FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] birding Burke's Garden

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave Worley and Wallace Coffey used field time on Friday, Jan. 13, to bird 
Burke's Garden, Tazwell County, VA. 

We enjoyed a good day for raptors.  Red-tailed Hawks put on an amazing show for 
hours and hours.  

The weather was beautiful, sunny and we birded in our shirtsleves when the wind 
was not blowing.  We birded ahead of the approaching front and were gone and 
nearly home by the time heavy rains settled in.  The front began to arrive from 
the south about 1:30 p.m. and the winds picked up.  Raptors took to the air to 
ride the winds.

Not far from the post office Dave noticed a large Red-tailed Hawk that was in a 
field beside the road with a rabbit it had captured.  Fur was blowing over a 
wide area and the rabbit had been about half eaten.  We flushed the hawk which 
carried the hind portions of its prey to a fence post and later into the lower 
branches of a nearby tree.

This is just one of eleven (11) Red-tails observed.  Several were in pairs 
either in spectacular breeding flights with extended talons are climbing high 
to chase off an intruding Red-tailed which had flow into their airspace above 
their territory.

A beautiful dark morph Rough-legged Hawk turned tight circles on a thermal at 
close range in the sun, proudly displaying all the field marks anyone would 
want.

We were disappointed when an apparent massive looking accipter was briefly 
chased into view by crows well above us on the road along the backside of the 
mill pond.  The very long, narrow tail and lighter underparts were exciting.  
While one of us ran to get a scope the other lost sight of the bird.  Our brief 
look showed either a white rump or white under tail coverts.  The wings were 
long and narrow.  Both of us were convinced it was probably a Northern Goshawk 
but the possiblity that it could have been a Northern Harrier was possible.  
That one had to be left off our list. 

Otherwise:

Common Raven 9
American Kestrel 5
Rock Dove 18
Common Crow  356
Eastern Bluebird 5
Europeal Starling  535
American Goldfinch  13
Yellow-rumped Warbler  2
Green-winged Teal  23
Mallard  33
Yellow-shafted Flicker  1

The warm temperature, higher pressure and sunshine made much of the earlier 
part of our day fairly void of bird movement.

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN