Details of Augusta Bird Club's field trip to Highland County are below
in eBird report. A total of 20 participants from 3 local bird clubs
joined in. We also met Arun Bose and a fellow birder from Richmond who
informed us of four Rough-winged Hawks that they had located. We
managed to locate only one, a beautiful dark morph. This was by far the
most Golden Eagles that I have ever seen in this county in one day. We
had great views of most, including a party of 3 immature birds that were
apparently hunting on the east slope of Snowy Mtn, viewed from 640 in
front or O'Bryan's gate. They would fly low over the open pastures at
the edge of the tree line and periodically drop to the ground. One or
two were seen pecking at something. One scattered a large flock of
starlings in the field. The Golden Eagles and Rough-legged Hawks were
life birds for several members of our group. Thanks to all for
participating. / John Spahr
Subject: eBird Report - Highland County, VA, US , 1/6/07
Location: Highland County, VA, US
Observation date: 1/6/07
Notes: Thanks to Lisa Hamilton for leadership assistance, to Allen
Larner, Peter VanAcker, Jo King for helping to spot and identify the
birds, and to Sandy Bratton and Patti Reum for advance planning
assistance and for participating in this trip.
Number of species: 31
Mallard 2
Hooded Merganser 4
Bald Eagle 2 The immature had a dark breast and belly,
consistent with 1st year bird --location along 84 between Vanderpool and
Mill Gap. (2 PM)
Adult bird was in McDowell (8 AM).
Red-tailed Hawk 13
Rough-legged Hawk 1 Dark morph. South of US 250 on 640.
Golden Eagle 8 9 birds were seen but only 8 listed as we cannot
exclude that one may have been the same bird seen from two seperate
locations about 10 minutes apart. TImes & locations: 3 imm on east
slope of Snowy Mtn @ 9 am; 2 adults south of 644 at 10 am; 1 imm south
slope Snowy Mtn @ 10 am am; 1 adult west slope Snowy Mtn (Hardscrabble)
@ 10:30 am; 1 imm along 84 between Vanderpool and Mill Gap @ 2 pm
American Kestrel 15
Killdeer 1
Wilson's Snipe 1
Rock Pigeon 8
Mourning Dove 6
Belted Kingfisher 4
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 16
Common Raven 14
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 20
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 16
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 650
Song Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 8
Northern Cardinal 2
House Finch 7
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 12
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2
(http://www.ebird.org)
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