The festival officially ended on Sunday night, but a number of us stayed longer. Early morning brought sightings of an osprey and a mature bald eagle at our hotel. We decided to go back to Kiptopeke State Park to look for warblers. Some of us stopped at the hawk watch platform. I continued on and got distracted by a demonstration for a grade school class at the songbird banding station. (There is also a separate area for hawk banding.) The lecture was just breaking up as we arrived but the banders were gracious enough to talk with us as they continued their banding activities. They explained how an examination of the head and wing chord can aid in the aging of the birds and showed us the bands and banding tools. Among the birds we watched them band were eastern phoebe, black throated blue warbler, American redstart, and gray catbird. The birds which look small in the field, looked even smaller and more fragile in the hand. Although I did not take advantage of the opportunity, some of us were given the privilege of releasing the newly banded birds. The whole stay at the station was quite rewarding.
After we left the banding station, we continued our search for songbirds and came across Carolina chickadee, northern cardinal, yellow-rumped warbler, and American redstart. Not really good as far as birding was concerned, but the raptor activity was good and included turkey vulture, sharpies, merlin, and osprey. I watched a mature bald eagle fly over the water towards the shore. One of us sighted it sitting in the trees. While searching for it, someone else located a second one. Not too bad!
After lunch, we did a little birding at Willis Wharf where we saw some more marbled godwits among the willets, greater yellowlegs, and American oystercatchers. Then, our emphasis changed and did sightseeing in Cape Charles and some of the other local towns. We again noted some of the effects of economic hardship on the area. Afterwards, we had another excellent dinner at Sting-Ray's.
I had planned on staying another day and night in Cape Charles, but the weather forecast called for rain all day Tuesday. Since there was no purpose in staying the extra day, I went to bed early so I could get a good start the next morning for my drive on to Chincoteague.
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Copyright ©
1996 Richard L. Becker
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