Gordonsville, VA CBC 12/30/18

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

For the past few years, Scott Boven has asked Walt Childs and me to join him and his team to do the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in section II of the Gordonsville, VA area in Louisa County. This can be an unusally productive day, as there are several farm parcels containing large lakes where all kinds of waterfowl can be found, as well as eagles, hawks, owls, and in some years, Sandhill Cranes. In addition, Scott has put in a lot of effort to cultivate relationships with many of the landowners, and this CBC team has permission to access these fields and lakes that are not open to the public.

Walt and I asked Huck Hutchens, and friend of ours who was visiting relatives in the area, to join us. Huck is formerly from this area, but now lives in Texas, where he is the birding guru at the Estero Llano State Park in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Today's CBC was a rained out make-up date, and Scott couldn't be there, so John Holden volunteered to lead the group. Other teams members were Jeannie Holden, Doug Rogers, and Greg Goodson. These four team members started out early in the morning, and Walt, Huck, and I met up with them on Jack Jouett Road a little before 10:00 a.m. We ended up with 52 avian species, but I didn't see all the species on the section list.

Once we met up with John and his group, we birded at Bracketts Farm, Old Raptor Farm, and Hawkwood Farm. All three of these farms have good sized lakes, and the 1,000 acre Old Raptor Farm has always proven to be the most interesting.

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Huck (left), me, and Walt (right); photo courtesy Scott Boven

We started out at Bracketts Farm, and it was unsually quiet compared with other CBC visits in previous years. We did see six Hooded Mergansers, a Gadwall, and a Great Blue Heron at the lake, and a fair number of woodland birds nearby. The best bird was a Winter Wren that we heard, but did not see.

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Great Blue Heron

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Hooded Mergansers

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Hooded Merganser

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White-throated Sparrow

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Downy Woodpecker

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Red-bellied Woodpecker

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Carolina Wren

Our next stop was the first of two sections of Old Raptor Farm. We took the long way around along East Green Springs Road to the entrance off of Route 15. We stopped on the way to watch a good-sized flock of Cedar Waxwings as they came to drink at a puddle by the road.

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Cedar Waxwings

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Cedar Waxwings

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Cedar Waxwings

As we entered Old Raptor Farm from Route 15, we saw two Red-tailed Hawks, and an American Kestrel carrying a mouse for lunch.

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Red-tailed Hawk

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Red-tailed Hawk

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American Kestrel

Old Raptor Farm has a Barn Owl that roosts in more than one of the barns there, and we checked the barns on this side of the creek, but only found owl pellets. As we found at Bracketts Farm, the lake here only had a few ducks: Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, and Gadwalls.

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Hooded Mergansers

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Hooded Mergansers

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Mallards and Gadwall

There were some interesting grassland birds, including about a dozen Northern Bobwhite quails.

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White-crowned Sparrow

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Song Sparrow

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Northern Cardinal

I saw a female Northern Harrier and a buck with only one antler remaining. A Red-tailed Hawk watched as we left for the Jack Jouet Road section of Old Raptor Farm.

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Buck

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Red-tailed Hawk

We planned to meet up at 2:00 p.m. at the large gray barn along Jack Jouett Road with David O'Leary, the owner of Old Raptor Farm. We stopped on Jack Jouett Road soon after turning from Route 15, when I spotted a male "Gray Ghost" Northern Harrier.

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male "Gray Ghost" Northern Harrier

A moment later, a female Northern Harrier joined the male in flight. At one point they turned in flight, talon-to-talon, as if they were passing a meal from one to the other, before continuing on.

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Male and female Northern Harriers

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Male and female Northern Harriers

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Male and female Northern Harriers

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Male and female Northern Harriers

We met up with David, and we checked the large gray barn for the Barn Owl we had seen there last year, but again, all we found were owl pellets. We hiked a good distance in the fields to where David had been Short-eared Owls. Sure enough, two of them took to flight.

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Short-eared Owls

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Short-eared Owl

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Short-eared Owls

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Short-eared Owls

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Short-eared Owl

We saw a small flock of Eastern Meadowlarks before heading off to Hawkwood Farm.

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Eastern Meadowlark

The lake at Hawkwood Farm was also quiet. All we saw there were some Canada Geese, another Red-tailed Hawk, and a distant, and only one of the day, Yellow-rumped Warbler.

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Canada Geese

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Yellow-rumped Warbler

Although this year's CBC outing was not as productive as in the previous few years, it was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to next year's event.


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