Greetings,
Twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit and a steady twenty-mile-per-hour wind were
waiting for me when I arrived at Big Meadows on Skyline Drive this sunny
Saturday afternoon. After my first walk through a portion of the meadow, I was
pretty sure that was going to be the highlight of my day, having only
encountered Juncos and a couple Ravens and a distant flock of what I thought
were large finches. I went back to my car for a respite from the wind for a
bit, and decided to make a second pass, this one completely around the
perimeter. When I was still along the gravel Rapidan Road, I saw a harrier
unsteadily coursing low over the meadow a few seconds before it flushed a flock
of 30-35 Snow Buntings. I watched the flock scatter and circle a bit before
they headed SW toward the sun. I never saw them land, but I stopped following
them for a bit to keep my retinas happy. My path took me to the general area
from where they flushed, and it was a dry, rocky stream bed.
I continued to the eastern edge of the big meadow, and found a small grove of
pines, one of which had 13 White-winged Crossbills working the pinecones. While
I was driving Skyline Drive on my way up, I paid as much attention as I could
to the pines I passed, hoping to find crossbills. Few pines held any cones at
all. I don't suspect crossbills are making much of a living up there, but
surely some are migrating down the ridge and stopping for snacks when they see
cones.
As I walked back west toward my car, I had a flock of birds approach that I was
hoping would be the Snow Buntings agin, but I had to settle for about 22
American Pipits that landed about seventy yards from me and completely
disappeared.
Two Turkey Vultures represented my seventh and final species for my two-hour
visit. That's a lot of time outside to walk away with only seven species in
Virginia.
Cheers,
Todd
Sent from my iPad, so please pardon the typos and autocorrect nuisances that I
didn't catch
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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