Great Blue Heron
Walt Childs and I headed west over the Blue Ridge to Swoope in Augusta County. We were looking for owls, hawks, eagles, ducks, and whatever else we might find there. As we drove along Hewitt Road, we saw a Red-tailed Hawk being harassed by some crows, stopped to get a look at a Great Blue Heron, and saw our first of four American Kestrels on this outing.
Great Blue Heron
American Kestrel
Smith Lake was fairly quiet. We saw a small flock of Mallards, a few Killdeers, some Swamp and Song Sparrows, a Belted Kingfisher, and saw a crow chasing a female Northern Harrier out to the west.
Mallards
Killdeers
Swamp Sparrow
Northern Harrier
We drove some of the roads in Swoope, added some sparrow species and saw another Red-tailed Hawk.
Savannah Sparrow
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
We then looped back along North Mountain Road, and had our highlight birds of the day. We saw a male, "Gray Ghost," Northern Harrier that was soon joined by a female Northern Harrier. They circled for a while and did some aerial maneuvers.
Male Northern Harrier
Male Northern Harrier
Female Northern Harrier
Northern Harriers
Northern Harriers
We headed south from there, where we saw three more American Kestrels, and our fourth Northern Harrier of the day. It was a female that was flying back and forth looking for a meal.
American Kestrel
Female Northern Harrier
We drove farther south into northern Rockbridge County where the only new species we saw was Canada Goose, but by the time we headed back to the the north, we were up to six Red-tailed hawks for the day. We ended the trip on Guthrie Road in Stuart's Draft, where we added a White-crowned Sparrow to make it 32 avian species for the day. The skies were getting very dark with rain clouds, but we finished the trip with our fifth and sixth Northern Harriers of the day - another male and female pair.
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Harriers