Whisky Drinking Warbler Watchers.
Photo by Scott Harris

It was a beautiful Mother’s Day weekend for the Whisky Drinking Warbler Watchers (Robert Justin, Peter Lyttle, David Manning, Scott Harris and Linda Millington) to enjoy birding all around Loudoun County.

On day one, we started at Algonkian Park and as usual scored over 60 species toward our weekend goal of 100 species.  Notable species at Algonkian included a Prothonotary Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Warbling Vireos, an abundance of Baltimore Orioles and an elusive Northern Waterthrush.

Moving on from Algonkian, we got Grasshopper Sparrow, American Kestrel and Blue Grosbeak at Thunder Road.

But the highlight of day one was finishing up the day on a private farm where a suspected American Barn Owl resided.  Approaching the silo cautiously, Scott pulled out his phone and put the camera on selfie mode to aim up the feed chute of the silo.  Last year the barn owl pooped on Linda from this chute, so we approached with extreme caution.  Recent owl pellets and bones were strewn about the base of the chute.  As Scott and Dave were just getting in place, with Peter and Robert maintaining a respectful distance, the owl let out a blood-chilling scream, nearly giving Scott and Dave a heart-attack!  You can listen to the audio, which is quite amusing, as we bravely scramble to get away from the silo.

We ended day one at 85 species, 15 short of our goal.  The last 15 would be much harder to get.

Photo by Scott Harris

On day two, we spent most of the morning at Sweet Run State Park and were thrilled to pick up goodies like Kentucky Warbler, American Redstart (two of which were tussling), White-eyed Vireo, Swamp Sparrow, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush and a couple of Scarlet Tanagers among others.

We finished the day at Banshee Reeks, hoping to see Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, but none ever came.  By the end, we were sadly two shy of our 100 species total, with several possible birds like Kildeer, Belted Kingfisher, Cooper’s Hawk, Wild Turkey and Ruby-throated Hummingbird eluding us.  Had we been a little luckier, we would have made our goal.  You can see the complete list on eBird at: https://ebird.org/tripreport/348320.

Nevertheless, we raised over $3000 for our team and had two excellent days birding with good friends.  Can you really ask for more?

A big thanks to Linda, who couldn’t be with us, but did secure a lot of the sites for us to visit, and thank you to the property owners for graciously allowing us on their properties.

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