Greetings...
Sue Heath, Jon Little, Laura and Allan Catterton and I spent most of Saturday
birding in Highland County. There were at least two organized bird club
trips out there, and we saw another pair of northern VA birders as well.
Hopefully this will be the first of a few reports of what was collectively
seen.
To some extent our group today repeated our trip of last month, minus Eric
Hynes. We were a bit more focused on finding Red Crossbill and Evening
Grosbeak today.
The first stop was the Confederate Breastworks along US 250 on the
Augusta/Highland County line. We got there around seven-thirty AM, and spent
about thirty minutes at locations near there, including the sometimes
crossbill-productive hairpin turn west of that location. We didn't find
crossbills, or practically anything else for that matter (a few juncos and a
couple woodpeckers). It was pretty chilly, temp I would estimate at
twenty-five or so, and raw with a bit of a northwesterly breeze.
From the Breastworks we drove to Mc Dowell, hoping duplicate previous
successes of others at finding Evening Grosbeaks at one of the feeders in
town. The first group of feeders on the right (north) were pretty active,
but no grosbeaks. Having two cars allowed us to send one of them on to the
other feeding station on the left side of the road. Immediately Jon spotted
a female Evening Grosbeak in an apple tree at the feeder on the south side of
the road. Within a couple minutes we had a flock of about sixteen birds in
front of us, with five males. We had prolonged killer looks at these flying
little pigs.
Eventually the birds scattered, and we headed to Monterey. The popular
feeder station up there had no birds, which was also the case in January.
Next we headed north on US 220, passing an adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree
along Strait Creek. At Route 642 we turned west toward Blue Grass, where we
then turned north on Route 640. This road was productive for Golden Eagle in
January, but not today. A low cloud bank was settled just over the peaks.
The trees above a certain elevation were covered with snow, giving a
beautiful frosty look to the gray hills. Back down 640, turning west on 644,
we soon saw our first of three Rough-legged Hawks. Terrible views were had
of this perched, light-morphed bird, well south of the road. We headed up
Lantz Mountain, and as we approached the height-of-land Sue found a stunning
juvenile Golden Eagle working above of the ravines on Snowy Mountain while
being pestered by a Red-tailed Hawk. It was a treat to watch this bird
wheeling in the updrafts of the slope-sides. At the crest of the hill Sue
spotted a Rough-legged Hawk, another light-morph, that quickly flew and
disappeared behind one of the knolls on Snowy Mountain.
Once we turned about, we drove back down 644 to where it meets 643, and took
the latter. Jon spotted an adult Golden Eagle soaring over Lantz Mountain.
The ceiling was starting to break up and patches of blue sky were present.
After a turn east on 642 we encountered George Wheaton and Ralph Wall, as
well as Bob Anderson and Mitchell Byrd along with their group. They had a
dark Rough-legged scoped to the north which we only caught a brief glimpse of
as we arrived.
From here we drove 640 to 637 along the west slope of Monterey Mountain after
a nonproductive check of the vast fields west of 640. Little was seen along
637, and at the intersection of US 250 we took it over Monterey Mountain back
to town. The Cattertons departed after lunch, and Sue, Jon, and I headed for
FR 55 toward Paddy Knob. The weather had become much more mild, probably
reaching the high 40's by noon and the wind had died down. The ride to West
Virginia was scenic, but offered little in way of birds. Once we reached FR
55, we took it south along the state line hoping for a Goshawk or Grouse. We
were uncertain before we arrived how we would be able to discern Virginia
from West Virginia; a hunting sign at the beginning of the road informed us
that the ridge top was the state line. This gave us at least some indication
of what birds were where. In shaded places, there were a couple inches of
snow still on the road, making for some slick travel. The trees were all
covered with a coating of snow. Sue finally found her Ruffed Grouse for
Virginia when she spotted two birds along the road that I had just driven
past. Attempts to get better looks put them up and they flew over the ridge
into Virginia. A little further up the road, an adult and a juvenile Golden
Eagle took off and soared over West Virginia, offering great views.
We never made it as far as Paddy Knob, hoping to conserve some time to hang
out at the hairpin turn for Crossbills. The ride out of Monterey was
uneventful except for two shot and displayed coyotes along the fence of a
sheep pasture. These animals were tied along the fence, presumably to
discourage others. I found it pretty vulgar.
Just outside of Mc Dowell, at the VDOT gravel yard, we pulled in to look for
Crossbills on a tip. No luck, but we did get yet another pair of Golden
Eagles, adult and sub-adult soaring to the north. This made six for the day,
four in Virginia. No grosbeaks or any other birds were at the feeders as we
passed through around three-thirty. We made it to the hairpin turn, and set
up shop for about an hour, our last gasp at a crossbill. It never happened,
but surprisingly I did get a Barred Owl to return my call. We added Pine
Warbler here, and headed home.
All told I think we had forty-three species with no attempt to pad the list
by looking for waterfowl. Bluebirds were surprisingly scarce with just a few
seen, and we never found a Harrier, despite having seen a few in January.
No bats today, however I had my first Chipmunks of the year. We also noted a
couple of Fox Squirrels. Notable roadkills included a gray phase
screech-owl, and a ground hog. I've seen two Whistle Pigs so far this year,
and sadly, one of them was dead.
Cheers...
Todd
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Todd M. Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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