A long weekend in January - Traveler @ Home

A long weekend in January -- birds, ice sculptures and sunset

Late January we get a day off (MLK Day), which is always a welcome reprieve, as this is the time of the year when cabin fever is burning high.

Saturday, I first went to Virginia's countryside, as some Lapland Longspurs -- a rare bird for our location -- have been spotted. But first greeted me were large flocks of Horned Larks -- a new bird for me, in fact.

(Click on each image to see the high-resolution version)

Horned Lark

I was quite content with observing and photographing these Horned Larks, but I also knew that the longsuprs usually forage among them. Just when I was set to leave, a large flock -- a hundred or so -- birds flew to the field in front of me. Carefully scanning, I picked out the few Lapland Longspurs among them! They were quite far so my pictures did not turn out very good, but just like that, I got two new birds (#387 and #388 for me), and my weekend barely just got underway!

Lapland Longspur

I continued to Shenandoah National Park. This was in fact the first time I went to the park in January (I usually "kick off" my hiking season in April). It was refreshing to see the park with snow on the ground.

View from Skyline Drive

But the most exciting part was to hike down to Dark Hollow Falls, where the waterfalls were nearly frozen solid, like ice sculptures. It was a winter wonderland outthere. For more pictures of Shenandoan National Park, you should check out my dedicated Shenandoah page.

Dark Hollow Falls in winter

Icicles

It was really the perfect weekend as it rained on Sunday so I stayed home and caught up with chores, etc. and rested. Come Monday, I was refreshed again and headed to Conowingo Dam which is famous for the concentration of Bald Eagles.

Red-tailed Hawk

Unfortunately, I was told that the peak season of eagle activities was in October and November. Eagles were few and far between, but I managed to get a couple of shots (and a heron too).

Bald Eagle

Great Blue Heron

On the way back I stopped at Loch Raven Reservoice in Baltimore, where a rare Eurasian Wigeon had been reported. I easily located it -- it was not a new bird for me (I had seen another one just a week before), and it was a bit too far for good pictures, but I was glad to get some pictures at all.

Eurasian Wigeon

Finally, I stopped at Black Hill Regional Park. A Common Redpoll has been visiting the feeders at this location, and in fact I had seen it here a couple of weeks ago, but this time I did see it. I did, however, get many pictures of other feeding birds.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Eastern Bluebird

White-breasted Nuthatch

Northern Cardinal

Lastly -- and this was truly a bonus for me, as I did not expect it -- Black Hill turned out to be a great place to see winter sunset: the sun sets just over the hills, with reflections in the lake (reservoir). A brilliant end to my weekend indeed!

Black Hill Sunset

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