VA Birders,
I spent the morning birding in Prince William County near Nokesville
hoping to find the Snow Bunting that Laura Catterton found yesterday. I
found a flock of Horned Larks along Parkgate Road and spent 30 minutes
searching through them. One Lapland Longspur was the best I could do.
I went farther down Parkgate and then drove over to Fleetwood and looked
for the Brewer's Blackbirds. No luck there. Back down Parkgate where I
spooked a raptor from the top of a cedar that I thought might have been
a Rough-legged Hawk but I was unable to relocate it. I decided to try
the Horned Lark flock again where I ran into Stuart (didn't get his last
name) who was already searching the flock. He hadn't found a Snow
Bunting either but we both searched another minutes without success.
While we were standing there though, a flock of about 50 American Pipits
flew in. At that point I decided to head home only to be stopped short
10 minutes later by a phone call from Laura and Stuart saying they had a
Rough-legged Hawk in a field on Parkgate Road very near where that
unidentified swan was last January. I zipped back but only managed to
get a tantalizingly short view of the bird flying across a field. I
cruised the area looking for the hawk without success only to be stopped
short again by another phone call from Laura saying she had found the
Snow Bunting where I had been looking at the Horned Larks before.
So.... I went back and we found not one but two Snow Buntings along
with 5-6 Lapland Longspurs in the Horned Lark flock which had now grown
substantially in size from when I was looking at it before. So, I guess
the moral of the story is give Laura your cell phone number cause she is
an expert at finding the good birds!
Sue
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