6 young birders showed up for the annual Highland summer field trip. Each year, we head into Highland county, a the least populated county in the state. This is a great spot for birding in summer, and we search for Golden-winged and Mourning Warblers, Alder Flycatchers and Black-billed Cuckoos that breed in the mountains and the Blue Grass Valley. Our first stop was Paddy Knob, a road that goes up into the mountains at the Virginia/West Virginia border. As we were driving, we heard a Mourning Warbler singing. We got out and were able to locate it. We continued up the road seeing/hearing Least Flycatcher, Dark-eyed Junco, and several warbler species including Chestnut-sided, Blackburnian and Worm-eating. We drove up some more and got out. We walked some more, eventually seeing three more Mourning Warblers.
Our second stop was the trout hatchery in Monterey. As we got out of the car, two Spotted Sandpipers flew off. A Bald Eagle soared overhead. We walked around the hatchery some more before heading back to the car.
We arrived at the bridge at Forks of Water, where we saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a Belted Kingfisher. We continued into Blue Grass Valley. We stopped at a barn off Wimer Mountain Road and scanned the swallows for Cliff. We soon found a group sitting on the wire. We continued down the road to the Golden-winged Warbler spot. We got out and searched for them, but did not have them where we'd seen them in previous years. We drove farther up the road into West Virginia to the O'Bryan property. We walked down the trail, and spotted a Golden-winged Warbler. We watched it until it dropped down into a lower tree and we couldn't see it anymore. We walked back to the cars and headed back down the road. We got out at the usual spot again, where we saw a Golden-winged Warbler fly by. We drove down Hardscrabble Road to look for Bobolinks, and ended up seeing 4 of them. 
We drove out of the Blue Grass Valley to Straight Fork. Alder Flycatchers breed here, and they are difficult to see away from this spot. We heard two Alders singing. We also looked for dragonflies, and saw several species.
We headed to the Canada Warbler spot, and it didn't take us long to see one. Our final stop was Allegheny Road, where we looked for Black-billed Cuckoos, but had no luck. We headed back home. It was a good day of birding in Highland, and we saw most of our target species.

​by Ira Lianez

As the sun rose on March 9, five young birders met at the Great Valu in Crozet. It was the morning after a late snow storm, so there was a bit of snow on the ground. Originally, our plan was to bird Crozet, but, because of the snow, we decided to also go into the Valley to look for longspurs.
We found the first ducks of the day before we even arrived at Lickinghole Creek, the first planned stop. Charlotte had spotted a duck as we drove, so we got out and sure enough, we saw two ring necked ducks on a little pond. As we got back in the car, we were surprias a wood duck flew over.
When we got to Lickinghole Creek, we walked down the path that leads to the pond. Snow covered the trees and blanketed the ground. A grey mist rose off the pond. Several green winged teal and mallards foraged by the mud flat. There wasn’t much else, but as we walked back to the car, we saw three more wood ducks fly over.
Our next two stops were Old Trail Golf Course and King Family Vineyards. At Old Trail, we saw several lesser scaup and ringed necked ducks, as well as a bufflehead. We were excited to see the scaup because they are uncommon in the area. At King Family Vineyards we found two hooded mergansers.
Our hunt for the Longspurs in the Valley was unfortunately unsuccessful because the snow melted before we made it out there. However, the last spot of the day, McCune’s Pond, was fantastic. A huge flock of blackbirds
including red winged blackbirds, brown headed cowbirds and common grackles, foraged in the field as we pulled up. There were at least 500 birds. As we walked down to the pond through the hayfield, we flushed two horned larks. They sat briefly on stalks, allowing us to get good views and photos. On top of the hill, we looked out at the pond below and saw a flock of about 300 geese and a bunch of ducks scattered around the pond. We quickly spotted the five greater white fronted and five cackling geese that had been reported at McCune’s Pond the day before. These geese were lifers for several in the party. We scanned the ducks and found lesser and greater scaup, gadwall, green winged teal, mallard, black duck, canvasback, ruddy duck, ring necked duck and a common merganser. Over all, we had a great day and lots of fun.

By Theo Staengl

We had a good number of young birders attend the March meeting. Some of the local girl scouts also attended, and Charlotte gave a presentation teaching them about common birds in the area. After the presentation, we all went out and birded around Ivy Creek. We saw many common species including Downy Woodpecker, Mourning Dove and Northern Cardinal. We also saw Canada Goose and Brown Creeper. The highlight was a Pine Warbler at the feeder area. 
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​By Ira Lianez

8 young birders showed up for the annual Highland county winter trip. Our plan was to look for Golden Eagles in Blue Grass Valley, and then head to Bath county for waterfowl.

