Friends,
I used most of today's daylight to bird around
Albemarle County, recording 58 species.
Highlights included a good showing of waterfowl --
seeing ANY waterfowl in Albemarle County is notable!
-- plus Rusty Blackbirds at two locations, and several
personal FOS sightings of cooler season returnees,
such as Brown Creeper, Purple Finch, and Red-breasted
Nuthatch.
I started my birding day at Lake Albemarle -- my
"local patch" -- near White Hall. I then spent a
couple productive hours at a 30 acre private pond
south of Charlottesville that is, in my experience,
very good for waterfowl. Today this site was in fine
form, yielding American Black Duck, Mallard, Ruddy
Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, and Wood
Duck.
Afterwards I visited Scogo Lake (Rte 696, east of
Batesville), where the water level was higher than
I've seen it in the past couple years. An unusual
large goose was swimming with the 8 Canada Geese on
the lake. This oddity looked much like the "Barnacle X
Canada Goose hybrid adult" illustrated on page 74 of
the Sibley Guide to Birds. I have never seen a goose
like this one, and I initially thought it was an
unusual barnyard variant, but it seemed wary and at
home with the wild Canadas.
I ended my day on Jones Mill Road, Rte 811, the
so-called "sparrow road" north of Crozet, where I
enjoyed nice views of several White-crowned Sparrows.
Overall, though the morning was a cold start, it was a
fine day to be out and about, with good bird numbers
and species diversity.
Mark Adams
Charlottesville
---------------------------
SATURDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2006
ALBEMARLE COUNTY
s = several, fc = fairly common, c = common,
a=abundant
JM = Jones Mill Road, LkA = Lake Albemarle, ScLk=Scogo
Lake
Pied-billed Grebe, 1 (ScLk)
Great Blue Heron, 2 (LkA, ScLk)
Black Vulture, 6
Turkey Vulture, c
Canada Goose, a
Wood Duck, 3 (2m, 1f)
American Black Duck, 2 (1m, 1f)
Mallard, 3 (1m, 2f)
Ring-necked Duck, 9 (6m, 3f)
Hooded Merganser, 2 (1m, 1f)
Ruddy Duck, 3 (1m, 2f)
Cooper's Hawk 1 [ also accipiter spp 1 ]
Red-shouldered Hawk, 1 (LkA)
Red-tailed Hawk, 1
American Kestrel, 1 (JM)
Killdeer 1 (LkA)
Rock Pigeon, 3
Mourning Dove, 12
Belted Kingfisher, 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker, 7
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 5
Downy Woodpecker, 6
Northern Flicker, 14
Pileated Woodpecker, 4
Eastern Phoebe, 3
Blue Jay, a
American Crow, c
Common Raven, 1 (ScLk)
Carolina Chickadee, c
Tufted Titmouse, c
Red-breasted Nuthatch, 2 (LkA)
White-breasted Nuthatch, fc
Brown Creeper, 1 (LkA)
Carolina Wren, c
Winter Wren, 1 (ScLk)
Golden-crowned Kinglet, 2 (LkA)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 6
Eastern Bluebird, a
Hermit Thrush, 5
American Robin, a
Northern Mockingbird, 4
European Starling, c
Cedar Waxwing, 80+
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle), 20
Chipping Sparrow, 10
Field Sparrow, 6
Song Sparrow, 10
White-throated Sparrow, a
White-crowned Sparrow, 6 (JM, adults & imm at mailbox
5066)
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate), fc
Northern Cardinal, c
Red-winged Blackbird, 55 (50 JM, 5 ScLk)
Rusty Blackbird, 5 (2 LkA, 3 private pond)
Brown-headed Cowbird, 10 (JM, with Red-wings)
Purple Finch, 1f
House Finch 70 (50+ in one flock, JM)
American Goldfinch, a
House Sparrow, s (Crozet)
-------------------------------------------
(END)
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