Hi All,
Doug Rogers led a terrific Monticello Bird Club trip to Highland County this
morning. It was a fantastic day for Eagles in the Blue Grass Valley (Wimer
Mtn. Rd and Hardscrabble Rd) with at least 5 Golden (an adult on Wimer Mtn. Rd
at Blue Grass and 4 immatures on Hardscrabble Rd....Once all in view at once
including a pair that flew right over us in an arial battle! Awesome!) and 6
Bald. Midday there was one dark-form Rough-legged Hawk (apparent adult male)
on Wimer Mtn Rd near the state line. Other birds of interest in this area
included: 2 Red-headed WP, 3 Kestrel, 4 Black-capped Chickadees, 1 Red-breasted
Nuthatch (Feeders on Wimer Mtn Rd at Hardscrabble Rd), 1 Am. Tree Sparrow
(first sighted by Allen Bryan) at the feeders on Wimer Mtn Rd at Hardscrabble
Rd.
My mom and I continued on south to Bath County in the afternoon. At the Bath
County Pump Storage Facility we were surprised to find only one duck on the
entire lake, a gorgeous adult male Long-tailed Duck! Little did we know, all
the ducks were down on one bit of open water on the otherwise frozen pond at
the campground, just south of the pump storage facility. Here I counted: 100
Canada Geese, 23 Mallard, 5 Redhead, 87 Ring-necked, 3 Lesser Scaup, 3
Bufflehead, 1 Common Goldeneye (Female), 1 Red-shouldered Hawk, 1 Kingfisher,
and a Hermit Thrush in the nearby woods.
At our final stop at Lake Moomaw we added: 75 Canada Geese, 7 Gadwall, 1
Canvasback, 5 Redhead, 2 Greater Scaup, 3 Lesser Scaup, 6 Bufflehead, 2 Hooded
Merganser, 31 Common Mergansers, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Ruddy Duck, 18
Wild Turkey, 1 Common Loon, 2 Pied-billed Grebe, 1 Ring-billed Gull.
A fantastic day; Thanks so much to Doug for leading the Highland trip and to my
mom for a fun day and for driving all over the western part of the state :)!
Gabriel Mapel
New Hope, VA