Our first stop was the town of McDowell where we checked the feeders for Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and rarer finches including Evening Grosbeak and Common Redpoll. Several goldfinches were present, along with a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Our next stop was the Monterey Trout Hatchery. We found 6 Canada Geese. We continued into Blue Grass Valley, watching out the window for Golden Eagles and other raptors. We parked at the Blue Grass Valley cemetery and scanned. We had an immature eagle flying in the distant, that was likely a Golden, but we could never confirm. We drove around the county in search of another eagle. The birds weren't very active, but we eventually spotted a second eagle. It was extremely distant, but we were able to get photos and confirm it as a Golden Eagle! The bird soon flew out of sight. We were satisfied with Highland county, so we drove into Bath in search for ducks. On the way, we spotted 2 Common Mergansers in a pond off 640. We later stopped at a pond off Meadowdale Road seeing American Black Duck, Canvasback and a few ducks we weren't able to identify.

Our first stop in Bath county was the Pumped Storage State lake, which was filled with ducks. It took a while to identify everything, but we identified Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Redhead, Canvasback, Gadwall and more.

Our next planned stop was Lake Moomaw. On the way, the first car flushed a Ruffed Grouse that landed on the side of a hill. The people in the second car saw it, but it soon flushed into the woods and out of sight. We got out and tried to relocate it. Two birders re-found it, but it soon disappeared before everyone else could see it.

We got back on the road and arrived at Lake Moomaw soon after. We viewed from a couple different spots. We had a Redhead, some Gadwall and a few Pied-billed Grebes. We were surprised to find a Ring-billed Gull. We also saw an adult Bald Eagle, 2 Greater Scaup and 13 Common Mergansers. We headed back, satisfied with a good day of birding in Highland and Bath counties.

By Ira Lianez

Ring-necked Duck. Photo by Ira Lianez.

On January 19, Drew Chaney led seven young birders to Dutch Gap Conservation Area. We parked and walked to the first overlook. The river was full of ducks including Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, Ring-necked Ducks, Wood Ducks, American Black Ducks and American Wigeons. We were surprised to see a single female Redhead. We walked to the top of a hill, viewing two ponds. There were several Bufflehead.
We walked down a trail into the forest, finding a Red-headed Woodpecker. We continued onto the boardwalk. We saw two Pileated Woodpeckers, hitting woodpecker closeout. We also saw an American Coot and two Eastern Phoebes. We walked to the James River overlook, and had nine Common Mergansers flying over.
We walked down the trail, where we got a closer look at the river. Two more Common Mergansers flew over, and we saw several Double-crested Cormorants in the water. An adult Bald Eagle perched in the trees. 
We arrived at Ancarrow's Landing, a park in the Richmond city limits. We were looking for an Ash-throated Flycatcher, a rarity that had been continuing since last year. We met many other birders looking for the flycatcher. They had seen it earlier, but could not relocate it. We searched most of the park, but were unable to find it. The highlight was an Orange-crowned Warbler.

​by Ira Lianez

Six young birders, including myself and my brother, set out to find as many birds as we could in a certain count circle located in Albemarle county for the annual Charlottesville Christmas Bird Count. Our circle including the Saunders–Monticello Trail, Monticello High School Lake and Kemper Park.
We met at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) in a light rain. We started birding there and had three species of sparrows and a Pied-billed Grebe, a Mallard three flyover Canada Geese. Three Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and two Red-shouldered Hawks were also highlights. We drove to Secluded Farm and walked on the trail there. We saw both nuthatches, and all of Albemarle’s woodpeckers except Red-headed, We also had large numbers of Northern Cardinals and White-throated Sparrows. We heard the beautiful song of a Winter Wren. We continued onto the Saunders-Monticello Trail. We had great views of Brown Creepers, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and several Golden-crowned Kinglets. We drove up Carter’s Mountain, but it was too foggy and we saw only some American Crows. That was the final spot for our Christmas Bird Count circle, so we continued into Charlottesville to increase our city lists. We searched for a winter resident Merlin that hangs out around the park, but we did not see it. We ended the day with 53 species.

​by Ira Lianez

On October 14th I lead a trip for the Blue Ridge Young Birders Club to the Rockfish Valley Trail, a local birding hotspot in Nelson County.  I had high hopes for the trip, as the Rockfish Valley Trail tends to be a very productive place for finding uncommon and rare migrants in the fall, with Philadelphia vireo and Lincoln's sparrows often present.  Only a few weeks previously I'd had one of the best mornings of birding in my life there, finding Philadelphia vireo and blue-winged, Connecticut and mourning warblers.  Around this time of year last year, my brother and I had two marsh wrens.  Six young birders attended the trip.

We walked under Route 151, doing our best to avoid getting our feet wet in the water overflowing from the South Fork of the Rockfish River.  The day was cool and cloudy but not unpleasantly so.  We encountered a large flock of song sparrows in a dense tangle of pokeweed and began scanning them for Lincoln's.   We didn't find any Lincoln's in that flock but saw a few swamp sparrows.  As we were walking along a mowed path through a dense, brushy field, a tiny, bright yellow bird dropped out of a tree and into the grass.  Curious about what this could be so late in the year, we went to investigate.  The bird popped up onto a low branch of a black walnut tree for a few seconds, and I saw it was a Wilson's warbler.

