[va-bird] Fauquier County notes, 27-29 March

Greetings,
A few bird notes for the past few days in Fauquier County.  

A single Red-necked Grebe showing some beginnings of alternate plumage was at 
Airlie Reservoir 27 March, still present 28&29 March.  Also on the reservoir 
were five Horned Grebes 27 March (but not since), one of which was in near 
full breeding plumage.  Also seen 27 March: 20 Common Mergansers, 60 Gadwall, 
24 
Green-winged Teal, 16 Lesser Scaup, 30 Ring-necked Ducks, 2 Hooded Mergansers, 
a dozen Bufflehead, one Purple Martin, and several Tree Swallows as well as 
the expected/resident birds.  The place was alive with bird song.  Noted 
singing were many Song and Field Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Bluebirds, 
Flickers, Fish Crows, Cardinals, Titmouses, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Towhees, 
Meadowlarks, Carolina Wrens and Mockingbirds.  

At the pond on Belvoir Road (Route 709) 27 March was a Mute Swan (who knows 
where this bird came from), two Black Ducks, a lone Ruddy Duck drake, one 
Pied-billed Grebe, a few Bufflehead, and six Ring-necked Ducks.  

At the Reservoir 28 March, Sue Heath, Ian Topolsky and I had essentially the 
same birds, however the Horned Grebes were gone, four Tunrda Swans were 
present (still there 29 March and might have been overlooked on 27 March), and 
a 
dozen or more Wood Ducks were around, and the Lesser Scaup numbers were reduced 
by more than half.  The pond on Belvoir Road had the same diversity, plus about 
a dozen Common Mergansers.  

Elsewhere around the county on 28 March:  At least two Vesper Sparrows with a 
flock of 20 or so Savannah Sparrows on Harrison Road (Route 751); Brown 
Thrashers singing in various locations, at least five encounters; Purple 
Martins at 
Germantown Lake, but no waterfowl on the lake, only a pair of Pied-billed 
Grebes; 5 Rough-winged Swallows along Goose Creek at Route 710, n. of 
Rectortown. 
 

Ashby Gap had far more birders than it had migrating raptors.  Ian and I 
(having parted ways with Sue) found Jon Little, BJ Westervelt and Bev 
Leeuwenburg 
there, but with strong northwest wind, the hawk flight was predictably small.  
Ian and I pronounced two Red-taileds as migrants, and then got bored enough 
to leave and drive roads around Fauquier.  

At the Thompson Lake parking area at G. Richard Thompson WMA, we were met 
with a bunch of Kinglets, mostly Golden-crowneds, two Eastern Phoebes (one 
minus 
a tail), and a few parids in the thicket.  At the Ted Lake parking area, two 
Eastern Screech-Owls responded to imitation, and there were about a half-dozen 
White-throated Sparrows, a few Song Sparrows, and an immature Red-tailed Hawk 
being mobbed by American Crows.  

The last couple hours were spent on backroads between Hume and Linden.  Very 
pretty countryside out there, lots of good thickets, wood lots, stream 
crossings, and scenery.  We ran into Kinglets at just about every stop, 
Golden-crowneds still dominating about five to one over Ruby-crowneds, in 
habitat I more 
expect Ruby-crowneds to be in.  We found a Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a nest, a 
Barred Owl flying in to investigate our pishing, a couple high soaring 
Cooper's Hawks, a single Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, one small flock of about 
eight 
Myrtle Warblers, and a single Fox Sparrow.  We passed several small-ish icterid 
flocks (20-40 birds), and managed to screw up the approach at all of them by 
sending them into the woods and tree tops before we could tease out any 
Rusties. 
 Such rookies.  Eventually we managed to learn how to look at a flock of them 
before they flew, and found a group of about thirty Rusties along with a 
dozen Grackles and a few Red-wingeds.  This was near Marshall on Whiting Road.  
Sky Meadows was teeming with Tree Swallows at the fishing pond on the west side 
of US 17 at the north of the park.  Ring-necked Ducks were in most small ponds 
we passed, which is typical up this way.  

Cheers,

Todd

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Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
Blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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