Sunday evening, August 15th, before sunset Tom Pendleton and I went to the
Mount Solon area hoping to see the Sandhill Cranes. We stayed till dusk, along
with a wagonload of Mennonite birders, watching from the probable former gas
station; but three Great Blue Herons and a couple of Cedar Waxwings were all we
saw. The next morning, about 7 a.m., Tom and I were back. We watched for
about half an hour but did not see any sign of them. At the pond in Mount
Solon
we found four Wood Ducks and a female Belted Kingfisher.
Next we went to the Sedge Wren site south of Swoope. Many birds were
present, including Song Sparrows and female Red-winged Blackbirds sitting from
time
to time on the red gate; but not the wrens--at least they were neither heard
nor seen. Nor did we spot any Loggerhead Shrikes in the pasture behind them.
We
stayed there for about a half hour listening and watching.
Our fourth stop was at Leonard's Pond, where there were 3 Solitary
Sandpipers, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 1 Least Sandpiper and 2 Killdeer, plus one
Wood Duck
and a few Mallards. Though we stayed about 20 minutes, there was no sign of
the
previous afternoon's Willet. I searched with my scope through the tall weeds
as well as I could but could not locate it.
Several respondents have asked if the bird was capturable. I assure you I
had thought of that possibility when I became aware of its condition. But when
the bird stretched its wings while preening it seemed obvious that it was
capable of flight. Even if I had secured permission to enter the property and
tried to run it down on the edge of Leonard's Pond, I am sure it would have
taken
wing, and then it probably would have flown away to some other pond where we
could not monitor it any longer. I believe John Spahr had the right idea,
"let nature take care of its own." The only sure way to catch that bird would
have been with a rocket net.
At various points we had been checking out swallow flocks on lines or on
roofs as I needed a Bank Swallow for my year list. Sue Heath in a personal
email
to me has suggested that Bank Swallows may be much less common in the
Shenandoah Valley than they are farther east in the state. I readily agree
with this
assessment because each year I find it an uncommon at best, usually rare
member among the swallow flocks over our Rockingham County ponds in late
summer.
So Tom and I drove over to Elkton, where there is a congregation of swallows
that gather downtown every fall. There was not a swallow in sight when we
were there, and stuck waiting for a slow passing freight train, we had lots of
time to look around. We returned by way of Lake Campbell at Massanetta
Springs,
where we also drew a blank on birds; but finally, just before mid-day, we
found a good group of swallows at Lake Shenandoah, including among the many
Tree
Swallows and few Barn Swallows two Cliff Swallows, a very few Northern
Rough-winged Swallows, and, at last, two identifiable Bank Swallows on a wire
near
the red barn.
John Irvine
Harrisonburg, VA
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