Blue Ridge Parkway, VA 6/1/18

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

We've had 10+ inches of rain over the past few days, with more rain and thunderstorms forecasted for tonight and this weekend. Even though it was hot and muggy today, I wanted to get some birding in. I opted to go to the higher and cooler elevations of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and knew that the dense tree cover would make finding birds difficult. I didn't count on, however, the fact that all this rain made it impossible for the parkway crew to mow the road shoulders, so I also had to watch out for ticks and poison ivy.

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Double rainbow after yesterday's thunderstorm

I logged five warbler species on the first 12 miles of the parkway, but wasn't able to see any of the three Hooded Warblers that I heard. The Worm-eating Warbler had some leucistic feathers, and was the most cooperative of all the birds I saw today.

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Worm-eating Warbler