All – I did a quick birding venture before the rain yesterday morning and now
snow!!! this morning. There are lots of birds singing – year-round residents
who have taken up breeding. Tree Swallows have returned and already setting
up territories – almost time for TRES research to begin. At the Ponds housing
development outside of Lexington there were 4 Gadwalls (I don’t think they’ll
be here much longer), lots of singing Meadowlarks, a Killdeer, a few Savannah
Sparrows, and a Coot, oh and of course Canada Geese. At Willow Lake in the
northern part of Rockbridge County near Raphine, it was quiet but there were 7
Lesser Scaup near the gazebo, 2 Horned Grebes along the dam, and 3 Blue-winged
Teal in the creek that feeds the lake. McCormick’s Farm (a VT farm about 1
mile from the I-81 Raphine exit with a museum/mill for Cyrus McCormick, it’s
open to the public) was, initially, uninteresting. There were no ducks on the
front pond and the back pond is still drained. I learned that they are
replacing the outflow valve and want to dredge the pond. It has been too wet
so far this winter to dredge the back pond. There were 2 very large carp in
the back pond – maybe 30 inches – that were transferred to the front pond. As
I was leaving McCormick’s a sparrow caught my eye – it was acting differently
than Savannah or Song sparrows do. It was flitting back and forth from the
fence to the pastures and also feeding along the road and driveway of the house
near the road. I watched carefully and spotted white outer tail feathers when
it flew – a Vesper Sparrow. The sparrow and I played chase for about 30
minutes. I got some good views of it and some photos even though it was a
pretty gray morning. In the photos you can see the distinct eye ring,
rust/chestnut patch on the shoulder, and the white tail feathers. We don’t see
many VESP – they may nest here in the summer, but that would be unusual.
Mainly they pass through. When I lived in Michigan (graduate school), VESP
were one of the more common roadside sparrows out in the farm land. So, it was
a treat to find this one.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vmibiology/
Dick Rowe
VMI Biology
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