[va-bird] IMBD in Loudoun Co, VA

Mary Ann Good, Laura Weidner, and I did a Big Day as part of the
Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy's IMBD on Sat., May 12.  In spite of some
interesting misses all three of us observed 113 species between 4 a.m.
and 9:30 p.m. Because we were covering a couple of areas for the count
and because we took the time to make sure each one of us was able to
tic off each species we couldn't rush through some places as quickly
as we would have liked.  And talking about ticks, we prob. removed
almost as many ticks from ourselves as we saw bird species as many of
our areas had very healthy populations of ticks (where are those
Cattle Egrets when you need them).

Our highlights included NORTHERN BOBWHITE on Little River Farm,
BLACK-BACKED CUCKOOS at BRCES (a lifer for one of us) and on Blue
Ridge Mtn Rd near Bluemont, AMERICAN PIPIT on the Dulles Wetlands
(thanks to Marc Ribaudo), 3 Broad-winged Hawks, American Kestrel,
Virginia Rail, 4 owl species, 11 Red-headed Woodpeckers (all on Legacy
Farm in my neighborhood near Bluemont), a very vocal Willow Flycatcher
at the Wetlands (there was another in my neighborhood today), a
surprisingly large number of Great Blue Herons at almost every
location, 18 warbler species including Blue-winged, Cape May, Prairie,
Cerulean, Kentucky, and Worm-eating, a Savannah Sparrow (on Legacy
Farm) & a few Grasshopper Sparrows here & there, male & female Blue
Grosbeak along Arnold Rd at BRCES, 4 Bobolinks on Legacy Farm (there
were 7 males there today), and a lot of Eastern Meadowlarks.

When I get a minute I'll post a list of all out sightings.

We started by owling in my neighborhood near Bluemont, moved on to the
Dulles Wetlands at 5:30 am where we spent about 1.5 hours with Marc
Ribaudo & Gerry Hawkins, briefly stopped at the Rust Nature Sanctuary
where there was a nice warbler drop-out in the parking lot, BRCES for
a few hours, spent a few minutes on the shore of the Potomac at Rte
340 across from Harper's Ferry, several afternoon hours in the
Bluemont area, Little River Farm & the south cell of the Dulles
Wetlands right before dusk, sunset at the Dulles Wetlands, and a
futile attempt to find Common Nighthawk over Leesburg after dark.

Our most disappointing miss was Loggerhead Shrike.

As soon as I get all of the reports for the effort in Loudoun Co in
Sat. I'll post a summary report but at this time it looks we will have
between 130 and 140 species.

Joe Coleman, near Bluemont, western Loudoun County
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