All
It was indeed a good day for birding and it was a pleasure for me to meet
Allen. If you ever want to find all the secrets of Augusta Co., he's your
guy.
I reviewed Sibley about the Waterthrush after we split up and concur that
it was a Northern. C'est la vie for me, great for the County list.
I want to mention that the Walnut Hills Campground, while private, is
accessible to the public if anyone is interested in seeing the Barnacle
Goose. It's a pretty uptone place and the pool's a draw for the local
community; it's 3 bucks to spend the day there, the first hour's free.
I went by Reddish Knob on the way home and found a couple Least
Flycatchers, one gobbling down a caterpillar, a female Blackburnian
Warbler and a female Redstart, a couple Common Ravens and lots of TVs,
which we had seen all day. These seem to be thriving.
Good birding
John Fox
Arlington
------- Forwarded message -------
From: Patricia <larnersky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: va-bird <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [va-bird] Birding around Augusta CountyDate: Sat, 23 Jul 2005
16:53:30 -0400
Hello all
This morning I took John Fox to some of the birding "hot spots " in
Augusta County . First stop was out in the Swoope area in & around Smith's
Pond . No moorhen was found but we did see a few shorebirds -- Killdeer ,
3 Solitary Sandpiper & 1 Spotted . Also there were 3 Great Blue Heron & a
few Wood Duck . One had some young that were about 2 weeks old . Barn
Swallows were in good numbers with about 75 + birds & about 5 + Cliff
Swallows mixed in Also we spotted the male Northern Harrier. On Rt. 705
we found a Blue Grosbeak & a lot of Red -winged Blackbirds & 3 Am.
Kestrel. While trying to locate the Blue Grosbeak we heard a Black--
billed Cuckoo cal out & we did find a Yellow --billed Cuckoo in the same
tree as the Grosbeak .
After the Swoope area we went over to the Walnut Hills Camp Ground to see
the Barnacle Goose . I wanted to check out to see if this bird had been
injuried & the bird walks with a slight limp . Also we found what at first
I thought was a Louisiana Waterthrush & after viewing most all of my field
guides it turns out this bird was a Northern Waterthrush . All of my books
show a yellowish wash which this bird had . Sorry John . This bird makes a
first summer record for Augusta County . So onward we go to Quillen's
where we had nothing to report . Onward we traveled north to see the
Dickcissel in the New Hope area at first we bombed out but on the way back
from Leonard's Pond in Rockingham County -- we found the bird about a half
a mile south of Rt. 776 on Rt. 608 .
Leonard's Pond had a few Shorebirds & they were Killdeer -- 50 + ,
Solitary -- 4 , Spotted -- 1 , Pectoral -- 1 & Least -- 1. Our final stop
was Bells Lane where we had the usual summer birds but the big find was an
Imm. Peregrine Falcon . Which will make our first summer record . All in
all it turned out to be a good day for birding . John it was a pleasure to
show you around our County.
Allen Larner
Staunton
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