Hi all,Eve Gaige and I spent the day birding around northern Augusta and
southern Rockingham Counties today. All in all it was a really fun day.
The highlight was my personal first-ever 3-Swan day (and all in Rockingham)!
We were able to view the continuing Trumpeter & Mute Swans along Silver Creek
Rd (previously well reported on these listservs by Diane L) as well as the Mute
Swan at Silver Lake. We, were, however surprised to find our 3rd swan, an
immature Tundra floating on the river at the far end of Wildwood Park in
Bridgewater.
Anyway, here's our summary:We started off the day at Badger Rd (Augusta) where
we lucked into an enormous Sparrow flock, primarily White-crowned (145+) but
also 15 WTSparrow, 4 Song Sparrow, 35 Junco, and 2 Am. Tree Sparrows which was
a really nice treat that gave awesome looks. These were all in the fields on
the north side of Badger Rd and not too far east of Nat. Chimneys Rd (the
"Shrike field"). Unfortunately, we didn't find the reported Loggerhead Shrike
and moved on.The Mount Solon Pond held 75+ Canada Geese, 3 Gadwall, 4 Am.
Wigeon, 18 Mallard, 1 Shoveler, 4 Pintail, and 1 GBHeron.
We headed up to the 4-way intersection below Reddish/Bother Knobs and failed to
find any Red Crossbills at the intersection. The roads were too snowy to
proceed to Reddish or Bother Knob. Driving back down Briery Branch Rd
(Rockingham), we hit a nice pocket of birds right before the reservoir. Here,
our highlights were: 1 YBSapsucker, 3 Downy & 1 Hairy WP, 2 Black-capped
Chickadees, 1 B. Creeper, 1 GCKinglet, 3 Fox Sparrow.Down in the valley we got
great looks of the continuing Mute & Trumpeter Swans along Silver Creek Rd.
Other birds along Silver Creek Rd included a flyover Bald Eagle pair, 1
Wilson's Snipe, 1 Am Kestrel, and 1 H. Lark.Silver Lake held 80+ Canada Geese,
1 Mute Swan, 57 Gadwall, 6 Am. Wigeon, 100+ Mallard, 1 Canvasback, 9 Redhead, 1
Bufflehead.
Lake Campbell held 270+ Canada Geese, 9 Gadwall, 45 Mallard, 3 N. Pintail, 1
Canvasback, 4 Redhead, 16 RNDuck, 1 Lesser Scaup, 1 GBHeron.Lake Shenandoah's
only waterfowl were 5 Canada Geese and 6 Mallards but we did have our day's
only Belted Kingfisher.We lucked into finding 2 Snow Geese (white morph adult
and immature) with 70+ Canada Geese at the ponds behind the Rockingham Memorial
Hospital.Along Hwy 257 in Mt Crawford we had a flock of 35 Am. Pipits.Wildwood
Park in Bridgewater yielded 130+ Canada Geese, 1 Tundra Swan floating on the
river at the back of the park, 2 Am. Wigeon, 13 Mallard, 1 Redhead, 1 PBGrebe,
1 resident gray-morph E. Screech-Owl, 1 Pileated Woodpecker.
We finished the day back at Badger Rd where we were able to get distant but
satisfactory looks at the Loggerhead Shrike to the north of Badger Rd, near the
intersection with Nat. Chimneys Rd.
Thanks to Eve for a very fun day and to everyone else for finding all these
good birds, like the Trumpeter and Shrike! Good Birding to all,Gabriel
MapelNew Hope, VA
