VA Birders,
This morning (9 Nov) while looking through a large mixed blackbird flock in
Culpeper County, a pure group of 14 Brewer's Blackbirds flew in, landed at the
edge of the flock, and began foraging. I had enough time to put the scope on
the birds, verify the sex ratio (9 males, 5 females), and watch them foraging
for a minute or so before the entire flock got up, many of the birds flying to
nearby trees or other fields. Thirty minutes of searching through the flock
after they flushed failed to turn up any Brewer's.
The birds were in a corn stubble field on the northwest side of the
intersection of Route 673 (Newbys Shop Road) and 675 (Thoms Road) southeast of
Elkwood. This area can be reached from Rt. 29 in Elkwood by taking Rt. 674
(Kellys Ford Road) southeast, turning right onto Newbys Shop Road, and going a
little over a mile to this field. The large blackbird flock, consisting of
15,000 European Starlings, 8,000 Common Grackles (about equal numbers "bronzed"
and "purple"), 800 Brown-headed Cowbirds, and 150 Red-winged Blackbirds, was in
this area much of the day.
I also checked the Prince William County landfill this morning, finding at
least 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (3 juvenile/first-winter, 2 second-winter, 1
third-winter, and 5 fourth-winter/adults) among the 350 Laughing (90% adults),
225 Ring-billed (70% adults), 400 Herring (30% adults), and 45 Great
Black-backed Gulls (60% adults). Four Bald Eagles were also present here.
Good birding,
Steve Rottenborn
Culpeper County, VA
rotten.born@xxxxxxxxxxx
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