Located right on Lankford Highway (US 13) in Melfa, Eastern Shore Community College is a campus of the Virginia Community College System serving students in Accomack and Northampton Counties. It is one of the smallest schools in the system, with a total enrollment of under 1000 students. The campus occupies a 115-acre plot with a parking lot and two buildings. The rest of the site is largely mixed woods, dominated by large stands of pines with some deciduous trees mixed in, and little to no understory. There are a few open grassy lawns, and the area around the buildings is sparsely landscaped with ornamental shrubs. There is also a series of shallow retention ponds and drainage ditches on campus, though these are for the most part not deep enough, and too exposed, to be attractive to ducks.
Birding the campus is fairly self-explanatory, and mostly consists of walking the perimeter to observer birds on the wood edges. In winter, the campus can be fairly devoid of passerines activity, though it is possible to encounter mixed flocks including some of the winter woodland species. Fox Sparrows are fairly common on campus in winter, and can be encounter on the wood edges and foraging around the buildings. As mentioned, the drainage ponds here don’t attract much in the way of waterfowl, apart from resident Canada Geese, but it is possible something more exciting could drop in under the right conditions. Flocks of Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos work some of the more open lawns, and it is worth a quick check to make sure nothing more interesting has joined them. In spring and fall, the woods here could be a good spot to check for migrants on the right day, though the composition heavily favors tall pines and may prove less ideal for woodland migrants.
Accessibility: The campus is open to the public and has ample parking. There are no trails, but most of the campus can easily be birded from the parking lots or lawns. For non-students birding this location, be sure that your birding activities are not disruptive to the campus.
Owner/Manager: Eastern Shore Community College
eBird Hotspot: Eastern Shore Community College
—Matt Anthony, February 2021