Hola,
I helped out with the Nokesville CBC today, covering all portions of the
count circle that are in Fauquier County. This is largely areas along Elk
Run Road, near Bristersburg, as well as most of Catlett, and Calverton; all
small hamlets within Fauquier County.
The most uncommon bird I found today was a Loggerhead Shrike, on Laws Ford
Road, off of Elk Run Road south of Catlett. Near the end of Laws Ford Road
are a couple of new towers for the Dominion Power project that is a bit
disruptive here and there, and near the construction equipment associated
with this project was a Loggerhead Shrike perched on a wire.
Also in this same general area were a ton of Mourning Doves. I counted
440 before they all started to fly around, messing up my count. I was never
able to count more than that, though I think there are more in the area.
Unique to me was a field along Shenandoah Path that had 55 Yellow-shafted
Flickers on it. I've seen Flickers on the ground in a field before, but
never had I seen so many. The vegetation in the field was relatively short,
with the flickers' heads above it. It was a lot of fun scanning and
finding another little moustached woodpecker hiding on the ground.
The utter highlight for me was the flock of blackbirds that I flirted with
all day long. Throughout the day, I would find either small flocks or
larger ribbons of blackbirds flying around, but I was never able to catch up
with them. At about four-fifteen PM I found the mother lode in a field
along Old Weaversville Road, just south of Route 28 and off of Route 616
(Bristersburg Road). This flock was at least 23,000 birds, and the bulk of
them
were Common Grackles. There were a few thousand European Starlings in
there as well, and probably a thousand or more Red-winged Blackbirds, along
with fewer Brown-headed Cowbirds. I was unable to tease a Rusty Blackbird or
Brewer's Blackbird out of the masses.
Other things I found interesting included the decided lack of Killdeer.
Despite being in plenty of good habitat, I did not see a single Killdeer.
Red-shoudered Hawks outnumbered Red-tailed Hawks about 20 to seven, a ratio I
have not noted on Virginia's piedmont. I never found a Swamp Sparrow, but
I had probably as many White-crowned Sparrows as I have ever had on a CBC,
with 107 noted. The rest of the totals will be submitted to Kim Hosen,
the compiler, and eventually posted to the Audubon CBC website.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County, USA
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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