Augusta and Rockingham Counties, VA 4/18/17

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Walt Childs and I drove to Reddish Knob to look for Red Crossbills and any warblers that might have moved into the area. We saw only a few birds on the way up to the four road intersection, including my FOS Black-throated Green Warbler.

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Black-throated Green Warbler

When we arrived at the four road intersection, there were six Red Crossbills perched in a tree - three reddish-orange males and three yellow females.

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Red Crossbill

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Red Crossbill

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Red Crossbill

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Red Crossbill

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Red Crossbills

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Red Crossbill

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Red Crossbill

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Red Crossbill

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Red Crossbill

As we headed up towards the summit, we saw a few more Black-throated Green Warblers, one Yellow-rumped Warbler, and heard a Black-throated Blue Warbler.

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Black-throated Green Warbler

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Black-throated Green Warbler

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Black-throated Green Warbler

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Yellow-rumped Warbler

But the vegetation soon diminished, and we saw only a few chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos. Normally, all of the chickadees there are Black-capped, but one of them looked more like a Carolina - straight bottom bib line, short tail, and very little white on the coverts.

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Chickadee

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Dark-eyed Junco

On the way down and below the four road intersection, we stopped to watch a Blue-headed Vireo and a couple of Pine Warblers. Later, a Broad-winged Hawk flew quickly by the car.

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Blue-headed Vireo

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Blue-headed Vireo

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Pine Warbler

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Pine Warbler

Our next stop was at Hone Quarry, which for me has usually been a very poor site for finding birds. But it redeemed itself today. We saw a couple of Blackburnian Warblers high up in the trees.

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Blackburnian Warbler

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Blackburnian Warbler

I have good photos of male and female Northern Parulas in non-breeding plumage, and females in breeding plumage, but all of my photos of males in breeding plumage have been backlit by bright skies, and I have been trying for several years to get a good photo of a breeding plumage male without a bright background. Finally, success!

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Male Northern Parula

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Male Northern Parula

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Male Northern Parula

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Male Northern Parula

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Male Northern Parula

We made a quick stop at Nazarene Wetlands to look for the Dowitcher that had been reported there. We saw it from a good distance away, and it looks like a Short-billed to me rather than a Long-billed. There are subtle differences between to two species, but this one looks like it has a white belly that is characteristic of a Short-billed Dowitcher [update: better photos by other birders confirmed this as a Long-billed Dowitcher]. A short distance after leaving, we saw a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.

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Short-billed Dowitcher

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Cooper's Hawk

We ended the trip with 36 avian species, including the Red Crossbills and six warbler species, two American Kestrels, Broad-winged and Cooper's hawks, but not a single Red-tailed Hawk.


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