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