Kurt Gaskill, Jan Frye and I birded upper and lower Thomspson WMA and vicinity
this morning. We started on Harrison Rd. and found a field loaded with
bobolinks (about 100). Grasshopper sparrows were also plentiful. At the pond
on Belvoir Rd. we found a hen hooded merganser with 2 chicks, which is
unexpected for the Piedmont. Upper Thompson along Freezeland Rd. was pretty
birdy, with 14 species of warbler, including Cerulean (great looks a a very
cooperative bird that was foraging along a trunk rather than in the treetops),
Kentucky, hooded, blackpoll, and black-throated green. Other birds were raven,
pewee, yellow-throated vireo, and rose-breasted grosbeak. Along Leeds Manor
Rd. we saw black-throated blue warbler, Louisiana waterthrush, and warbling
vireo. At lower Thompson we had a blue-winged warbler. We followed
Rectorsville Rd. back to Marshall and saw cliff swallows around the bridge that
crosses Goose Creek. All together we had 92 species.
Marc Ribaudo
Woodbridge
