When I take close to 1,000 avian photos in a single day, it usually means that I had a fun time birding that day. It also means that I have a lot of photos to process, and often have to make difficult decisions as to which photos to post on my blog page. I decided to post a few highlight photos on this page with links to more photos from today's birding.
I started out at Ridgeview Park a little after 9:00 a.m. It was very "birdy' there, and by the time I left just before noon, I had seen 34 avian species. There were lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Although I have taken many Magnolia Warbler photos in autumnal non-breeding plumage, and photos of this species in spring breeding plumage (in Ohio), these were my first spring photos of this species here in Virginia. I was happy to see my FOS Green Herons - two of them were perched high up in a tree. I photgraphed an unusual Ruby-crowned Kinglet that had dark malar stripes and a connecting throat band.
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Green Heron
Hermit Thrush
Unusual Ruby-crowned Kinglet
I met up with Walt Childs who had led a guided bird walk this morning in Waynesboro, and we headed up to Pocasin Cabin just off Skyline Drive about 5 miles north of Route 33. We made a quck stop along the river south of the Merck plant near Elkton where we saw some common woodland birds, including a Red-eyed Vireo and more Yellow-rumped Warblers.
Red-eyed Vireo
Yellow-rumped Warbler
We had a great time at Pocasin Cabin. I had been there a few times in the past, and never had more than three warbler species there. But this afternoon we had seven warbler species: Yellow-rumped, American Redstart, Hooded, Cerulean, Chestnut-sided, Canada, and Ovenbird. The Hooded Warbler was especially cooperative, and was not bothered by my taking lots of photos of it. I had previously taken a few photos of Ovenbirds, but wanted to get some good photos of this species showing its orange crown stripe. Ovenbirds are usually hard to see as they forage on the forest floor searching leaves and other vegetation for insects. The Ovenbird we saw today stayed mostly in shaded areas, but didn't pay much attention to us. We also saw several other woodland bird species there.
Acadian Flycatcher
Hooded Warbler
Ovenbird
American Redstart
Cerulean Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Canada Warbler