Hi all,
My mom and I made a quick trip out to Swoope this afternoon in hopes of finding
the Brewer's Blackbirds. We eventually found them, the male/female pair at the
cow feeder lot along Glebe School Rd just south of Trimbles Mill Rd. This is
the location where Allen Bryan photographed them on 12/28 and near the
locations of Allen Larner's report from 12/25 and William Leigh's from 12/29.
On another note, my friend Andrew Rapp was in Swoope this morning and while
birding on a road (he thinks it was Glebe School) he was approached by a
landowner. She suggested Andrew go down her driveway because she had some rare
"Butcher hawks" that ornithologists from Virginia Tech were studying. The only
thing Andrew could think of were Loggerhead Shrikes. He drove down the
driveway and found along a brushy barb-wired fence row, a flying bird. He is
quite sure it was a Shrike and not a Mockingbird because: it was
shorter-tailed, had faster wing beats, and the white patch in the wings was
smaller and more oval shaped than the patch on a Mockingbird. In addition,
Andrew said that the habitat was better for Shrike than Mockingbird. And what
other bird that a landowner thought was called "Butcher hawk" would VTech
ornithologists be studying? Andrew thought this location was along Glebe
School Rd near a church (Presbetyrian?) but wasn't sure. I'll try and get more
info about the location from Andrew.
Good birding, Happy new year!
Gabriel
Sent from my iBirder
