Hi all,Vic Laubach and I spent the day birding in Highland County enjoying the
warm temperatures. We started at the Monterey Fish Hatchery where we had four
flyover Common Mergansers.
We had a great three hours driving through the Blue Grass Valley finding plenty
of raptors along Wimer Mtn and Hardscrabble Roads. Highlights included a
distant unidentified gull, 8 Turkey Vultures, many sightings of at least 5
individual Golden Eagles (2 adults, 2 subadults, 1 juvenile), 3 Harriers, 3
Bald Eagles (occupied nest), 9 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Kestrel, and today's
highlight bird, a light-morph Rough-legged Hawk. We had good scope views of
this bird, an apparent adult male, along Wimer Mtn Rd above Hardscrabble Rd.
Farther south in Highland County we found another adult Golden Eagle along Dug
Bank Rd and two more male Harriers along Blue Grass Valley Rd.
We finished the day at Bells Lane (Staunton) with 140 Canada Geese, 5 Mallard,
14 Hooded & 16 Common Mergansers, 3 Great Blue Herons, 160 Turkey Vultures, 5
Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Kestrel, 1 E. Phoebe, the continuing
Loggerhead Shrike in the field near the ponds viewed from the top of the hill,
and 3 Short-eared Owls at dusk in the same field.
Thanks to Vic for a really fun day out and about. Good Birding,Gabriel Mapel
