Central Virginia 5/16/14

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

There was heavy rain here in Virginia of the 15th, and Walt Childs and I wanted to see if there might be a "fall-out" of migrating birds that may have settled in the area to wait out the storm. We ended up driving a lot, and birding all day, to see only a few birds.

We started out on the Rockfish Valley Trail, but only saw 17 species there - really poor for the middle of May. Most of the birds were common summer residents, and we had brief views of two warbler species: American Redstart and Yellow-breasted Chat.


Blue-gray Gnatcatcher


Indigo Bunting


Eastern Pewee


Northern Cardinal

Then we made several stops along the first 14 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We saw several American Redstarts, heard some Cerulean Warblers, and saw a few other species such as Rose-breasted Grosbeak.


American Redstart

The next stop was the Augusta Springs Wetlands. The ground was under water up to the board walk in places, but once again, there were only a few birds there. Walt got a quick view of a Magnolia Warbler. We heard a bird sounding an unusual call - it was a Green Heron.


Red-eyed Vireo


Female Indigo Bunting


Green Heron


Wood Ducks


Carolina Wren


Song Sparrow

Our last stop of the day was in the Swoope area southwest of Staunton. There were a pair of Spotted Sandpipers and one Least Sandpiper at Smith Lake. We saw our fifth warbler species of the day - a Yellow Warbler, and we saw a Vesper Sparrow perched on a post as we were leaving the area.


Spotted Sandpipers


Spotted Sandpiper


Least Sandpipers


Eastern Kingbird


Yellow Warbler


Vesper Sparrow



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