Revised 2011 bird total:
437 species

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Highland County life birds - including Long-eared Owl and YB Chat!

As I said yesterday, today I took a trip to my neighboring county Highland because there were some birds breeding there that I still needed not only as year birds but as lifers as well.

As it did when I was there this past February, Highland County treated me.  We were just getting going and our first main stop was Margaret O'Bryan's property where Golden-winged Warbler was a likely bird and it was a lifer for me.  Just approx. 1/2 mile before reaching the O'Bryan place we came across a group of birders with Field Guides (I think that was the company).  My mom and I were riding with the trip leader and bird expert of the area Allen Larner.  The leader of the Field Guides trip said to Allen "we got a Long-eared Owl and Golden-winged Warbler, interested?" "ye!" said Allen.  We pulled over but at that moment I was like "forget warblers, I want an owl -- LE Owl is a lifer for me!".  The Field Guides person showed us the owl and Allen's group from the Augusta Bird Club that I'm part of "ooed" and "awed" at the Long-eared Owl.  After watching for a fairly long time we heard the GW Warbler and was able to get brief looks at it.  We continued on to Margaret's and there we were able to get good looks at more Golden Wings but the highlight for me was hearing a Yellow-breasted Chat as that was a lifer for me that I've been looking for for quite some time.  We left Margaret's and continued on and got different well wanted but not year birds.  LE OWL!!!!!!  YB CHAT!!!!!!  GW WARBLER!!!!!  These are the things I'll always remember about today.

What an awesome adventure.

KestrelSwan

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