rehab babies, a titmouse and two bluebirds. photo by Melissa Coe

This morning I sat outside in front of our largest flight cage having my morning coffee, and all around me I saw birds we had raised and released here within the past month. I was pleased to see three of the five Downy Woodpeckers we released were back hunting for their favorite: sunflower suet by Mills Brothers. Two of the Red Bellies also were looking for suet, while three wrens and three of the five Eastern Bluebirds were hunting mealworms. I also saw our Brown Thrasher and maybe a Robin or two, though its harder to tell if those are our recent releases. I have been offering supplemental feeding for weeks as I release birds either individually or by leaving the door to that cage open for the day. The last time I used the "open door" method, I later found three birds and a squirrel from an earlier release back in there hunting a free meal!

All this to say, thank you to all the volunteers and donors this baby bird season who made it happen!

  August, 2010.   -Melissa Coe, Piedmont Wildlife Rehab

Augusta and Highland County, VA
January 15 -18, 2010                   by George Wheaton

On the afternoon of January the 15^th, 11 members of the Piedmont Bird Club (PBC) braved predictions of torrential rain – to be followed by “a wintry mix” – and traveled north to Staunton,VA. On the morning of January 17, eight of the group continued west to Monterey, VA and the Blue Grass Valley. Thus began the PBC’s third winter outing to this region of VA’s northwestern Mountains and Valleys.

Each winter visit to this area brings its surprises. This year it was the “balmy” weather. We birded in chilly temperatures and light breezes on Saturday and admired our local guide birding in a short-sleeved shirt! The heavy rains came Saturday night but tapered off to intermittent drizzle on Sunday, finally stopping by Sunday afternoon. Temperatures stayed above freezing. Monday was glorious. Heavy clouds gave way to brilliant blue sky and unseasonably warm temperatures. This was a dramatic change from the preceding month when deep snow (30 to 36 inches) was followed by a prolonged period of bitterly cold weather.

Local birders told us that the weather had affected their birds. Fewer species were being seen and the number of individual birds was down. Nevertheless, with several pairs of very bright eyes and persistence, we were able to identify 67 species (see attached list), including several of our targets. 

As he did on our past trips, our local guide in Staunton delivered breathtaking views of Barn Owl and found us our one and only Cackling Goose (Richardson’s subspecies). We sorted through a flock of Horned Larks numbering in the hundreds but did not find a hoped for Lapland Longspur. 

The Blue Grass Valley supplied our wanted raptors. Although Red-tailed Hawk numbers seemed to be down from previous years, we did find, after quite a bit of searching, our target species. We came across five Bald Eagles (adult, subadults, juvenile). We had stunning looks at a minimum of five Rough-legged Hawks (three dark-phase and two light-phase birds). We had them perched (showing off their feathered legs), in flight, and hovering. Arguably the best bird came last. Thanks again to bright eyes and good local information, we were able to tally three adult Golden Eagles. These majestic raptors rule the roost in the Blue Grass Valley and its surrounding mountains.   

                       --  by Emily Tyler

     With the BioBlitz! at Price Park scheduled for the same day as this field trip, and with several participants wanting to attend both events, the field trip date was  changed to Sunday, May 16. The day started out a bit dreary with the possibility of  rain, but turned into a beautiful day which ended up rewarding us with 64 species of  birds! Six birders participated on the morning trip down from the main parking lot
to the boardwalk and back.
     We had magnificent looks at Prothonotary Warblers, saw or heard nearly all possible woodpeckers in the park, heard the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Wood Ducks, the Acadian  Flycatcher, and many others.
With special permission, five of us went on to the adjacent Plantation Estates property, which is the newest part of the park. This is an entirely different habitat, an area surrounded by mature forest that was razed for development and is now growing up in small trees, brambles, and dense undercover well suited for Bob White, Prairie Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, Yellow-Breasted Chat, Field Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and American Goldfinch, among others.
     Lacking any tanagers on the list we then headed over to the old School for the Deaf campus on Summit Avenue, now the Gateway University Research Park. Diana Bowman, who works there (how lucky can one get to be surrounded by field and forest!), had heard Scarlet Tanagers there that week. Indeed, we were able to add  the Scarlet Tanager to bring our total for the six hours to 64, several more than
any other PBC trip to The Summit Environmental Education Center and Haw River State Park.

AEWWTP Field Trip, August 21, 2010 
                      --  by Louise Brown

     We had a nice sunny and not too terribly hot day for the trip to the aromatic Archie Ellege Wastewater Treatment Plant in Winston-Salem. We were rewarded with a small group of the target shorebirds: Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer; Solitary, Spotted, Semipalmated, and Least Sandpipers. Other water birds were Great Blue and Green Herons, Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Mallard, and Blue-Winged Teal. We were delighted to see an Osprey flying over the mud flats, spooking the shore birds, and a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk. There were a number of “regular birds,” Cardinals, Carolina Wrens and such, but we did watch a family of young Indigo Buntings foraging in the bushes and Henry Link spotted an Orchard Oriole. 

     While the birding was a little lean, there were quite a few butterflies. Our list of the ones we could ID included Tiger Swallowtail, Buckeye, Monarch, Sleepy Orange, Cloudless Sulphur, Pearl Crescent, Red-spotted Purple, Hackberry Emperor, Sootywing, Little Glassy Wing, and Horace’s Duskywing. The Hackberry was a last minute gift – it got inside my car right as we were leaving. Lisa Hayes got it on her finger to put it out the window and it didn't want to leave her, she had to shake her hand several times before it flew off.