Virginia Beach Vacation

     This past week our family along with all of our family, kids, aunts, uncles, and grandparents shared a large beach house (13 of us in total) on Sandridge near Virginia Beach. The beach was half a city block away, our yard offered a pool and access to a freshwater canal that led out to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Down the sliver of land was Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and I did all my birding and wildlife peeping down there. I also had a really nice time casting the fishing rods brought by a family member, I forgot how much I love just stopping to cast a rod. Caught a few small fish that we released back. 

    It was a good week away and the birding wasn't half bad either.

Woke up on the first full day of vacation and headed out early to the wildlife refuge, first greeted by this spotted sandpiper.

Having my clothes treated the night before with permethrin and sprayed down with 100% deet, the bugs were no bother. for me.

Originally I thought this was a young cardinal, but closer inspection of that ultra scowl made me think blue grosbeak - and a fledgling at that!

And maybe this is dad, just a few feet away!

If it seems funny confuse that fledgling for a cardinal, if you look at the beaks of cardinals and blue grosbeaks, they are pretty similar - these birds are in the same family!

The background bird sound of the trip for me was purple martins, they were everywhere, and many martin houses were propped up along the waterways where we stayed.

Green herons were easy to come across throughout the refuge. This one was just divebombed by martins.

Just 10 miles north of North Carolina, there were plenty of Carolina wrens to go around.

A good number of eastern cottontails among any grasses and roadsides.

I went back for more birding on my birthday. I was VERY, VERY excited to find my very first cottonmouth, a venomous snake in the pit viper family. It just floated in the water, with zero cares to be had. I was able to safely observe this snake from a boardwalk above the marsh waters it was floating in.

Still plenty of green heron to be had.

Some other herons around the area were great blues, which I saw mostly in flight.

Blue grosbeaks were everywhere, a sight that is hard to get tired of.

The female blue grosbeaks are pretty lovely too...

Osprey were everywhere, usually screaming and whining at each other.

My last day of visiting the refuge was a day that threatened rain, and the birds were just not as abundant. So I took in the birds I could but also looked to the other many wonders of the refuge.
This spotted sandpiper, presuming its the same one I have been seeing daily in the same area, snacks on a spider.

If you keep your eyes down on where you are walking along the marsh, it's easy to spot a green tree frog. These are frogs are maybe an inch long? They are quite tiny.... and cute!

For sure one who likely feasts on boardwalk green tree frogs.... a green heron.

And boy oh boy, was I happy to see that the cottonmouth pretty much calls under the boardwalk home.

You can see its heat sensing pit directly in front of its eye, allowing it to "see" the body heat of animals it may wish to make into a meal.

This snake was small, maybe 2 feet? For sure has a touch more growing to do.

They are closely related to rattlesnakes but unlike rattlesnakes spend a lot mor time in and around the water. They get their name from their mouth that looks very pale in contrast to the rest of their body and that they flash open, agape, when feeling threatened. A bit could be very, very painful and potentially fatal, so definitely one you should observe safely.

One cannot ignore the swamp mallows growing everywhere, white and pink were easy to spot. These are the plants from which marshmallows were made from!

A lovely female red-winged blackbird, always nice to see them with no brush hiding their beautiful plumage.

Noticed something hop quickly across the trail, it paused to let me snap a few pictures to help me identify it as an Eastern American Toad! This one must be quite young as some can reach lengths around 2-4" in length!

A very screamy osprey briefly landed to let me see its look of absolute chaos.

AHHHHHHHH!
(It was more like a whiney whinny)

These yellow garden spiders blew my mind with their web designs!

The spider itself also quite beautiful too, and decently sized, especially for any who may have some adversity to spiders. It isn't fully known why they make the zigzag pattern, but one thought is so that birds can see it and not fly through it, thereby destroying the spider's hard work.

A female Eastern pondhawk, the males of this species are blue. These voracious predators eat insects on the wing, and sometimes even each other!

There were A LOT of dragonflies at the refuge, Halloween pennants are everywhere and lovely to look at with those spotted black and orange wings.

Another green tree frog, which would "sing" from time to time, especially early on the wettest mornings.

A great blue skimmer, one of the larger dragonflies flying over the refuge.

A young brown headed cowbird, wonder who the lucky host was to raise this little one.

Some notable birds I enjoyed - but didn't get pictures of - included yellow-breasted chats, white ibis, tricolored heron, white-eyed vireo, prothonotary warbler, Northern waterthrush, royal tern, and Caspian tern.