VA Birders,
Our Northern Virginia Bird Club Winter Highland Co. Weekend was scheduled
for Feb. 17-19, but it was postponed one week due to bad weather in the
mountains. We held the trip the weekend of Feb. 24-26. My apologies for this
late report, but I simply haven't had time to post it before now. However, I
decided to report it anyway, because I wanted to let other Highland Co. birders
know what we saw. The 8 NVBC members who were able to go on the rescheduled
trip found at least 52 species of birds in Highland Co. on Saturday and Sunday.
We spent Friday night in Staunton and did some birding there that afternoon,
but we saw very few birds in Staunton due to the high winds there. Happily,
even tho we encountered snow showers in Highland Co. on Saturday, the winds had
subsided and we found most of our target birds. Driving into Highland Co. on
Saturday morning, we made our first stop at the feeders in McDowell, where we
found our first of several Fox Sparrows, as well as an estimated 50 Am.
Goldfinches. However, we did not find any Pine Siskins this year. One member
reported seeing 2 Purple Finches, which we could not refind.
From McDowell, we drove to Monterey, and after checking in at the Highland
Inn and forming carpools, we headed for the Blue Grass Valley. We found our
only Golden Eagle of the trip (an immature) and a flock of 26 Wild Turkeys on
the way to Blue Grass. In Blue Grass, we found about 20 Common Ravens, several
Cedar Waxwings, an Am. Pipit at the feedlot pond, and 2 Rough-legged Hawks (1
dark phase and 1 light phase) before taking a break for lunch. After lunch, we
returned to Blue Grass, and this time we took Rt. 640 all the way up to the
West Virginia border, finding 3 Rusty Blackbirds in a ravine along the way
where we had found Am. Tree Sparrows in the past. We also made another loop
around most of the valley, and found a pair of Horned Larks in the road along
the way. This time, when we got back to Rt. 640 again, we turned right and
took it up to Hightown, stopping at some feeders along the way, where we found
our only Black-capped Chickadees on this trip.
On Sunday morning, we headed south on Rt. 220, and drove along the Jackson
River much of the way to Bolar, where we found 14 Hooded Mergansers and 7 Black
Ducks on the river, and my/our first Eastern Phoebe of the year nearby. We
also saw some Canada Geese and Mallards along the river, and we found our only
Belted Kingfishers on this trip here as well.
Finally, before heading home, a few of us took one last trip around the
Blue Grass Valley, hoping for a closer look at the Rough-legged Hawks. We
didn't get a closer look, but we did find a Red-phase Eastern Screech-Owl
sitting up in its hole in the Sunday sun, a real farewell treat! In closing, I
should also mention that we found about 10 each of Bald Eagles (both adults and
immatures) and Am. Kestrels in Highland Co., and we found both species in all
just about all parts of the county. The Bald Eagles seem to be increasing
along with the trout hatcheries there!
Good birding,
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
