Rockfish Valley Trail 10/11/13

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Even though Walt Childs and I saw 31 species on the trail this morning, it wasn't very "birdy." The remnants of tropical storm Karen are still hanging off the mid-Altlantic coast, stalled by high pressure to the north, and its counter-clockwise motion is pushing clouds and moisture in from the northeast that is getting hung up along the Blue Ridge Mountains.

In the photo to the right, you can see the cloud cover that was over the trail, fog on the Blue Ridge, and clear skies to the west over the Shenandoah Valley. In addition, migrating Sharp-shinned Hawks are peaking now in our area, and the little birds are hunkered down, waiting for the weather and the predators to clear out of the area. The only new bird species we saw was a first-of-season Savannah Sparrow. After an hour and a half on the trail, we drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway on the west side of the ridge, but it was still in dense fog and light drizzle.


Remnants of tropical storm Karen


Yellow-rumped Warbler


Palm Warbler


Ruby-crowned Kinglet


Blue-headed Vireo


Northern Flicker


Belted Kingfisher


Savannah Sparrows and Eastern Bluebird


Sharp-shinned Hawk



E-mail comments on this report


Return to blog page home