Osprey spotted atop a tree in Virginia Beach
Ted Helba photographed an osprey perched on his lookout post from the top of a tree at Stumpy Lake in Virginia Beach.
Michael Schimmel had a front row seat observing “a bald eagle and osprey have a territorial issue at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge” in Virginia Beach.
C. Herring sent photos of a mute swan and an immature bald eagle on the Western Branch Lynnhaven River in Virginia Beach.
Paul Simms sent photos of male and female red-breasted mergansers and an immature bald eagle that were spotted hanging out in the Chesapeake Bay from Cape Henry Towers in Virginia Beach.
Mike Weirich saw a few red-breasted mergansers that were still hanging around Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach. He also spotted his first osprey in Rudee. “Looks like one was trying to fly to the moon,” Weirich wrote.
Allen Waters found a tree decorated with a combination of white ibis and great egrets at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore.
“I’m seeing more and more white ibises in this location,” Waters wrote. “Large yards were covered with white ibises foraging around, obviously enjoying the very wet/rainy/windy weather. It looked like an ibis farm.”
John Gibbs photographed a yellow-crowned night heron that was “keeping a watchful eye on passers-by” at Willoughby Bay in Norfolk.
Steve Daniel took some photos of a pair of snowy egrets at Pleasure House Point in Virginia Beach.
The male was displaying his breeding plumage of long, wispy feathers on his back, neck and head.
Cindy Hamilton photographed a razorbill that has been hanging out at Fort Monroe in Hampton. “Seeing this species from land is a rare treat, especially when they’re close enough to see without binoculars,” Hamilton wrote. “This species spends most of its adult life in the ocean, coming ashore only during breeding season.”
George Schmitt sent a photo of a pigeon in his backyard feeding on the ground in the Arrowhead section of Virginia Beach.
Connie Owen has enjoyed seeing the downy woodpeckers in her backyard in the Robinhood Forest area of Virginia Beach. “They are easy to see as the trees still are bare,” Owen wrote. “Spring is around the corner and so are the leaves.”
Dotty Laverdiere reported seeing groups of yellow-rumped warblers fattening up in her yard on a suet cake before beginning their journey north and west to their breeding grounds. Yellowrumped warblers are the only warbler that is able to digest the waxing coating found on the berries of the wax myrtle shrubs.
June McDaniels spotted a beautiful white (gray) squirrel perched on a post while walking on the Cape Henry Trail in First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. Albino gray squirrels are the rarest form of gray squirrel.
Mike Weirich got a surprise when he saw a nutria baring its orange front teeth on the banks of the lake at the Red Wing Lake Golf Course in Virginia Beach. “Have never seen nutria at the Red Wing Golf Course,” Weirich wrote.
Waller Whittemore photographed a cottonmouth stretched out on the branch of a tree in Carova in northeastern North Carolina. The cottonmouth had its mouth open, revealing the white cotton lining inside — a warning not to come any closer.
Vickie Shufer, wildfood@ cox.net