Allen Larner and I did a 24 hour Big Day this past weekend, covering
Highland and Bath Counties (the latter limited mostly to the Lake Moomaw
area). We attempted to keep count tallies for each species.
Start time was 7 PM Friday, May 9. Night birding that evening and the
next morning was a bust with cool weather, rain and wind confounded our
efforts -- No nighjars and only 1 owl.
Saturday morning it rained off and on until early afternoon, which added
to the challenge. Nevertheless, we managed to find all 7 resident
woodpeckers, all 5 resident vireos and 20 warblers, including most of
the residents -- notable misses were Louisiana Waterthrush and
Yellow-throated Warbler (both seen/heard the previous day during
scouting) Prairie and Kentucky Warblers (both uncommon and local) and
Mourning Warbler (did not make it to Paddy Knob). Migrant warblers were
almost absent, save for the Tennessee. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks seemed
ubiquitous, present at most feeders with seed.
Other species seen during scouting but missed during our 24 hour window
include Wild Turkey, Merlin (5/8), Rock Pigeon (hard to believe, I
know), Least Flycatcher, Nashville and Blue-winged Warblers. Other
expected birds include Purple Finch and Pine Siskin, both of which were
seen by Patti Reum at her feeder the previous day, but not while we were
there at 7 AM in the cold drizzle! Other species that could have padded
our list but didn't include Black Vulture (actually uncommon),
Red-shouldered Hawk, Eastern Screech-Owl, Grasshopper Sparrow (a bit
early perhaps), Horned Lark (don't know where they are this spring;
could not find a one and we checked all the known locations!), and Blue
Grosbeak (never easy over thar).
Some species represent possible records (early/late dates, high counts,
etc.) and are marked (*) below.
H = encountered in Highland Co. only
B = Bath Co. only.
Number of species: 117
Canada Goose 22
Wood Duck 6
Mallard 3
Bufflehead 1 B *
Red-breasted Merganser 7 B *
Common Loon 15 B *
Double-crested Cormorant 25 B *
Great Egret 2 B *
Great Blue Heron 2 H
Green Heron 2 H
Turkey Vulture 55
Osprey 1 B
Bald Eagle 8
Broad-winged Hawk 3 B
Red-tailed Hawk 4
American Kestrel 1 B
Killdeer 8
Spotted Sandpiper 5
Solitary Sandpiper 4 H
Least Sandpiper 3 H
Greater Yellowlegs 1 B *
Ring-billed Gull 7 B
Caspian Tern 3 B *
Common Tern 2 B *
Mourning Dove 64
Barred Owl 1 H
Chimney Swift 11 H
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5
Belted Kingfisher 1 B
Red-headed Woodpecker 1 H
Red-bellied Woodpecker 6
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2 H
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 2 H
Northern Flicker 4
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 B
Willow Flycatcher 1 B
Eastern Phoebe 13
Great Crested Flycatcher 3
Eastern Kingbird 3
White-eyed Vireo 1 B
Yellow-throated Vireo 1 H
Blue-headed Vireo 8 H
Warbling Vireo 1 H
Red-eyed Vireo 20
Blue Jay 35
American Crow 14
Common Raven 4
Tree Swallow 55
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 19
Cliff Swallow 1 H
Barn Swallow 500
Black-capped Chickadee 8
Tufted Titmouse 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 H
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Brown Creeper 1 H
Carolina Wren 3
House Wren 10
Winter Wren 1 H
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 8
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3 H
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 H
Eastern Bluebird 14
Veery 3 H
Hermit Thrush 15 H
Wood Thrush 8
American Robin 79
Gray Catbird 10
Northern Mockingbird 3
Brown Thrasher 13
European Starling 212
Golden-winged Warbler 1 H
Tennessee Warbler 1 B
Northern Parula 6
Yellow Warbler 9
Chestnut-sided Warbler 16
Magnolia Warbler 17
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5 H
Black-throated Green Warbler 40 *
Blackburnian Warbler 8
Pine Warbler 2 B
Cerulean Warbler 2 B
Black-and-white Warbler 8
American Redstart 34
Worm-eating Warbler 2 B
Ovenbird 10
Common Yellowthroat 6
Hooded Warbler 2 B
Canada Warbler 3
Yellow-breasted Chat 1 B
Scarlet Tanager 18
Eastern Towhee 35
Chipping Sparrow 40
Field Sparrow 3
Vesper Sparrow 3 H
Savannah Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 19
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 H *(Bear Mt. Farm)
White-crowned Sparrow 3 H
Dark-eyed Junco 8 H
Northern Cardinal 10
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 27 *(12 at Beverages Feeder, Monterey)
Indigo Bunting 42
Bobolink 18 H
Red-winged Blackbird 220
Eastern Meadowlark 35
Common Grackle 130
Brown-headed Cowbird 33
Orchard Oriole 10
Baltimore Oriole 9
House Finch 5 H
American Goldfinch 151
Evening Grosbeak 1 H *(Beverages Feeder, Monterey)
House Sparrow 30
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