We continued around the loop towards the back of the field, where we encountered more sparrows.  I put my binoculars up to one and saw that it had a yellowish malar, gray supercilium and a yellowish breast covered in super fine, dark streaks --- a Lincoln's sparrow.  I think everyone got on the bird, although it soon hopped back down into the brush.

A flock of purple finches flew over and landed in the branches of a leafless oak.  We soon began hearing more purple finch calls, and several other flocks joined the first.  By the end of the day we counted 34 in small flyover and foraging flocks.  It was still early in the year for purple finches and seeing them in these numbers was encouraging for a good winter for them in our area.

As we rounded the bend in the path a flock of birds flew up into a tree.  One appeared to be a Catharus thrush, which my brother got on and said looked like a gray-cheeked.  We slowly crept to the other side of the tree so as not to scare the thrush again and saw that it was indeed a gray-cheeked thrush.  We re-found the Wilson's warbler and a late Eastern wood-pewee nearby.

Once we got back to the top of the loop where we first saw the Wilson's warbler, we paused for a bit to listen.  I heard a yellowthroat chipping in a large patch of common mugwort, so I went to investigate.  I found the yellowthroat and a couple of palm warblers, and I was just about to return to the group when Baxter called that he thought he had a Connecticut warbler.  The group assembled behind him and we slowly advanced towards the bird, which was entirely obscured by the dense mugwort.  I got a brief glimpse of the bird through the vegetation and saw a large warbler with a pale gray hood and a thin eye ring.  Suddenly the bird lifted off and flew to the end of the mugwort patch, followed a second later by a similar looking bird.  There were two of them!  Chaos ensued as everyone tried to see the birds while we debated their ID's.  Eventually we cornered the two birds in a corner of the mugwort patch, and everyone got a decent look.  Their eye rings, although fairly extensive, were not complete, making them mourning warblers, not Connecticuts.  Finding two of them was still extremely exciting, and it was a Nelson County high count.  We photographed a beautiful blue-headed vireo in a willow along the river on our way back towards the cars.

The next location for the trip was State Route 610, a quiet mountain road that can sometimes have good migrants.  When we arrived the area was totally quiet.  We had to walk down the road for five minutes before we even heard a bird, which was a pileated woodpecker.  I did not give up hope, as I'd birded up here many times before when it first appeared very slow but then incredible bird activity occurred in explosive bursts.  Sure enough, a few minutes later the forest suddenly rang with a cacophony of warbler chips, and birds could be seen moving in every tree.  The vast majority of the warblers were blackpoll, but we also found several other species including Tennessee, Cape May, bay-breasted, pine and black-throated green.  Kinglets were also present in high numbers --- we had fifteen golden-crowned and five ruby-crowned on a small stretch of road.  I spotted a red-eyed vireo, which was beginning to get late, as well as another blue-headed vireo.

​Rockfish Valley Trail and State Route 610 did not let us down!

by Ezra Staengl

by Ira Lianez

​6 young birders came for the November meeting. We had asked experienced local birder Pete Myers to come and talk about photography. He taught us some tips for using cameras and showed us some of his amazing photographs. He showed us that we don't have to travel far to get good pictures of birds; most of his photos were taken in his backyard! He also showed us how he uses his camera. Thank you to Pete Myers for coming to meeting! We also planned some winter field trips, and after the meeting so of the birders stayed to photograph the many Purple Finches that were coming to the feeders at Ivy Creek.

The young birders with Pete Myers

​by Ira Lianez

On September 30, Ezra Staengl led a field trip to the Shenandoah Valley in search of rare shorebirds that had been continuing in Rockingham and Augusta counties. The trip started at Wayne Avenue in Stuarts Draft, where we successfully spotted 8 White-rumped Sandpipers. The next stop was Quillen's Pond, but the water was too high for shorebirds. The last spot in Augusta county was the Old Fishersville Quarry. We scanned for terns, but didn't find any. We moved onto Rockingham county. We saw 2 Solitary Sandpipers at Leonard's Pond. We also checked Artillery Road Ponds, a very underbirded spot that may have potential for birding in winter. At Lake Shenandoah we found a Great Egret, 2 more Solitary Sandpipers, and a Lesser Yellowlegs. We were surprised by two Double-crested Cormorants that flew over the lake. In Elkton, we found a continuing American Golden-Plover at a sod farm. We also saw a Northern Shoveler and a Blue-winged Teal. We checked a couple more spots in Rockingham, before heading back to the Afton Inn. There we found Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Green Warbler, Prairie Warbler and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

By Ira Lianez