I wandered around the county checking ponds for waterfowl the past few days.
There was a good variety of species even though most of the ponds are still ice
covered. The Ross’ Goose that I reported last week is still present on Barger
Quarry just outside of Lexington. On the quarry there were also Hooded
Mergansers, 1 Horned Grebe, and Canada Geese. At the Ponds Housing development
just outside of Lexington, there were Gadwalls (14) on the front pond and on
the quarry there were 13 Common Mergansers, 6 Coots, and 4 Redheads. Willow
Lake continues to be frozen over and no birds were present although it is clear
from the goose-poop on the ice that the flock is at the lake at night. At
McCormick’s Farm, along with the usual domestic geese and ducks, there were 2
Gadwalls, 4 Mallards, perhaps 50 Canada Geese, and a pair of Northern Shovelers.
The Rough-legged Hawk was reported to my by a local birder. Jerry Jackson had
seen the bird a few times recently, so I headed up to the Brownsburg area in
hopes of finding it. I located the Rough-legged Hawk on Saturday and was able
to get a few photos of it from a distance. The hawk is a light phase and
appears to be a female. Today, I relocated the bird but it was too far away to
photograph. The hawk has been seen west of Brownsburg along New Providence Rd
between Hayes Creek Rd and Pisgah Rd.
I posted a few photos of the Rough-legged Hawk and Shovelers on Flickr, if you
are interested in seeing them The hawk shots are of mediocre quality, but the
necessary field marks are visible to ID the bird.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vmibiology/
Dick Rowe
VMI Biology