Snowy Owl
A Snowy Owl had been reported in the Mt. Crawford/Bridgewater area of Rockingham County. The species is a rare winter visitor to Virginia, and only appears when either there is a food shortage much farther to the north, or the food is so abundant farther north that many owls survived and needed to move to new winter territories. I had previously only seen two of them, one in December 2013 and the other in December 2017. The two previous Snowy Owls were different birds (one adult and one juvenile), and this current one appears to be a different owl as well. Amazingly, all three owls have been seen less than 1.5 miles apart, and it amazes me how different Snowy Owls can show up in the same location each time.
It was chilly all morning (41 degrees) and heavily overcast, but there wasn't much wind, and I wanted to try to find the Snowy Owl before it departed. I met up with Tink Moyer, and we looked for it unsuccessfully. As we were leaving to search for it elsewhere, we met up with other birders we knew, and decided to call each other if it was seen. No sooner than when we got about a mile away, I got a call that it was spotted very close to where we first looked.
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl
My Snowy Owl sightings
We made our way back south and east, stopping at Leonard's Pond, and then birding near the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport and farm areas south and east from there. Tink and I ended up with 25 to 30 avian species, but the dark skies made some of the identifications, as well as photography, a challenge.
Carolina Wren
Downy Woodpecker with very little tail feathers
Hermit Thrush
Belted Kingfisher
We saw 10 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, and 4 American Kestrels. One of these hawks was very dark underneath, almost like that of a western light-morph adult, but it was probably a northern race Red-tailed Hawk. Photos taken from my car weren't great.
Dark Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawks
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
American Kestrel
One of the hawks we saw had landed in a field to grab a meal, and from its facial patterns, I wondered if it might have been a juvenile Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk subspecies. But I think that the light wing crescents indicate a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk.
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Our last raptor of the outing was a sub-adult (IV) Bald Eagle at the Virginia Department of Forestry area along Route 340.
Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle