VA BIRDers,
An excellent day of birding, the rain squalls notwithstanding! Kim Peacock,
Rich Rieger and I traveled to the lake at Lower Thompson WMA and thence up to
Sky Meadows. We also paid a brief visit to the State Arboreteum of Virginia -
Blandy Experimental Farm before heading back home to Alexandria. Top birds of
the day were a good sized flock of Wild Turkey along the road south of
Thompson, Loggerhead Shrike at Sky Meadows in the Bridle Trail area, Nashville
Warbler along the Bridle Trail, an excellent sparrow showing at the Bridal
Trail with a Henslow's Sparrow (in the field behind the residence) and good
sized groupings of Lincoln's Sparrows (these guys hung together in groups of 4
and 5), and 2 Purple Finch at Lower Thompson.
After getting home, I had 15 minutes to kill waiting for Indian take-out
(excellent on a blustery day like this!) and scoped an odd-looking goose near
the Stone Bridge of Hunting Creek from the Dyke Marsh picnic area near sunset.
It resembled a Greater White-fronted but seemed a bit bulky to me - hybrids
need to be ruled out. The rain squalls had just started and time was not on my
side to study it more (maybe the Sunday morning group will?). Also noted were
a couple of Dunlin and a dozen Ruddy Ducks.
Here is the list of today's Fauquier Co and Blandy birding totaled together.
Kurt Gaskill
Great Blue Heron 4
Black Vulture 30
Tureky Vulture 12
Canada Goose 50
Green-winged Teal 1
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 3 (2 ad, 1 HY)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 15
American Kestrel 4
Wild Turkey 16
Killdeer 1
Greater Yellowlegs 6
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Rock Pigeon 19
Mourning Dove 4
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-headed WP 6
Red-bellied WP 9
YB Sapsucker 4
Downy WP 11
No. Flicker 4
Pileated WP 7
E. Phoebe 1
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Blue Jay 23
Am. Crow 10
Fish Crow 4
Tree Swallow 86
C. Chickadee 5
T. Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
C. Wren 6
W. Wren 1
GC Kinglet 1
RC Kinglet 7
E. Bluebird 12
Am. Robin 51
Gray Catbird 1
No. Mockingbird 11
E. Starling 80
Cedar Waxwing 36
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
Palm Warbler 4
Com. Yellowthroat 3
E. Towhee 9
Chipping Sparrow 66
Field Sparrow 37
Vesper Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 13
Henslow's Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 77
Lincoln's Sparrow 17
Swamp Sparrow 17
White-throated Sparrow 39
White-crowned Sparrow 11
Junco 3
No. Cardinal 12
Indigo Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1067
E. Meadowlark 8
Common Grackle 3
Purple Finch 2
House Finch 2
Am. Goldfinch 65
House Sparrow 10
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
