Hola,
I spun through Remington today, checking the fields along Newby's Shop Road
in Culpeper County, Grassdale and Strodes Mill in Fauquier, plus a few other
fields that are rarely mentioned here as they seldom have birds. I found two
Killdeer and one Horned Lark. That's it. Everything was somewhere else.
There was a lot of disturbance on the fields, and all have taken on a
different attitude since my last visit. There were trucks rolling the plowed
fields, and others spreading a gray, powdery, chicken-crap smelling fertilizer
on
them, and I suspect that is why the birds were gone, though certainly any of
the shorebirds out there might have moved on. I doubt the hundreds of
killdeer and horned larks would have gone far. The fields on Newby's Shop are
becoming more covered in the green plastic mesh that helps hold the sod
together
after it is harvested. Birds will still use these fields, and the mesh
doesn't seem to have the potential to snag birds (though that might be wrong),
but
they use these fields far less than fields without it. The formerly clumpy
fields on Grassdale Road have been rolled flat, which makes it easier to find
birds if they're there. The only fields that are still clumpy are on
Newby's Shop Road, but that might be about to change. It seems that the
clumpy
ones are a bit more attractive, and that field on Newby's Shop also holds
water
if it rains.
I usually check these fields every other day or so, but will be out of town
until early next week. If any of you list-lurkers get out there and see some
birds (or not), please drop me a note and let me know what you find if you
don't post it here. Stuff should continue to come in, and I do think these
birds are just on fields that aren't in view from roads.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia, USA
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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