Hola,
For a little under the past two months, I've been checking various locations
near Remington, in both Culpeper and Fauquier Counties, a couple times per
week. There hasn't been much to report, largely because the sod fields that
typically attract shorebirds have been covered with brown grass, and others
are planted with soy. About a month ago they started watering the sod fields,
and with some rain in the last couple weeks, things are pretty green.
They've also started to peel up sod in a couple places.
This evening I concentrated more on the Culpeper County side of the
Rappahannock River, and found a few good birds along Newbys Shop Road. The
first
find was four Upland Sandpipers seen from a locked-gate signed WTF 2, about a
quarter mile northeast from the intersection with Kellys Ford Road. They were
seen on the far side of the field, foraging among a flock of starlings. This
entire area is green grass, which hopefully means they'll peel it up soon.
The next stop is about a half mile northeast from the above spot, and there
is a small area where the sod has been peeled. Seems that the rain from the
weekend had left a good sized puddle in this field, and while it is nearly
dried up, there were a number of birds around. The Wilson's Phalarope was in
a
puddle here. This is the second Wilson's Phalarope I've had along this
road, the first 8 Sep 2004. Also 33 Least Sandpipers, my highest count for
the
piedmont. Lots of Killdeer, a single Greater Yellowlegs, and two Pectoral
Sandpipers. A few Eastern Kingbirds are still around. Seems that it was a
decent year for Horned Larks, with about 45 seen in one flock in the dirt.
Aside
from the shorebird highlights (which is pretty much anything other than a
Killdeer after the last couple of months), there were a couple dozen
Bobolinks,
with a few very stunning, fresh-from-the-wrapper birds.
I also popped by the Opal Puddle, which is tucked behind an East Coast gas
station at Opal (the intersection of US 29 and US 17 south of Warrenton). The
water level is higher than it has been all summer, and I had only one
Solitary Sandpiper here. The last few weeks have been a steady diet of
Solitary
and Spotted Sandpipers, with a few Yellowlegs. Today's shorebirds were only a
single Solitary Sandpiper and a couple Killdeer.
eBird list for Newbys Shop Road follows.
Cheers,
Todd
Location: Remington (Culpeper)
Observation date: 8/30/07
Number of species: 36
Canada Goose 36
Wood Duck 2
Northern Bobwhite 1
Bald Eagle 1 An adult seen near the nest.
Killdeer 100 approximate count, but seemingly everywhere
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Upland Sandpiper 4 foraging among a flock of Starlings
Least Sandpiper 33
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
Wilson's Phalarope 1
Mourning Dove 220
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Eastern Kingbird 4
American Crow 12
Horned Lark 45
Eastern Bluebird 5
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 12
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 500
Cedar Waxwing 11
Common Yellowthroat 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Blue Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 3
Bobolink 28
Red-winged Blackbird 100
Eastern Meadowlark 20
American Goldfinch 12
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
---------------------------------
Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County, USA
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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