Close Encounters: Ospreys spotted while building their nest in Virginia Beach

Chuck Guthrie photographed a pair of ospreys in the process of building their nest in the top of a dead tree in the Great Neck area of Virginia Beach. The female was sitting on the nest while the male was bringing twigs.

Cindy Hamilton photographed a common loon that is transitioning to breeding plumage at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach. “I think it’s unfair that the birds don’t come into their handsome breeding plumage until it’s time for them to migrate,” Hamilton wrote. “They spend summers in Canada and New England.”

George Koehl photographed a cormorant spreading its wings to dry at the Pier Condominiums pier in Norfolk.

Jim Melchor had an unusual sighting of a brown booby that visited his backyard on the Lafayette River in Norfolk. Brown boobies are seabirds found in tropical oceans and may stray as far north as Canada.

Fred Curry photographed a great egret at Mount Trashmore Park in Virginia Beach that was dressed up for the breeding season. It had a “green mask around the eyes” and “spear-like feathers protruding from the lower area,” wrote Curry.

Joseph Robbins photographed a great blue heron that had just caught a large shad fish on the James River.

Cindy Morrison photographed a Canada goose in the Ridgely Manor neighborhood in Virginia Beach.

Rich Thiesfeld captured a photo of a barred owl “intently eyeing his next target at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge” in North Carolina.

Edward Obermeyer was happy to see a pair of pileated woodpeckers return to his yard in the Castleton neighborhood of Virginia Beach. “They are enjoying the grubs in our old tree stump under a bird bath,” wrote Obermeyer.

Caroline Prevost sent a stunning photo of a male painted bunting in a red maple tree in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake. The painted bunting appears to have been painted with a splash of blue, green, yellow, and red on its head and feathers.

Connie Owen got a wonderful shot of a white-throated sparrow in her yard in the Robinhood Forest neighborhood of Virginia Beach. The white-throated sparrow is a common winter bird in the Hampton Roads area that is often heard before it is seen with a high, clear whistle.

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Beverly Hills sent a photo of a furry dasychira caterpillar in the Kings Grant area of Virginia Beach. “Don’t touch a furry caterpillar,” Hills wrote. The dasychira caterpillar is a tussock moth and has prickly hairs that can cause a rash.

Laura Joksaite photographed a brown water snake at Stumpy Lake in Virginia Beach. “I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear something crawling,” wrote Joksaite. “Then I saw a very long snake crawl to the water though the leaves.”

Harold Rooke sent a photo of a baby squirrel asleep in a sunflower seed feeder in the Green Run area of Virginia Beach. “Baby squirrel ate too much and needs a nap,” wrote Rooke.

Pamela Niblett photographed a “determined to feed squirrel” doing acrobatic stretches from the trunk of the tree to the bird feeder in the Riverwalk area of Chesapeake.

Diana Pengitore sent photos of baby squirrels from Lake Shores in Virginia Beach. “We set up a couple of squirrel houses this past winter, and it paid off,” Pengitore wrote. “We noticed activity in late February, and then a couple of weeks ago, the first baby popped his head out.”

June McDaniels saw a gray fox at Pleasure House Point in Virginia Beach that had come to the water’s edge for a drink. “Poor thing is too hot,” wrote McDaniels.

Vickie Shufer, wildfood@cox.net