Greetings,
I stopped at Sky Meadows State Park in NW Fauquier County at about
five-thirty PM on Sunday afternoon. My first stop was at the fishing pond on
the west
side of US 17, where a Virginia Rail was reported 25-26 June by Roger Clapp and
Scott Baron. On the north side of this pond is about a quarter acre of
cattails. I was standing here when I saw a Virginia Rail fly from the pond
edge
into the cattails. It was here also where I stuck my right hand into some sort
of stinging plant, and managed to have it contact my bare right shin.
Rapture, I tell you. As I was walking away from this area, the rail gave a
couple of
"kiddick" calls.
I went into the park through the pay station, and up to where the road crests
the hill and bears to the left. It was here that I noticed several large
birds flycatching along the trees on the east side of the field. Turns out
that
there were several species here, not all ones that immediately come to mind as
flycatchers. There were five or six Baltimore Orioles, a dozen Scarlet
Tanagers, a Black-billed Cuckoo, two Yellow-billed Cuckoos, an Eastern Phoebe,
Bluebirds, a Warbling Vireo, and a bunch of Red-headed Woodpeckers all picking
off
a mostly hard-to-see bug (the cuckoos weren't flycatching). The adult
Red-headed Woodpeckers looked like a napkin blowing in the wind when they were
superimposed against the tree line on their flycatching sorties. I was blown
away
by the number of Scarlet Tanagers. All were green or yellow, with one excep
tion being a bird with a few scarlet feathers left. At one point five
Baltimore
Orioles were on the gravel road close enough that you could throw a blanket
over them. I stayed at this spot and watched these birds move down the tree
line for about a half hour. Additionally I noted about a dozen flickers, six
young Robins, five Eastern Kingbirds, fifteen or so Chipping Sparrows, Blue
Jays, seven Cedar Waxwings, and two Pewees.
Earlier in the day at my house in Jeffersonton, I had a Yellow Warbler
foraging along the treetops. After dark I heard my first Bobolinks of fall
migrating overhead.
Lastly, on Friday 13 August there were at least thirty Eastern Kingbirds
alighting atop trees at a private pond near Warrenton. There are a few pairs
that
breed at this spot, but clearly these were birds staging or stopping off.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia, USA
Culpeper County
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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