What a busy long weekend..no time for blogging!
Friday, the 18th the Rockingham Bird Club which I'm part of was having it's monthly bird walk at a local park. This coincided with the first day of the 4-day long Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). On the walk we got about 25 species, with the highlight for me being a pair of Eastern Towhees singing, as that's year bird #202 for me..a great one to add to the Junior Big Year! After the walk, back at home a juvenile Northern Harrier hunting low over the fields by my house put on an amazing show for 5-10 minutes!
Saturday, the 19th the Rockingham Bird Club did it's Waterfowl and Raptor Count and 6 there were 6 teams in various parts of the county going out to look for birds, there were 6 teams so the whole county would get covered. My mama and I teamed up with William Leigh to cover "Southeast Central" for the count. We covered our section and I added 2 year birds: Horned Lark (2 or 3 "graveling", a life bird for me!), and Cedar Waxwing. Another highlight was an American Wigeon pair. Then to our delight we got a call from another birding that was helping to cover South Central for the count and she said that they saw 4 White-winged Scoters at Lake Shenandoah. We had basically covered Southeast Central so we headed to the lake for the rarity. Jackpot! All 4 WWS were enjoying the lake! A state bird for me, and by far my best look ever. Not a year bird though, as I got one in California where they are "suppose" to be. While watching the WWS, another birder showed up but said he had been sick so was not able to cover his section for the count. So, William and us took on that section too! We got some good birds although they were slow but steady and the highlight was a Cooper's Hawk that flew right by us! We looked for woodcocks but they were not found.
Sunday, the 20th we birded around looking for the Trumpeter Swan Immature (see 1st post in blog), but he was not found. I kept a list and entered it into the GBBC. We also looked for the Rough-legged Hawk wintering near Waynesboro and we lucked on that bird. We also had a group of 20 meadowlarks and a harrier which was nice.
Monday, the 21st I birded in the woods around my house and a flock of 9 Ring-billed Gulls flew over which was a terrific sighting for me to get for the GBBC! The woodpeckers were very active that day with several Pileated, Red-bellied, and 1 of Downy, and Flicker.
Not much yesterday, the 22nd, just a few Carolina Chickadees and crows, etc.
Now I got to go out to see what I can get for today!
Also, in a week from now I'm headed to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas in hopes of finding Great Kiskadees, Crested Caracaras, Green Jays, Brown Jays, Harris's Hawks, Hook-billed Kites, White-tailed Hawks, and much more!
Until later,
KestrelSwan
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