Virginia birders,
Yesterday (Saturday 28 January) I enjoyed an excellent
day of birding and wandering Highland County with
Vicky Gullet and Mike
Iwanik.
Sunrise saw us at the first Rt 250 hairpin turn west
of the Shenandoah Mountain Confederate Breastworks.
Fifteen minutes of chilly (25 deg F) watching and
waiting were amply rewarded by the appearance of the 2
female RED CROSSBILLS who flew into the tops of nearby
pine trees and sat there calling for several minutes.
Soon after sunrise, we visited residential feeders in
McDowell. Though moderately busy, they held no unusual
birds. But about 5 miles north of town along Doe Hill
Road, we found 3 or 4 AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS foraging
along the brushy roadside.
At Jack Mountain, a trip down Sounding Knob Road
(snowy and icy in spots) into the Highland WMA was
interesting, with excellent views into the valley
along Rt 220 south of Monterey, but we found no
grouse.
We next visited the well-known Monterey feeders at the
Beverages house on Spruce St. A few of the usual
suspects, including BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, were
present. And in the neighbors yard, sitting in a tall
tree's highest limbs, we discovered 7 RUSTY
BLACKBIRDS.
We spent much of the late morning and early afternoon
traversing the northern-most sections of Highland
County via routes 640, 642, 643, and 644. We
particularly enjoyed our extended binocular and scope
views of 2 GOLDEN EAGLES from Rt 644 near Snowy
Mountain.
A light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was another of the
day's highlights. We first saw this bird at 12:20 p.m.
It was perched atop a tree along Rt 642, near the Rt
642/640 intersection. But as we were about to center
it into our scopes, the bird flew off low and fast,
and we could not re-locate it. As we drove slowly
along this portion of Rt 642 later that afternoon
(02:45 p.m.), though, Mike spied this hawk again. It
was sitting in nearly the same location. And this time
the bird cooperated fully, permitting detailed scope
views.
This mostly sunny and unseasonably warm Saturday in
late January was a great time to be out and about in
Highland County. We met a number of other birders in
the field, and everyone seemed to be faring well,
especially with the Shenandoah Mountain crossbills.
Mark Adams
Charlottesville
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