Hi all,My dad Daniel and I covered Sector 3 (East of Dry River) for today's
Rockingham CBC. We managed 52 species in our sector alone plus the waterfowl
at Silver Lake (inside the count circle, but not our sector). That Long-tailed
Duck was quite a treat! We were also able to see the long-continuing Snowy Owl
at Mt Crawford from inside our sector, but the bird was quite clearly outside
the count circle.
The highlights of our sector included a Snow Bunting found associating with a
flock of ~70 Horned Larks in Mount Crawford this morning. It was on private
property but the flocks were moving around a lot and we were unable to relocate
the bunting, though I'm sure it's still in the area. Old Bridgewater Rd is not
too far from where we saw it and that road has been known to have very large
Lark flocks before so might be worth a check.
Another highlight for us was a very large Icterid flock along Hwy 11 just NE
from the intersection with Cecil Wampler Rd (across from the Sysco Distribution
Center). The flock contained, 3,500+ Common Grackles, 500+ Starlings, 30 Rusty
Blackbirds, 12 RW Blackbirds, and 5 Cowbirds. We also managed to find two
additional Rusty Blackbirds at the Cooks Creek Arboretum and one near the Mount
Crawford Creamery.
Some other misc. highlights for our sector included: 3 Cooper's Hawks, 2 Bald
Eagles (immature on Slab Rd and adult on Bank Church Rd), 1 Red-shouldered Hawk
(Potter John Ln), 16 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 E. Screech-Owls, 1 Sapsucker, 7
Kestrels, 1 Raven, 151 Horned Larks, 1 Winter Wren, 3 GC & 2 RC Kinglets, 6
Pipits, 8 Cedar Waxwings, 44 White-crowned Sparrows, 1 Savannah Sparrow, and 1
Towhee (Cooks Creek Arboretum).
Here's hoping many other birders had good luck with other CBCs across the state
today and best of luck on all CBCs in the coming few weeks!
Gabriel MapelNew Hope
