Rockfish Valley Trail, VA, 6/5/15

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

I hiked the trail from about 10:30 until noon this morning. My primary goal was to try to re-locate the Eastern Kingbird that I had photographed on the trail last May 14th. My trip to Texas plus rain every day for about a week has kept me away from going back there. The Kingbird had a yellow wash on its underside, and I wanted to see if the coloring was an illumination effect, or much less likely, a hybrid Eastern/Western Kingbird. I only saw one Kingbid on the trail this morning, and this one clearly did not have any yellow coloring on it. I ended up logging 24 usual summer avian residents.


Eastern Kingbird: (left) stalking a fly; (right) returning to its perch


Male Orchard Oriole


Female Orchard Oriole

The Yellow-breasted Chat was singing as usual along Reids Creek to the north of the bog area, and I watched it land in a tree and preen itself.


Yellow-breasted Chat


Yellow-breasted Chat


Yellow-breasted Chat


Yellow-breasted Chat


Yellow-breasted Chat


Yellow-breasted Chat

There were Common Yellowthroats along Reids Creek and on the upstream trail, but I wasn't able to get any photos of them.


Belted Kingfisher


Blue-gray Gnatcatcher


Cedar Waxwing


Eastern Meadowlark


Eastern Bluebird


Indigo Bunting

This morning's list:

Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Belted Kingfisher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Kingbird
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Cedar Waxwing
Eastern Bluebird
Red-eyed Vireo
White-eyed Vireo
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-breasted Chat
Field Sparrow
Indigo Bunting
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Orchard Oriole
Common Grackle



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