FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Another Big Spring Day Report - Peaks of Otter

["Bruno, Rexanne" <bruno@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Last Saturday, April 30th, was the Big Spring Day Count in a circle radiating 
from the Peaks of Otter.  The Lynchburg and Roanoke Bird Clubs jointly conduct 
this count.  Gene Sattler, Judy Wiegand, Robert Ferrell, Paul McCroskey and I 
were out birding our territory in Bedford County before sunrise.  After the 
tally and lunch at the Peaks picnic grounds we were joined by Mark Johnson and 
Randy and Sue Thrasher as we continued birding the rest of the day.  It rained 
off and on all morning.  Birds were singing but the visibility was poor in the 
rain and early fog.  Then the rain tapered off about noon and the weather and 
birding improved until we encountered a cloudburst at 7:30 pm on our last stop!
 

Last year after Big Spring Day Gene and I quietly set a goal of getting one 
hundred species in our territory on this count.  But the week before the count 
neither of us thought we would get close to this goal in 2005 as the weather 
forecasts were discouraging.  Well we were wrong.  Our hardworking group 
tallied 98 species, surprisingly just two short of 100!  And we might have 
gotten 100 if we hadn't missed some relatively common species like Cedar 
Waxwing, Northern Parula, Prairie Warbler, and Savannah Sparrow.  We did find a 
very late Ring-necked Duck (normally departs our area by April 15), an almost 
late Northern Harrier (usually departs our area by Apr 30), a Loggerhead 
Shrike, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, fifteen warbler species (yellow, 
chestnut-sided, black-throated blue, yellow-rumped, black-throated green, 
Blackburnian, pine, palm, black-and-white, redstart, worm-eating, ovenbird, 
Louisiana waterthrush, common yellowthroat and hooded), 4 arriving Blue 
Grosbeaks (normally just in our area April 30), 26 Bobolinks, and 4 late Rusty 
Blackbirds (typically depart our area April 20).

 

Rexanne Bruno

Lynchburg    


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