Rockfish Valley Trail, VA, 8/15-17/16

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

We have been stuck in a miserable weather pattern for a couple of weeks now - hot and humid during the day with late afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Alice and I are moving to Crozet, Virginia, in a week, and I took advantage of a couple of breaks in packing and other moving chores, and did two morning hikes this week on the Rockfish Valley Trail. After we move, I don't plan to go birding on this trail very often. There weren't a lot of birds on the trail, but I did manage to log 31 avian species during the two hikes.

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Male Indigo Bunting

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Female Indigo Bunting

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Juvenile Indigo Bunting

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Common Raven

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Juvenile Field Sparrow catching a fly

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Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

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Red-eyed Vireo

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Eastern Bluebird

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Eastern Phoebe

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Cedar Waxwings

The summer resident Yellow-breasted Chats and Common Yellowthroats appear to have moved on, as I didn't see or hear either of these warbler species. But I was treated to two migrating warbler species. On Tuesday (8/15) I saw a lone Worm-eating Warbler. The only times in the past nine years I have seen this warbler species on the trail was during migration. This morning (8/17), there were two Yellow Warblers. One was an adult and the other a juvenile. This warbler species was a regular breeder on the trail until two years ago when the field on the east side of Reids Creek was clear-cut, and these two Yellow Warblers are the first ones I have seen on the trail since then.

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Worm-eating Warbler

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Yellow Warbler

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Yellow Warbler

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Yellow Warbler

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Yellow Warbler

White-eyed Vireos breed on the trail every summer, and the highlight of these two hikes for me was watching a juvenile White-eyed Vireo (note the dark eyes) catching a fairly good-sized larva.

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White-eyed Vireo

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White-eyed Vireo

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White-eyed Vireo

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White-eyed Vireo

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White-eyed Vireo

Butterflies and dragonflies were seen all along the trail as well.

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Cobra Clubtail Dragonfly

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Cobra Clubtail Dragonfly


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