Ten people showed up on a beautiful spring day at the Banshee Reeks Nature
Preserve for the regular monthly bird walk led by Del Sargent, Mary Ann
Good, & Joe Coleman. The highlights of the walk were 2 Fox Sparrows, at
least 6 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, two of which were singing away, a pair of
Common Ravens which flew right overhead giving us great looks of their wedge
tails and impressive flight, and 5 female Common Mergansers and two Wood
Ducks on the Goose Creek. And while we managed to find only two warbler
species, we managed to see at least 6 dif. Palm Warblers, few of whom looked
the same. Including the Fox Sparrows we had a total of 8 sparrow species,
including at least a dozen Eastern Towhees, numerous Field Sparrows singing,
and three beautiful Swamp Sparrows. While it was a bit windy we were able to
do most of the walk in sheltered areas and actually got warm a few times.
There were a lot of hawks on the move though some of them were too far away
& high for us to identify.
We also saw numerous Spring Azure butterflies, heard a lot of Spring
Peepers, one Pickerel Frog, and one Grey Tree Frog.
For a complete list of the birds observed at Banshee Reeks see the eBird
report below.
The regular monthly free bird walk (every 2nd Sat) at the Banshee Reeks
Nature preserve is sponsored by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy (
<http://www.loudounwildlife.org> www.loudounwildlife.org) & the Friends of
Banshee Reeks ( <http://www.bansheereeks.org> www.bansheereeks.org );
information on both and their upcoming events can be found on their
websites.
Good birding (regardless of the weather)!
Joe Coleman
Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve - MFF08, Loudoun, US-VA Apr 11, 2015 8:00 AM -
10:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.3 mile(s)
46 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose 2
Wood Duck 2
Common Merganser 5 We saw five female Common Mergansers together on the
Goose Creek where Little River runs into it. Before they flew saw the strong
color differentiation between the reddish brown throat & the grayish white
breast as well as the white right below the chin. Beak was longer & redder
than on a Red-breasted Merganser.
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Buteo sp. 3
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 7
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Fish Crow X
Common Raven 2
Tree Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 4
Carolina Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
Eastern Bluebird X
American Robin 3
Brown Thrasher 2
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 5
Louisiana Waterthrush 1
Palm Warbler 6
Eastern Towhee 12
Chipping Sparrow 2
Field Sparrow 8
Fox Sparrow 2 The group got excellent looks at two dif. Fox Sparrows,
one at the pond near the Manor House & the other along the trail that goes
down to the Goose Creek. Both were large chunky sparrows with rufous
coloring & well-defined rufous spots, and with much shorter tails than Brown
Thrashers (which are a similar color).
Song Sparrow 6
Swamp Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 12
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 6
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch X
View this checklist online at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22803267
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/VA)
