We started along Beach Road in the afternoon. We saw along this road turkey vulture, great egret, snowy egret, great blue heron, double-crested cormorant, lesser yellowlegs, and laughing gull. We spent a little time near the area of the Tom’s Cove Visitor’s Center and found laughing gull, royal tern, black skimmer (4), Caspian tern (1), and Forster’s tern. We saw these birds in Little Tom’s Cove: laughing gull, semipalmated sandpiper, semipalmated plover, sanderling, piping plover (3), American oystercatcher (10), black-bellied plover, ruddy turnstone, royal tern, great black-backed gull, brown pelican (flock of 6), and willet. One of the piping plovers had a “1MP” flag on its left leg. I reported it to Virginia Tech Plover and they said it was a nesting female that was banded in Chincoteague NWR on 5/23/23.
MY PHOTOS: piping plover, black-bellied plover, great blue heron, great egret, American oystercatcher, laughing gull, brown pelican
