[va-bird] Sky Meadows

I visited Sky Meadows State Park today with Ben Jesup
and Jason Waanders.  Best birds on the day were
LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, LINCOLN'S SPARROW, WHITE-CROWNED
SPARROW, BOBOLINK, WINTER WREN, GRASSHOPPER SPARROW,
BLUE-HEADED VIREO, and a probable PINE WARBLER.

Ben arrived before us and whistled in a screech owl
near the entrance station.

After meeting Ben, we started in the morning scouring
the weedy field and nearby woods at the start of the
bridle trail near the house and barn on the east side
of Route 17.  Sparrow diversity in the weedy field was
low.  Mostly lots of song sparrows (50+) with a fair
number of swamps (20-25), and a small flock of 8-10
savannahs.  The woods were full of kinglets flitting
about all round us.  There were also a few sapsuckers,
a brown creeper, a pair of towhees, a couple of
blue-headed vireos, and the rest of the winter
regulars.  

Ben had to leave at 11, which neatly coincided with
Jason and I starting to see the "good" birds.  We
headed to the weedy field at the east end of the
bridle trail.  On the way to the field I spotted a
nice bright yellow palm warbler.  As soon as we
crossed the rise and could see the field, Jason
immediately spotted an immature northern harrier
scouting the field.  After crossing the small stream
and walking into the field we immediately began seeing
lots of savannah sparrows and a few grasshopper
sparrows popped up and gave us really nice looks. 
After a few minutes working our way along the east
side of the small stream we saw our first Lincoln's
sparrow.  Soon after we spotted 3 bobolinks close at
hand, which balanced on grass stems eating seeds at
point-blank range until we got tired of looking at
them (which was a while).  Soon after, I got a good,
but unfortunately brief, look at an interesting
looking sparrow facing away from me.  It appeared to 
have the head and bill profile of a grasshopper
sparrow, but had streaked underparts.  It flew before
I could get a better look at its head shape and
pattern, which did not seem to be particularly
olive-colored.  The upperparts appeared to be scaley
with a fair amount of rufous coloring.  Unfortunately,
I didn't get a good enough look to confirm this bird
as a Henslow's and the apparent lack of olive-coloring
may rule out this species anyway.  It will have to go
down as one that got away.  We also spotted an
immature white-crowned sparrow in this field as well
as at least 3 more cooperative Lincoln's.  Rough
sparrow numbers for this field were:

song            50+
savannah        40
field           8-10
swamp           15
white-throated  12
grasshopper     8
Lincoln's       4
white-crowned   1

When we arrived back at the parking lot we saw the
loggerhead shrike sitting midway up a tree preening
and being generally cooperative.  A flyover osprey was
a nice addition before we headed out.  

In the afternoon, Jason and I headed over to the Park
HQ area.  After the obligatory stop near the entrance
station to see the red-headed woodpeckers (we saw at
least 5), we parked at HQ and headed down to walk the
short Snowden loop trail.  Close by the white house we
ran into our first large yellow-rumped warbler flock. 
We got brief glimpses of a bird that wasn't a
yellow-rumped.   I only saw it from directly
underneath.  It was a warbler with white underparts
and vent and fairly bright yellow upper belly and
chest.  I think this was most likely a pine warbler,
but I didn't get a decent look at its head or
upperparts.  Another blue-headed vireo was also in
this flock.  A fairly large flock of almost entirely
ruby-crowned kinglets also moved through in this area.
 Near the start of the Snowden loop trail is a nother
weedy field with a stream running through it.  We
spotted another 2 Lincon's parrrows in this location
along with a sizeable number of field sparrows mixed
in with the savannahs, songs, white-throats and a
couple of swamps.  Around the Snowden loop trail, we
added hairy and pileated woodpeckers to make it a 7
woodpecker day and found a winter wren in another very
large kinglet flock by the stone wall near the end of
the loop.  We also spotted a merlin speeding overhead.
 Other raptors for the day not previusly mentioned
were 3 bald eagles, 2 red-shouldered hawks, 1
red-tailed hawk, and just 1 turkey vulture. 
Interestingly we saw no accipiters during the day. 
There were many flyover ravens over the course of the
day, perhaps as many as 2 dozen.  

All in all we had a great day birding, and you can't
beat Sky Meadows for the scenery while enjoying the
birds.  The leaves are just beginning to change out
there and should be in fine form next weekend.

Philip Kline 



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