Yesterday, May 3, Mary Ann Good, Laura Weidner, & I participated in the Loudoun
Wildlife Conservancy's Annual Birdathon. Starting at 3:45 am & finishing
about 9:15 pm we found 111 species in Loudoun County.
The highlights of our day were 8 RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES and a RUBY-CROWNED
KINGLET along the mountain ridge; GLOSSY IBIS, VA RAIL & SORA, BALD EAGLE & 3
nestlings, all at the Dulles Wetlands; CERULEAN, WORM-EATING, KENTUCKY, and
PROTHONOTARY WARBLERS, at the Blue Ridge Center; and SAVANNAH, GRASSHOPPER, &
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, and a brown PURPLE FINCH on the valley floor.
We started with a great early morning of birding. Within 5 minutes we found
our first bird, An EASTERN SCREECH OWL, and within 30 minutes had found all 4
common owls in our area, including 2 BARN OWLS, 6 BARRED OWLS, and a
GREAT-HORNED OWLS. We only played an audio lure a couple of times as it simply
wasn't nec., esp. with the BARRED OWLS chatting up a storm.
After owling we followed the advice Kurt Gaskill gave us last year and headed
up the mountain so we'd be there for dawn. As daylight broke over the eastern
horizon we were astounded by finding 8 interacting RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES
along a private rd that runs off of Rte 601, Blue Ridge Mtn Rd, as well as the
kinglet, several dif. warblers, and gobbling WILD TURKEYS.
A little later we moved on to the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental
Stewardship in northwestern Loudoun Co where we found most of the rest of our
warblers. We were thrilled to find a PROTHONOTARY WARBLER at the Blue Ridge
Center, a county bird for all of us and a Lifer for one of us. Even better is
that it was using a newly-placed box that Del Sargent had installed in the
small pond near the visitor center only a little more than a month ago. We
also found 3 CERULEAN, 2 WORM-EATING, and 2 KENTUCKY WARBLERS, and 4 of our 5
GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS at the Blue Ridge Center. It was also nice to see and
hear the BLUE GROSBEAK next to the picnic table where we tallied the results of
last week's walk.
Around my house near Bluemont we found RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS, a SAVANNAH
SPARROW, a brown PURPLE FINCH, BOBOLINKS, and lots of MEADOWLARKS.
We finished the day at the Dulles Greenway Wetlands Mitigation Project where we
watched the 2 BALD EAGLES tending their 3 nestlings. A little later and far
from the car and our rain gear as we were listening to a couple of vocal VA
RAILS, it started raining. Not surprisingly with this spring's freq. rains,
the wetlands were full and without much mud or almost any shorebirds.
Nonetheless, we couldn't believe our luck as we found 2 GLOSSY IBIS, another
county bird for all of us, as well as a BLUE-WINGED TEAL. On the way out of
the wetlands we heard another VIRGINIA RAIL and a SORA.
One of the nicer aspects of this day, in contrast to our previous birdathon
efforts, were the minimal number of ticks. In stead of finding hundreds of
ticks in several locations, there were only about 25 climbing on us, and not a
single one interrupted the dinner we treated ourselves to in Leesburg.
For those of you who might be int'd the complete eBird generated list follows
this message.
Good Birding!
Joe Coleman near Bluemont, Loudoun Co.
Canada Goose 23
Wood Duck 8
Mallard 15
Blue-winged Teal 1
Wild Turkey 2
Double-crested Cormorant 5
Great Blue Heron 7
Green Heron 2
Glossy Ibis 2
Black Vulture 6
Turkey Vulture 7
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 5
Red-shouldered Hawk 4
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 5
American Kestrel 1
Virginia Rail 3
Sora 1
Killdeer 11
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Solitary Sandpiper 11
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Rock Pigeon 24
Mourning Dove 16
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 4
Barn Owl 2
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 1
Barred Owl 6
Chimney Swift 14
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Red-headed Woodpecker 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 6
Downy Woodpecker 4
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 4
Pileated Woodpecker 6
Eastern Wood-Pewee 3
Acadian Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 12
Great Crested Flycatcher 11
Eastern Kingbird 4
White-eyed Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 3
Red-eyed Vireo 11
Blue Jay 113
American Crow 14
Fish Crow 6
Common Raven 1
Purple Martin 4
Tree Swallow 16
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 25
Carolina Chickadee 8
Tufted Titmouse 12
Red-breasted Nuthatch 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 5
House Wren 12
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 24
Eastern Bluebird 16
Wood Thrush 25
American Robin 29
Gray Catbird 10
Northern Mockingbird 16
Brown Thrasher 10
European Starling 24
Blue-winged Warbler 2
Northern Parula 9
Yellow Warbler 5
Magnolia Warbler 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 8
Black-throated Green Warbler 2
Cerulean Warbler 3
American Redstart 15
Prothonotary Warbler 1
Worm-eating Warbler 2
Ovenbird 18
Louisiana Waterthrush 3
Kentucky Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 12
Yellow-breasted Chat 2
Scarlet Tanager 8
Eastern Towhee 11
Chipping Sparrow 46
Field Sparrow 14
Savannah Sparrow 1
Grasshopper Sparrow 5
Song Sparrow 11
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 4
White-crowned Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 22
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Blue Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 15
Bobolink 11
Red-winged Blackbird 124
Eastern Meadowlark 20
Common Grackle 31
Brown-headed Cowbird 28
Orchard Oriole 4
Baltimore Oriole 6
Purple Finch 1
House Finch 18
American Goldfinch 66
House Sparrow 14
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/VA)
