Horned Larks
Huck Hutchens, a good friend and the birding guru at Estero Llano State Park in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, was here in Virginia, and we met up in Waynesboro to do some birding. The snow from a couple of days ago was starting to melt, and our plan was to look for Horned Larks, and possible Longspurs and Pipits, along the grassy edges of roadways that had melted. It was supposed to get up into the mid-40s, but heavy cloud cover kept temperatures in the mid to upper 30s all day, and there was very little snow melt. We started off on Strickley Road, and finally found a small flock of Horned Larks nearby on Patterson Mill Road.
Horned Larks
There had been less snow farther north, so we proceeded up Route 340 to the Elkton area, but once again, we saw little snow melting and only a few birds. We decided to change our plans and look for waterfowl where lakes and ponds had melted, and our first stop was at Lake Campbell in Harrisonburg. We saw some Mallards, Gadwalls, one Ring-necked Duck, Canada Geese, and a Belted Kingfisher.
Gadwalls and Ring-necked Duck
Canada Geese
Belted Kingfisher
Next stop was at nearby Lake Shenandoah, and this lake was more productive. We saw lots of Lesser and Greater Canada Geese, Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, an American Coot, two Ruddy Ducks, and Gadwalls. I thought that I was photographing a female Common Merganser fly by, but the photos show that it was a Common Goldeneye. One of the shots appears to have a Canvasback in the photo. There were sparrows and other woodland birds near the shoreline.
Hooded Mergansers
American Coot
Ruddy Duck
Gadwalls
Common Goldeneye and Canvasback
Common Goldeneye
Common Goldeneye
Common Goldeneye
Note the size differences between the Common Goldeneye, Mallard, and Canada Goose
Northern Cardinal
From there, we drove to Silver Lake in Dayton, where we saw more of the same species, and several woodland species near the shoreline.
Gadwall
Canvasback
Canvasback
Mallards
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
We decided to see if the Nazarene Wetlands was frozen, which it was, but there we saw a larger flock of Horned Larks, and two Eastern Meadowlarks.
Horned Larks
Horned Lark
Horned Larks
Eastern Meadowlark
On the return, we stopped at 7 Bridges Park in Bridgewater, where a short drive and circle go by the river and a few homes with bird feeders. We saw a pair of Pied-billed Grebes in the river, and lots of birds coming to the feeders, including some Pine Siskins, a species that I haven't seen for a couple of years.
Pied-billed Grebe
American Goldfinches and House Finches
American Goldfinch, Pine Siskin, and Northern Cardinal
Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch
Pine Siskin
Pine Siskins
One of the female House Finches had some yellow on its rump, and I wonder if it was an immature male?
American Goldfinches and House Finches
We saw several woodland species in the nearby trees.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
White-breasted Nuthatch
There were quite a few sparrows along the fence line of the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport, and we saw several raptors on our way back to Waynesboro, including Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, a Northern Harrier, and a couple of American Kestrels.
Adult White-crowned Sparrow
Juvenile White-crowned Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
We ended the outing with 44 avian species - not too bad for a cold, cloudy, winter day.