Greetings,
I've been lazy about posting a few sightings lately, so I'm taking time to
catch up now.
The pond at the Comfort Suites in Prince William County off of Route 234
still had four Red-necked Grebes on 18 March at four-thirty PM. They've been
seen daily since first being discovered by Laura Catterton on 4 March. The
pair of Redheads, and the various scaup, Hooded Mergansers, and Ring-necked
Ducks were not present on the 18th. Lake Manassas had two Red-necked Grebes
on 12 March, and Sue Heath reports three there today. There has also been at
least one Horned Grebe at Lake Manassas. There was a drake Long-tailed Duck
on Lake Manassas on 12 March. The Dulles Airport Pond had one Red-necked
Grebe on 18 March, along with 56 Ring-necked Ducks, 24 Ruddy Ducks, some
Hooded Mergansers, and a few Double-crested Cormorants. If anyone plans on
birding this spot, do bring a driver's license or some other form of ID, as I
was greeted by the MWAA Police within five minutes of my being there. She
was very friendly, and there was no objection to my presence once my license
and registration had been run.
The pond on Belvoir Road (Route 709) in Fauquier County had a Red-necked
Grebe on Sunday 16 March, and Sue and I saw the bird there again today. The
pond on Harrison Road (Route 750) in Fauquier had a hen Common Goldeneye on
it on 16 March, along with a few Lesser Scaup, and a couple thousand Canada
Geese. The Goldeneye was not present there today, and the goose numbers were
about half, though these birds are still milling about out there and haven't
necessarily left yet. There were no guest geese among them today, nor was
there on 16 March. A pair of Bald Eagles shook up the geese and gulls there
today. Other waterfowl in Fauquier today were Green-winged Teal,
Canvasbacks, Redheads, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Ducks, Hooded Mergansers and many
Ring-necked Ducks still around. On a private lake in Fauquier with no public
access is a Brant in a flock of a couple hundred Canada Geese. This bird was
found today, and photographed and documented. Brant are decidedly rare on
the piedmont, with only two previous records that I am aware of, though that
information is as old as the Blue Book.
Germantown Lake in Fauquier has held surprisingly little in recent days.
Originally there were two Red-necked Grebes there on 3 March, but the pond
refroze in the days following, and the grebes never returned. Red-breasted
Mergansers were seen there on 10 and 13 March, and a breeding plumage Horned
Grebe was seen there on 13 March. There was a fourth year bald eagle present
on 13 March. This lake could possibly hold a nesting pair of eagles as this
species increases its inland nesting. Currently there are only two eagle
nests that I know of in Fauquier County.
On Sunday 16 March, Ian Topolsky and I ventured into areas unknown to us
looking to find more grebes. We grabbed the Delorme and picked Greene and
Page Counties out as our destination. In route we checked Lake Pelham in
Culpeper County, and failed to find a lake that we looked for in Madison
County. Actually, we found the lake, but didn't find any way to look at it.
Down in Greene we hit a few lakes. One was Greene Mountain Lake (might not
actually have the extra "E" in the spelling), and then a coulple lakes
associated with the Twin Lakes subdivision. One species that all of these
lakes had on it was Mute Swan. Each lake had at least a pair, while one lake
had five individuals. Lake Pelham also had its pair. Of note at Greene
Mountain Lake was a Cooper's Hawk doing a courtship flight, but otherwise it
was pretty dull. Tree Swallow and vocal phoebes were the only spring
arrivals noted. Twin Lakes had the better show for waterfowl and grebes.
There were at least four Red-Necked Grebes on the northern lake, along with a
drake Greater Scaup, two drake Lesser Scaup, seven Hooded Mergansers, and
twenty-five Ring-necked Ducks.
After leaving Greene County, we cut across a bit of Rockingham (and enacted
the Mike Stinson rule of having to get at least ten birds in any entity),
then headed into Page. Unfortunately we were running low on time, and didn't
give Page the attention we would have liked. We checked the Shenandoah at
any point that it was near Route 340, and then took a route (650) east off of
340 and along the river. We found no grebes and very little waterfowl at all
on the river. We also checked Lake Arrowhead in Page County, and it too had
no grebes.
Not a waterbird, but the Rough-legged Hawk originally reported by Rich Rieger
and Kurt Gaskill on 8 March north of Leesburg was seen by myself and my
father on 11 March, but not seen with a few attempts by others in the days
following.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
Blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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