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Generally, the second Monday of each month. For more information, see the Meetings page.

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RECENT BIRD ALERT:



Due to a wave of spam attacks, this Web site feature has been disabled for the time being. Stay tuned for further announcements.

Augusta Bird Club members may submit rare bird sightings by using the Update page. For further information, or to report any unusual sightings, please contact the rare bird alert coordinator, Allen Larner.

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Blue Ridge Young Birders

www.blueridgeyoungbirders.org

Please support and/or spread the word!

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News

Last news update: 06 Apr 2020

Because of the coronavirus emergency, the Augusta Bird Club meeting scheduled for April 13 has been CANCELED.
In addition, no field trips will take place for as long as Governor Northam's "stay at home" order remains in effect. Members will be notified via e-mail about whether we will have the annual picnic-brunch, perhaps some time in June. "social distancing" guidelines
There wil be a SPECIAL "Birds & Brews, Wings & Wine" social hour in honor of ABC founding member Grant Simmons, who will soon be moving away from our area. It will be held on Tuesday, June 25 at 5:30 pm, at the Mill Street Grill in Staunton.

Please RSVP to Crista Cabe at cristacabe@gmail.com.

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RAPTORTHON! 2020

On May 7, 2020 the Rockfish Gap Hawkwatchers team (Vic Laubach, Gabriel Mapel, Baxter Beamer and Ezra Staengl) will be conducting our 8th annual Raptorthon to have fun and raise money to support our local Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch and HMANA's work for raptor conservation, migration, and hawk watching. Half of the proceeds we raise will go to HMANA and half will go to our hawk watch.

Founded in 1976, Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch is located in Afton, VA in the Blue Ridge Mountains at an elevation of 2,100 ft. Each of our team members are volunteer counters at Rockfish Gap, with Ezra being our youngest counter at age 16. Our hawk watch operates daily from mid-August through November, during which time we typically count over 26,000 raptors each season.

This year, due to the coronavirus, instead of birding together our team members will be birding solo. Each of us will cover a different nearby county; with Ezra covering Nelson County (474 sq mi), Baxter covering Albemarle County (726 sq mi), Gabriel covering Augusta County (971 sq mi), and Vic covering Highland County (416 sq mi). This will actually be quite interesting with a little internal competition! Each of us will have from sunrise to sunset to find as many different bird species as we can within our counties, with particular attention to raptors. At the end of the day we'll tally our results for both individual as well as total species numbers. It'll surely be fun! Afterward we'll send out a full report of our Raptorthon adventure to all our sponsors!

Please consider sponsoring our team's efforts. We're very grateful to those that have supported us in past years and hope you can do so again this year. It's easy to donate! To donate online simply visit our Raptorthon page and click on our team. To donate by mail, write your check to "HMANA" and mail it to Vic Laubach, 104 Lanchester Ct, Waynesboro, VA 22980. We'd greatly appreciate your support!

Wish us luck!

Vic, Gabriel, Baxter, and Ezra

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Rare bird visits Augusta County

From February 14 until March 23 an immature male Scott's Oriole visited a residential property in the Swoope area of Augusta County. It was the first state record of this species in Virginia! Further details will appear in the April Augusta Bird Club bulletin.

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Spring is here!

Tree Swallow (male) on Bell's Lane, March 9.

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Wild about vultures

On March 9 Katie Fallon spoke to a packed meeting about her recently-published book, Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird. It was her second such visit here. In October 2013 she gave a presentation about Cerulean Warblers.

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Want more news?

Download the latest Newsletter,

edited by Andrew Clem (since April 2016).

Last update: 13 Mar 2020

(Sample image on the right is the February 2019 issue.)

(Portable Document Format / PDF; may require Adobe Acrobat Reader software.)

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Photos at the top of this page (left to right): Bald Eagle by Vic Laubach, Short-eared Owl by Allen Larner, Long-billed Dowitcher by Ann Cline, Golden-winged Warbler by Andrew Clem, and Pileated Woodpecker by Larry Litke.

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