Hola,
I spent an hour or so this afternoon checking some of the bigger bodies of
water for birds that might have dropped in during the rain last night. Most
notable thing I found was a Forster's Tern with two Bonaparte's Gulls that I
photographed at the pond in Belvoir Road a few miles north of Warrenton. It's
about a month past the late date for the Piedmont as indicated in the
so-called Gold Book (Virginia's Birdlife; An Annotated Checklist).
There are lots of American Pipits around, with dozens on several fields I
was near today, and over 100 along Harrison Road. Still can't seem to tease
anything else out of any of these pipit flocks. Not a whole lot of notable
waterfowl around, though Bufflehead numbers continue to build, and there are a
lot of Ruddy Ducks around. The main body of water that I check, Airlie
Reservoir which is on private property, has been drawn down close to ten feet
as it
is the water supply for the Town of Warrenton. The surface area of the lake
is a small fraction of what is when it is completely filled, and there is a
decided lack of waterfowl at the lake.
The other interesting thing I noted today was that around four-thirty this
evening there were hundreds and hundreds of finches flying around. Typically
there is a big stir of Robins (easily a couple thousand) as dusk approaches,
with scores often visiting a bird bath outside my office window before they
settle into the trees. This evening they had lots of company in the form of
unidentified finches. I hadn't seen anything like this in the previous few
weeks.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County, USA
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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