Greets,
A few notes of the last eighteen hours in Culpeper County. First, at around
nine PM on Wednesday night, with the mostly-full moon overhead, I drove a road
that has been productive in the past for barn owls. It's out near
Jeffersonton, not too far from home. With the moonlight hitting the snow
covered
fields, I drove easily without headlights and was able to see two birds flying
down
the road, leapfrogging one another, landing on various fence posts a couple
hundred yards up. Eventually I was able to get a look at them and they were
both Barn Owls. They spooked when another car passed, so I parked at a spot on
the road with a little cover and waited them out. They never returned, but I
did get to watch foxes frolicking in the snow. The more my eyes adjusted, the
more delightful the entire scene was. At one point a fox let out a coyote
like cry, and I was able to imitate the noise, which in turn called the thing
from a couple hundred to about twenty yards of me. I remained pretty still, so
it hadn't figured out what I was until it was close. It eventually did and
split pretty fast.
Today, 5 February, I was at the Culpeper side of the Rappahannock with my
dad, not far from Remington. At the intersections of Newby's Shop Road (673)
and
Thoms Road (675), just a little SW of the intersection of Newby's Shop and
Kelly's Ford Road (674), I was able to stand in one spot between overgrown
fields and count seven raptor species. There were six or seven Red-taileds, a
single light Rough-legged, two Red-shouldereds, three immature Harriers, a
Sharp-shinned, an adult Kestrel, and an adult Bald Eagle overhead. Certainly
this
spot might have some Short-eareds of Long-eareds near by, plenty of habitat for
both, as well as other owls. On the prey end of the spectrum, there were
about 150 sparrows around us. There was a flock of about thirty Savannahs that
were flushed by a Harrier, but the bulk were right on the roadside next to us,
consisting of about 100 Song Sparrows, 15 White-crowneds (all immatures, SY if
you wish), and five gorgeous American Tree Sparrows.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
Blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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