Hi all,Yesterday "Team Fly Like an Eagle!" (this year consisting of Vic
Laubach, Baxter Beamer and I) spent 14 hours in the field covering 215+ miles
for our fifth annual RAPTORTHON fundraiser for the Hawk Migration Association
of North America and our local Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch. This year we birded
Augusta & Rockingham Counties. We had a great day of birding and tallied 96
species. We are still collecting pledgesand every penny helps! You can
sponsor us here: http://www.hmana.org/raptorthon/#Sponsor Thanks so much for ;
considering!
RAPTORTHON 2017 Summary:
We started at 5:15am at the Shenandoah Wetlands in Stuarts Draft where we heard
a displaying American Woodcock. From there we drove Lake Rd & Coal Rd through
Big Levels pre-dawn where we heard 3 Chuck-will's-widows and 28 Eastern
Whip-poor-wills. It was a great show as usual and we even saw five of the
Whip-poor-wills in our headlights including a male courting a female, following
her across the road and then sitting in a tree side-by-side! After dawn in Big
Levels we tallied 22 species including highlights: 1 Barred Owl, 2 L.
Waterthrush, 10 Pine Warblers, 1 Purple Finch.
At the InVista Pond in Waynesboro we could not find any BC Night-Herons but did
pick up 1 Green Heron and 1 Palm Warbler. At Quillen's Pond we had 1
Red-headed Woodpecker and another Palm Warbler. We saw an adult Bald Eagle on
the Stuarts Draft nest to add that species to our day list. There were over 40
Purple Martins at the Martin houses behind the Cheese Shop. Along Guthrie Rd
we had a N. Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk and Hairy Woodpecker. At the
Fishersville Quarry we added a Coot and Grasshopper Sparrow. McCune's Pond
held 2 Blue-winged Teal and there were 3 Cliff Swallows flying around. Along
Hildebrand Church Rd we had a northbound migrating group of 6 Broad-winged
Hawks and a Red-shouldered Hawk.
Along Bells Lane we had 37 species with highlights: 1 Wood Duck, 3 BW Teal, 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk, a recently fledged Mourning Dove, 1 Wilson's Snipe, 1
Grasshopper Sparrow, 3 White-crowned Sparrows.
Over at the Augusta Springs Wetlands we had 24 species with highlights: 2
Hooded Mergansers, 1 Red-shouldered & 2 Broad-winged Hawks, 1 Red-breasted
Nuthatch, 1 House Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers building a nest and 2 Swamp
Sparrows. Going over the mountain on Troxel Gap Rd we added 2 Wild Turkeys, 6
Blue-headed Vireos and an apparent hybrid Carolina x Black-capped Chickadee.
In the Swoope Area we had 42 species with highlights: 5 Green-winged Teal, 1
Cooper's Hawk, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs and 1 Eastern Kingbird.
From there we went up into Rockingham County. Leonard's Pond held a Wilson'sAlong Dry River Rd near Lumber Mill Rd we found 3 E. Collared-Doves. At the
Snipe but nothing else. On the way to Lake Shenandoah we had a flyover
Osprey. At Lake Shenandoah we added the Forster's Tern found earlier in the
day by William Leigh. Over at Newman Lake we found 1 Black-crowned
Night-Heron. Silver Lake held 1 Green Heron and all the swallows (20 N.
Rough-winged, 1 Purple Martin, 12 Tree, 1 Bank, 2 Barn, 1 Cliff).
