VA Birders,
This afternoon at about 2:00 I checked the Woodward turf farm near Remington.
The Fauquier County side of the farm (along Sumerduck Road) had about 65 Horned
Larks but no shorebirds. The Culpeper County side was much better. To reach
the area where I saw the following birds from Rt. 29 just southwest of
Remington (on the Culpeper County side of the Rappahannock River), take Rt.
15/29 Business, then go south on Rt. 673 for 1.1 miles. There is room to pull
off on the southeast side of the road at the large bend. The shorebirds have
been hanging out in a patch of bare dirt (where sod was recently cut) on the
southeast side of Rt. 673; a scope is needed. Today I saw the following:
24 American Golden-Plovers
1 imm. Wilson's Phalarope (foraging in a puddle in the northwest corner of the
dirt patch; the back and scapulars were entirely basic, but the upperwing
coverts were still juvenile feathers)
2 Semipalmated Sandpipers
1 Least Sandpiper
6 Pectoral Sandpipers
10 Killdeer
An adult Bald Eagle perched in one of the trees at a pond just beyond the dirt
patch was present last week as well.
As Jon Little noted yesterday, I had a single American Golden Plover, a juv.
Baird's Sandpiper, 3 Semipalmated, 8 Least, and 8 Pectoral Sandpipers, 2
Short-billed Dowitchers, 1 Common Snipe, and 55 Killdeer in this field
yesterday.
Today I also had an Olive-sided Flycatcher in northwestern Culpeper County,
west of Jeffersonton. To reach this bird from Rt. 229 south of 211, take Rt.
626 (Black Hill Road) west for about 0.4 miles and turn right on Quail Ridge
Drive. Go another 0.4 miles to where the road crosses a stream. The bird was
in the tops of the snags on the right (north) side of the road, exactly where I
had an Olive-sided (the same?) on 22 August.
Good birding,
Steve Rottenborn
Culpeper County, VA
rotten.born@xxxxxxxxxxx
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