Because 23 of us showed up for regular monthly bird walk at the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve Saturday morning we decided to split into two groups, one led by Joe Coleman and Jane Yocom & ably assisted by Elliott Bernard, and the other by Dori Rhodes and Elliott and Nancy Kirschbaum. While it was drizzling when we were parking that quickly abated and we had a fun morning birding.
The highlights of the 43 species observed included a Woodcock flushed by one of the groups, First of Season (for most of us) Tree Swallows seen by both groups, a surprisingly large number of Eastern Towhees, many of which were singing, lots of Field Sparrows, 2 Brown Creepers, a Fox Sparrow, and both kinglet species. Like last month, the most plentiful birds seen were the Ring-billed Gulls, estimated at 750, which kept steaming overhead in the direction of the next-door county landfill. In spite of trying none of us were able to pick out any other kind of gull in that stream of birds. 
For a complete list of the birds observed at Banshee Reeks please see the eBird report below.
The regular monthly free bird walk (every 2nd Sat) at the Banshee Reeks Nature preserve is sponsored by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy (www.loudounwildlife.org) & the Friends of Banshee Reeks (www.bansheereeks.org ); information on both and their upcoming events can be found on their websites.
When we showed up for the regular monthly bird walk at Banshee Reeks yesterday morning we were shocked to find that clearing for the paved & realigned Woods Road that one uses to access Banshee Reeks has begun. While many of us have known that this was going to happen for years in spite of efforts from many of us to derail it or at least mitigate its impact, it was pretty upsetting to see a large strip of mature hardwoods clear-cut on the northern edge of Banshee.
A few of us went home past the Dulles Wetlands and stopped for a few minutes to observe the Bald Eagle sitting in its nest (I think for the 8thyear in a row).
Good birding!
Joe Coleman
Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve – MFF08, Loudoun, Virginia, US Mar 12, 2016 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
43 species:
Canada Goose 12
Wood Duck 1
Black Vulture 9
Turkey Vulture 16
Cooper’s Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Woodcock 1
Ring-billed Gull 750
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 6
Mourning Dove 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 10
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 6
Downy Woodpecker 8
Northern Flicker 8
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue Jay 15
American Crow 15
Fish Crow 8
Tree Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 12
Tufted Titmouse 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Brown Creeper 2
Carolina Wren 4
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Eastern Bluebird 12
American Robin 25
Northern Mockingbird 12
European Starling 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Field Sparrow 15
Fox Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 20
White-throated Sparrow 15
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 12
Eastern Towhee 15 Male Towhees were singing and moving around on every trail both groups walked on and a few females were seen as well. If anything this number is low.
Northern Cardinal 15
Red-winged Blackbird 7
American Goldfinch 20
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S28125860
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
