FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Ashby Gap Migration Watch, 29 February

[BlkVulture@xxxxxxx]

Bon jour,
I've been playing with the idea of doing a spring hawkwatch at Ashby Gap, on 
the Clarke and Fauquier County line (and only a good pebble flick from 
Loudoun).  This is where Route 50 cuts across the Blue Ridge.  Spring 
hawkwatching is 
typically pretty slow on the ridges, but there's been a few decent flights of 
Broad-wingeds at Snickers Gap in past springs that it seemed logical to find 
a place to look south from along the ridge.  Ashby Gap fits the bill, and is 
similar to Snickers in that it's on the same ridge, and has easy access.  What 
it doesn't have is much room, but since I don't think it will ever see the 
popularity that Snickers enjoys, it shouldn't be a problem.  

Ashby Gap is more scenic than Snickers, with a truly pleasant view of the 
Crooked Run Valley, looking down on Paris, Sky Meadows and a few farms.  Even 
the 
view to the west is grand, though it's disrupted by trees and a building.  

To spice up what would be a few weekends staring into the sun only to count a 
few hawks, yesterday it became obvious that we can count everything.  Joan 
Boudreau, Bob Abrams, and I were up there from about two PM until four-thirty.  
We did have two hawks we called migrants: a high going north adult Bald Eagle 
and an adult Cooper's Hawk lumbering along the ridge top, with a full crop.  
There were a half-dozen or so Red-taileds that milled about and headed north, 
but it seems we need a bit more time in the water up there to figure out which 
way the currents flow.  

What was quite clear was that Ring-billed Gulls were going.  We had about 
three hundred in our two-and-a-half hours of scanning, mostly adults.  Their 
behavior was very similar to fall Broad-wingeds.  We'd pick them up either in a 
kettle or streaming out, only to watch them re-kettle and do it again.  Earlier 
in the day I had noticed about three hundred gulls overhead in Fauquier 
County, from Harrison and Belvoir Road, I suspect that regionally it was a 
strong 
push for them.  

We had a few Grackles shooting through the gap, along with Red-winged 
Blackbirds, but it's not always prudent to call them migrants.  There's still 
thousands in the Remington-Warrenton area moving around daily, as there has 
been all 
winter.  

Nothing formal is set up for Ashby Gap in terms of coverage.  I suspect for 
the next ten weeks we'll try to get someone up there once or twice a week, but 
it will probably depend on weather and other variables.  If anyone does head 
up there, I'd love to hear about what's being seen.  

Cheers,

Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx


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