Crozet, VA 5/13/13

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Bay-breasted Warblers have been reported moving through Virginia for a few days now, and this species is the only remaining warbler of the 36 area warbler species that has eluded my camera lens. I headed over to Lickinghole Creek and reservoir in the hopes of finding a mixed flock of warblers, or if not that, then perhaps one of the uncommon coastal birds that have visited our local area in recent days.

It was 39 degrees when I got up this morning - very cold for mid-May, but the sun was shining. By the time I arrived in Crozet, there was almost complete cloud cover. I only logged 26 common species at Lickinghole that included only one warbler: Pine. There were several Solitary Sandpipers and a few Spotted Sandpipers on the sand/gravel bar.


Pine Warbler


Solitary Sandpiper


Spotted Sandpiper


Blue-gray Gnatcatcher


Barn Swallow

Next stop was Beaver Creek Reservoir where I added three more species that included Yellow-rumped Warbler.


Gray Catbirds


Gray Catbird


Yellow-rumped Warbler

At the Old Trail pond I added an Eastern Bluebird to bring my total species count for the day to 30. My last stop was at the King Family Vineyards where I added three more species. The ponds were very low. A female Mallard was watching over her flock of ducklings in the west pond while the male Mallards were foraging in the east pond. There were quite a few Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, as well as two different sandpipers that I could not identify for sure from the far distance - one looked to be "peep"-sized and was considerably smaller than the duckings, and the other was about the same size as the ducklings. The Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers were larger than the duckings.


Mallards and sandpipers


Mallards and sandpipers



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