144 raptors in total, with 19 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 27 Cooper’s Hawks, 21 American Kestrels, and 17 Merlins.

Chase between Northern Harrier and Cooper's Hawk (Megan Murante)

Two Northern Harriers traveling side by side (Megan Murante)

Notable non-raptors of the day were 240 Double-crested Cormorants, 25 House Finches, 4 Killdeer, 3 Common Loons, 1 Blackpoll Warbler, 1 Nashville Warbler, and 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The Nashville Warbler and the Blackpoll were spotted by Anna early in the morning before I arrived, but thankfully I was able to find the Nashville again much later in the day to get a photo! It was hanging out with some Palm Warblers in the Dog Fennel field to the right of the platform. The warblers stuck around for a while, finding different insects to eat.

Pileated Woodpecker (Megan Murante)

Pileated Woodpeckers have been zipping back and forth over the field that separates the different groupings of pine trees on the bay side of the platform. I was so pleased to finally capture the journey, and show off the beautiful white wing patches on this bird.

Double-crested Cormorant flying through the moon (Megan Murante)
(YAY MORE ICE CREAM)

Palm Warbler (Megan Murante)

Nashville Warbler (Megan Murante)

Thursday 10/24:

After two (FOS) Golden Eagles on Wednesday, you would think that would have been the highpoint of the week. Except this exceptional week was not done surprising us. Partway through the day, a kettle of Turkey Vultures and one Bald Eagle started to fly over us. Thinking that this would be the perfect conditions… I blurted out, “come on Golden Eagle!" At that exact moment, Anna spotted a Golden Eagle rising up over the pines in front of us! The sheer coincidence felt almost like fate in that moment. We were ecstatic to be able to watch it fly so close to the platform. When most Golden Eagles are counted at Kiptopeke, they are spotted on the Eastern side of the peninsula. This particular beautiful bird was kind enough to circle over us for about four minutes.

Cooper's Hawk (Megan Murante)

Golden Eagle (Megan Murante)

Bald Eagle (Megan Murante)

Not only was it a lively day because of the Golden Eagle, but several of the raptors were acting very pugnacious. We saw multiple chases occur, including a Sharp-shinned Hawk and a Cooper’s Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk that went after a Bald Eagle, and a very bold coop that went after a Peregrine Falcon AND a Turkey Vulture.

Cooper's Hawk chasing a Peregrine Falcon (Megan Murante)

Birds weren’t the only interesting “gladiators” of the day. We had a dramatic battle for the corner of the platform railing between a Wheel Bug and a wasp. The wasp would continuously approach the Wheel Bug, pestering it until it would lift up its front legs and strike. The Wheel Bug attempted to catch the wasp several times, but right before it struck the wasp would take off. Both individuals moved on unscathed (although we continue to see a wasp visiting that particular corner of the platform almost daily).

Stand-off between wasp and Wheel bug (Megan Murante)

We had 158 raptors on Thursday, but unlike Wednesday, the raptors main flight path was closer to the platform instead of on the East side. We had another good flight of raptors, mainly composed of 21 Bald Eagles, 30 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 44 Cooper’s Hawks, and 16 Red-tailed Hawks. There was a very large flight of non-raptors, with thousands of Yellow-rumped Warblers on the move, as well as a good number of American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds. There were also 30 Eastern Meadowlarks, 30 scoters, and 15 Great Blue Herons.

Great Blue Heron (Megan Murante)

White-throated Sparrow (Megan Murante)

Friday 10/25

The craziness of the week had to end at some point sadly. We had 40 raptors on Friday, although there were quite a few other types of birds on the move. There was an incredible flight of 95 Eastern Meadowlarks, 40 of which were in a flock together. Such a high number is very unusual at Kiptopeke. There were also 110 Common Grackles, 8 Cedar Waxwings, and thousands of Tree Swallows.

Charlie the Cooper’s Hawk had a bit of fun chasing some crows around the recreation area. He took over the playground, and perched proudly on the slide. He has decided to stick around, since we have seen him (presuming it is the same male Cooper’s Hawk) perched on the T-pole at some point every day this week.