Shenandoah Valley, VA, 1/27/16

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

We had 16 to 20 inches of snow over the weekend. Walt Childs and I wanted to look for rarities in the Shenandoah Valley, and take advantage of birds congregating where the snow had melted. We thought it would be fairly easy to find some flocks of Horned Larks, but wanted to see if any longspurs might with the larks. We found several good sized flocks of Horned Larks, but there weren't any longspurs with them.


Horned Larks


Horned Larks


Horned Larks

We saw quite a few common woodland and field species.


Eastern Bluebird


Eastern Meadowlark

We saw 9 or 10 Red-tailed Hawks, and 6 American Kestrels.


Red-tailed Hawk


Red-tailed Hawk


Red-tailed Hawk


Red-tailed Hawk


Red-tailed Hawk


American Kestrel


American Kestrel


American Kestrel

We ended the day trip with 31 avian species, and the best birds of the day were sparrows.


Savannah Sparrow


White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows


White-throated Sparrow


White-crowned Sparrow


White-crowned Sparrow



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