Just received a great sighting report from Joe Coleman from Saturday, Dec 27:
While scouting my Central Loudoun CBC sector a female SHORT-EARED OWL flew north right over my head about 5:15 pm in the fields to the south of Mountain View Elementary which is a little northwest of Purcellville. This is where these birds have been found previous winters.
Today on the way home from scouting the CBC sector I’m in tomorrow I saw a probable 1st-year NORTHERN GOSHAWK on Ebenezer Church Rd near its intersection with Yellow Schoolhouse (a couple of miles from Bluemont in western Lo Co). I didn’t get long looks at it before it flew but it was the size of or a little larger than a Red-shouldered Hawk (several nest in this area) and had a very obvious white supercilious, a Buffy breast with dense streaking, and a specked back with a fair amount of white (a strong highlight) on the wing coverts. When I first saw it I thought large juvenile Cooper’s Hawk but when it perched changed my mind. It was not in the Central Loudoun count area but the Calmes Neck CBC area which is on Jan 4.
Joe Coleman, near Bluemont, Loudoun Co