Six of us showed up for a very chilly (about 20 degrees) bird walk this morning
at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship in northwestern Loudoun
County. After visiting the powercut and the area at the end of Sawmill Rd we
drove the few miles to the Shenandoah River & the lake at Shannondale (both in
West VA). The highlights of the walk at the Blue Ridge Center included at
least 5 HERMIT THRUSHES, a couple of RAVENS, a GRAY CATBIRD, a few flocks of
CEDAR WAXWINGS, but only five species of sparrows (lots of those though) .
There was little on the Shenandoah except for a couple of Belted Kingfishers,
an EASTERN PHOEBE, Canada Geese and a few Mallards but there were BUFFLEHEADS,
RUDDY DUCKS, and AMERICAN COOTS on the Shannondale Lake. There was also a
TURKEY along Mission Rd when we were leaving Shannondale.
While the trails at BRCES are usually open to the public 7 days a week from
dawn to dusk, they are closed a lot for controlled deer hunts during the Fall -
check the BRCES website for those dates and times.
Information on the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship can be found
at http://www.blueridgecenter.org/directions.html. Information on the Loudoun ;
Wildlife Conservancy can be found at www.loudounwildlife.org.
We don't do a bird walk the 4th Sat. in Dec. because of all the Christmas Bird
Counts.
We observed (the second number is for West VA & should be ignored if you're a
purist):
Great Blue Heron 0/4
Black Vulture 0/5
Turkey Vulture x/x
Canada Goose x/x
Mallard
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1/1
Cooper's Hawk 1/1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3/1
Wild Turkey 0/1
American Coot 0/6
Rock Pigeon 0/x
Mourning Dove 2/3
Belted Kingfisher 0/3
Red-bellied Woodpecker x/x
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker x
Downy WP x/x
Northern Flicker x/x
Pileated WP 3
Eastern Phoebe 0/1
Blue Jay x/x
American Crow x/x
Common Raven 3
Carolina Chickadee x/x
Tufted Titmouse x/x
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Carolina Wren 2
Eastern Bluebird x/x
American Robin x/x
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling lots/lots
Cedar Waxwing x/x
Field Sparrow 6
Song Sparrow 25/2
Swamp Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 20/5
Dark-eyed Junco 10/5
Northern Cardinal 8/4
Am Goldfinch x
House Sparrow 0/x
Joe Coleman, near Bluemont VA
