[va-bird] Northern Piedmont farm ponds and such, 13 July 2002

Greetings...

On Saturday 13 July, I spent much of the day with the Flying Topolskys 
checking farm ponds and a few other loose ends in mostly in Fauquier County, 
with a bit of Prince William, Culpeper, Orange, and Madison Counties thrown 
in.  We cut one of the Topolskys Loose at around three when Lad needed to run 
off.  Ian and I plugged along without him.  

We had at least five Cliff Swallows at a bridge on Route 710 over Goose Creek 
in the northern end of Fauquier.  Nests were seen here both last year and 
this year, but this is the highest count of Cliff Swallows I have seen here.  
Rough-wingeds and Barns were here as well, as were two Kingfishers.  Also at 
this spot was a singing Worm-eating Warbler, a bird I have never had there.  
Two Louisiana Waterthrushes were also giving their chip note, another species 
I had never had here.  Two Red-headed Woodpeckers came in to Barred Owl calls 
that I gave.  First time I've ever had them at this spot too.  The northern 
part of Fauquier is loaded with Red-headeds.  They can be found virtually 
anywhere out there.  

Another waterthrush that I originally thought was a Louisiana was seen in a 
mostly dried up swamp near Marshall.  I'm still unsure of this bird.  If it 
was a Louisiana, it was by far the most yellow one I have ever seen.  This 
bird was distinctly yellow on the undersides.  The supercilium was typically 
Louisiana.  The bird did whole body bobbing which I associate with Lousiana 
versus more of a tail bobbing of Northern.  I'm not sure how reliable that 
behavior is.  It was an odd date on the calendar for a Northern, so I'll 
leave it at Seiurus sp.  

At the ponds on Harrison and Belvoir Roads (750 and 709 respectively), we had 
great looks at a singing Savannah Sparrow at Harrison, but little else there. 
 Belvoir on the other hand had a few decent birds.  Three least sandpipers 
were well hidden along the edge, but the strangest bird of the day was a 
drake and hen pair of Ring-necked Ducks.  Odd pair of birds to find in July 
on the piedmont.  

A single Bank Swallow was over a lake in Fauquier near Warrenton; that was 
our sixth swallow/martin species for the day.  Other notables were several 
Blue Grosbeaks scattered throughout the counties we visited.  Grasshopper 
Sparrows are everywhere; one Great Egret on a pond in Fauquier; flushed a 
barn owl from a silo; two immature Double-crested Cormorants that were seen a 
few weeks ago were still around.  Lastly, the Solitary Sandpiper that was 
reported earlier in the week by Laura Catterton was joined by another one on 
the pond in Opal.

Water levels in most of the farm ponds that we checked were pretty favorable 
for shorebirds.  Even if water were to drop over the next month, most of 
these ponds would still be pretty good.  Rain like we got yesterday and today 
probably won't have any adverse effects, however if we get a lot of rain, the 
ponds will lose their edges, literally.  Last fall had high water, and thus 
there weren't too many shorebirds hanging around on the ponds out here.  I'm 
hopeful that we get a chance this year to see a few birds.  Clearly there are 
scores if not hundreds of decent ponds out here that can't be seen from 
roads, and probably many that can be seen that I've never discovered.  I 
encourage anyone to stop at any pond that looks like it has a muddy edge to 
it and take a peek.  Could be a lot of neat stuff slipping through out here 
every year.  

Cheers...

Todd

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Todd M. Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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