Approximately 80 people participated in the Central Loudoun CBC on Dec. 28.
While it was pretty cold in the early morning (21 degrees) it wasn't windy
(ideal owling weather). By the afternoon it had warmed up into the 50s so all
of us enjoyed a good (not great) day of birding.
Of the 92 species that were found the nicest birds of the day were a
Yellow-breasted Chat, a Common Yellowthroat, a Saw-whet Owl, a Brown Thrasher
and 2 Rusty Blackbirds. Five Purple Finches were also found. In addition to
the Saw-whet Owl, 1 Barn Owl, 8 Screech Owls, 12 Great Horned Owls, and 22
Barred Owls were identified.
The Yellow-breasted Chat was found at the corner of Steptoe Hill Rd, Rt. 763
and Lime Kilm Rd, Rt. 733 (about five miles west of where Rt. 733 intersects
w/RT. 15).
The Common Yellowthroat was at Banshee Reeks.
The Brown Thrasher and one of the Rusty Blackbird were a couple miles north &
west of where the Chat was found.
The other Rusty Blackbird was located on Digges Valley Rd., RT. 707.
Waterfowl diversity was much lower than normal and winter finch numbers were
lower than we had expected from recent reports (the low numbers of Purple
Finches and the total lack of Pine Siskins).
Joe Coleman, compiler
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
