Reddish Knob, VA/WVA 6/29/17

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Walt Childs and I headed west over the Blue Ridge and then to Briery Branch Road that goes up to Reddish Knob in the Allegheny Mountains. This is a good place to look for Red Crossbills and warblers. By the end of our trip, we had logged 60 avian species, including 12 warbler species, but no Red Crosbills, and almost 50 of these species were in the Reddish Knob area. The only species on our trip list that we did not see, but heard, was one of the warblers: Ovenbird.

We stopped at the reservior just before the ascent up Briery Branch Road, and ran into one of our birding friends, William Leigh. We chatted for a while, and saw a few species there.

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Indigo Bunting

William headed up the mountain ahead of us, but we caught up with him at the four road intersection where the Red Crossbills are often seen. The Virginia/West Virginia border goes right through that intersection, as well as across the parking lot at the summit (south on Fire Road 85 from the intersection).

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Map showing four road intersection

Walt and I heard some birds on the way up, but only stopped a few times to look for them. There were quite a few species at and near the four road intersection.

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Male American Redstart catching a fly

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Male Black and White Warbler

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Female Black and White Warbler

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Male Black-throated Blue Warbler

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Male Black-throated Blue Warbler

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Male Black-throated Green Warbler

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Female Black-throated Green Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Adult Dark-eyed Junco

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Juvenile Dark-eyed Junco

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Yellow-rumped Warbler

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Cedar Waxwing

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Golden-crowned Kinglet

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Blue-headed Vireo

William headed south on FR 85 to the summit, and Walt and I drove north on FR 85. The road to the north is quite rocky and has large pot holes in places. The few times that we have gone up the road, we always stopped soon after the road re-enters Virginia from crossing over from West Virginia (near the "V" in Virginia on the map) because the road had some very large pot holes past that point. But it wasn't quite as bad a road today, so we continued to where Route 539 splits off from FR 85. Along the way and back from that fork in the road, we saw several avian species, including Common Yellowthroats and Veeries, and a large Red-tailed Hawk flew from one of the trees.

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Common Yellowthroat

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Common Yellowthroat

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Veery

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Veery

Route 539 was in terrible shape with tall grass down the middle of the gravel road, and large pot holes, some of which were filled with water. So we hiked down that road for a couple of hundred feet. There was a water-filled pot hole there that covered almost the entire road, but also a lot of avian activity, perhaps using it as a watering hole. I got very quick (and poor photos) looks at Worm-eating and Canada Warblers.

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Worm-eating and Canada Warblers

As we hiked backed to FR 85, we saw a female American Redstart foraging with a recently fledged juvenile, and a Scarlet Tanager.

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Female American Redstart

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Juvenile American Redstart

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Scarlet Tanager

We stopped a few times on the way down Briery Branch Road to look at a Broad-winged Hawk, more Chestnut-sided and Black and White Warblers, and two new warbler species for this trip: Hooded and Pine.

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Broad-winged Hawk

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Hooded Warbler

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Pine Warbler

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Pine Warbler

We made a quick stop at Nazarene Wetlands, and saw Purple Martins a short time later. One of the Purple Martins, probably a juvenile male, but perhaps a female, was clutching a leaf in its bill.

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Purple Martins


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