{"id":10788,"date":"2026-06-05T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/?p=10788"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:40:32","slug":"birding-at-chincoteague-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/05\/birding-at-chincoteague-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Birding at Chincoteague, Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We arrived at the Chincoteague Field Station; this was the headquarters of the Road Scholar trip that we signed up for. The trip was timed for the end of the usual northern spring migration on the east coast. The Field Station is located close to Wallops Island on the Virginia Eastern Shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every morning, before breakfast, our group took a walk through the grounds of the Field Station to see what birds we could find. One of the Mockingbirds was perched on the top of the streetlight near the dining hall. Several Northern Mockingbirds are residents at the Field Station. Mockingbirds are renown for their ability to imitate the calls of several other bird; this bird had been busy calling since sunrise.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3359-0002-Northern-Mockingbird-Chincoteague-Field-Station\"
Northern Mockingbird, Chincoteague Field Station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

During our early morning walk, I encountered this Mockingbird perched on a post.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3359-0011-Mockingbird-Perched-On-Post\"
Mockingbird Perched On Post.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After a short while, this bird took flight to the top of a nearby tree. Here there was another Mockingbird perched close to the tree top. I am not sure whether this was a breeding pair that had mated or whether this was an offspring.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3359-0018-Mockingbird-Pair-Chincoteague\"
Mockingbird Pair, Chincoteague.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Later, as I returned to the dining room area, the Mockingbird atop the streetlight was busy calling. Periodically, it would take flight and land back on the streetlight a few seconds later. I could not tell whether it was hunting for bugs or whether performing to attract a mate.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3359-0031-Mockingbird-Taking-Flight-Chincoteague\"
Mockingbird Taking Flight, Chincoteague.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I made this image of the Mockingbird perched on the streetlight, looking down at me.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3359-0033-Northern-Mockingbird\"
Northern Mockingbird.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

There were other Mockingbirds in the grounds. I made several images of one of the birds in flight. Here is one of the images captured as the the bird flew up from the grassed area to a nearby tree limb.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3359-0039-Mockingbird-In-Flight\"
Mockingbird In Flight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After breakfast we had a full day of birding planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We arrived at the Chincoteague Field Station; this was the headquarters of the Road Scholar trip that we signed up for. The trip was timed for the end of the usual northern spring migration on the east coast. The Field Station is located close to Wallops Island on the Virginia Eastern Shore. Every morning, before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2085,2117,2120,2116,2030,2118,2119,2115],"class_list":{"0":"post-10788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general","7":"tag-calling","8":"tag-chincoteague","9":"tag-eastern-shore","10":"tag-field-station","11":"tag-in-flight","12":"tag-mockingbird","13":"tag-road-scholar","14":"tag-virginia"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMatQ-2O0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10788"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10791,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10788\/revisions\/10791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}