Greetings,
To answer the question of the Confederate Breastworks location, it is on US
250 at the Augusta and Highland County line. It's a civil war historic site,
and just typing "confederate breastworks" into Google will give the location
and a bit of history.
Regarding the crossbills, in the morning, Eric Hynes and I had a total of
ten at the hairpin turn west of the Breastworks (hard to miss, but it has a
wide
shoulder on the right side of the road [heading west], and a guardrail on
the opposite side of the road). It is very easy to park and bird here without
getting in the way of traffic. In the afternoon, we stopped again and heard
them giving a soft call from down the slope in the trees. Eric passed by
the spot today (Monday) at eleven AM and flushed one from the road in nearly
the same location.
While birding Highland on Friday, we were met with pleasant weather, though
by noon the wind had kicked up quite a bit. We found it not very birdy,
though did manage a Golden Eagle and a Ruffed Grouse on Lantz Mountain, and a
Rough-legged Hawk seen from Hardscrabble Road (644), looking south into the
Bluegrass Valley, and at least two Rusty Blackbirds on the Beverage feeders in
Monterey (Spruce Street I think). Otherwise, not much to report.
A short visit to Bell's Lane in Staunton on the way out of the area was good
for one Allen Larner, a couple of harriers, and five Snow Geese.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, VA, USA
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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