[va-bird] Sky Meadows SP and Rockingham County on Saturday

On Saturday morning, I birded the Bridle Trail at Sky Meadws SP with some 
co-workers between 8:00 and 10:00 AM.  We found one loggerhead shrike hunting 
from the fencerow in the middle of the hay fields.  But even better than the 
shrike...some of us got good views of a barn owl fying across the hayfield - 
apparently flushed from its daytime roost.
   
  On my way to a family reunion, I stopped by the pond west of Lynnwood in 
eastern Rockingham County to see the glossy ibis.  Six horned larks were 
feeding in the base dirt at the pond edge when I first pulled up.  The sora 
called several times, and I saw it briefly as it flew from the cattails to a 
path of denser vegetation.  At one point a juvenile Cooper's hawk flew in, 
flushing everything at the pond, including the ibis. The ibis circled overhead 
for a bout five minutes before returning to the pond.  The only shorebirds were 
8 solitary sandpipers and two killdeers.  Most of the solitary sandpipers 
departed after being flushed by the Cooper's hawk.
   
  A brief stop at Leonard's Pond south of Cross Keys produced 4 solitary 
sandpipers, 1 spotted sandpiper, several killdeers and 1 semipalmated plover.
   
  Good birding
  Craig Tumer
  College Park, MD

                
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