Central Virginia 5/26-27/2020

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Blue Ridge Parkway, VA; 5/26/2020

Male Blackburnian Warblers are among the most striking of the North American warblers, and I hadn't seen one yet in 2020. I usually see this species during migration along the first 12 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, or in summer breeding grounds at Reddish Knob in the Allegheny Mountains. But with the start of the parkway closed until a few days ago, I have missed seeing them. Dick Rowe recently posted seeing them at two parkway locations: Yankee Horse Ridge (mm. 34.4) and Boston Knob (mm. 38.8). In previous years, I had seen them during migration at Yankee Horse Ridge, but I had never stopped before at Boston Knob. Driving on my own (social distancing because of Covid-19) all the way to Reddish Knob, or with another birder taking two cars, would be quite a trek, but going down to these two stops on the parkway would be easier. I asked Tink Moyer if he wanted to meet me along the parkway and each of us drive separately to look for a Blackburnian Warbler.

When I got up this morning, I could see that the Blue Ridge Mountains were shrouded in fog. I checked the traffic cams on the VDOT 511 web site, and Rockfish Gap (mm. 0) was socked in. But there's an I-81 traffic cam at Route 56 that also shows the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. It looked sunny there, so Tink and I agreed to meet at The Priest (mm. 17.6) a little after 9:30, and go from there in two vehicles. When I got onto the parkway at Rockfish Gap, the fog was so thick that I could barely drive. But at mm. 7, the fog cleared almost all at once, and except for a couple of small pockets of fog farther south, it wasn't a problem. At mm. 15, a small bear ran across the parkway in front of my car, but it was quick and I didn't have my camera out. I usually hang my camera around my neck and ready to shoot as soon as I get onto the parkway, but with the fog and meeting Tink, I wasn't prepared to get a photo of the bear. I got to The Preist at 9:35, and we heard Ovenbirds, American Redstarts, and a Hooded Warbler, but didn't bother to look for them. We made a couple of quick stops on our way to Yankee Horse Ridge just to check out a few places to stop on the return trip.

Once we got to Yankee Horse Ridge, it was fairly quiet. We saw a few American Redstarts, some Red-eyed Vireos, and I got my first Veery of the year.

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American Redstart

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Veery

After a short hike there, we decided to try Boston Knob. As soon as we got out of our vehicles, we saw a pair of Ovenbirds flitting about.

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Ovenbird

We hiked around looking for Blackburnian Warblers, but only saw Ovenbirds, Red-eyed Vireos, and Chipping Sparrows. And then we heard a bird singing a loud song that neither of us recognized. The song was a series of sharp notes, and then immediately another series of sharp notes at a lower octave. It was high up in one of the trees, but finally was viewable. It was a Pine Warbler. I have heard hundreds of Pine Warblers, but never this song at two different octaves, and was able to get a short two second recording. If anyone else has ever heard a Pine Warbler singing this song, please let me know.

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Pine Warbler

Click here to hear the Pine Warbler recording.

We decided to go back to Yankee Horse Ridge, but as I was on my way back to my car, I stopped when I saw an Ovenbird on the ground collecting nesting materials.

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Ovenbird

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Ovenbird

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Ovenbird

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Ovenbird

On the way back to Yankee Horse Ridge, we stopped just south of mm. 36 when we noticed some avian activity. The mountain laurel, small waterfall, and coniferous trees were good habitat for Blackburnian Warblers.

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MM. 36

And there, I got my 2020 warbler species # 25.

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Blackburnian Warbler

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Blackburnian Warbler

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Blackburnian Warbler

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Blackburnian Warbler

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Blackburnian Warbler

We skipped Yankee Horse Ridge and stopped near mm. 28. We heard a Hooded Warbler, and got some good views of a Chestnut-sided Warbler.

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

Our next stop was at Bald Mountain Overlook (mm. 22.1), and we hiked a bit on the trail there. We heard and saw lots of Ovenbirds, heard a Black and White Warbler, saw a couple of Hooded Warblers, and found a few Worm-eating Warblers. One of the Worm-eating Warblers was the most cooperative warbler of the outing.

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Hooded Warbler

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Hooded Warbler

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Hooded Warbler

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Worm-eating Warbler

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Worm-eating Warbler

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Worm-eating Warbler

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Worm-eating Warbler

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Worm-eating Warbler

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Worm-eating Warbler

Well, we had logged 8 warbler species already, and wanted to try for double digits. Of the 7 warbler species that breed along the first 12 miles of the parkway, we had 6 of them, counting the heard-only Black and White Warbler. We were missing Cerulean, and I had seen Blackpoll Warblers there during the past week. Tink needed to get to his home, so he only went as far north as Hickory Springs Overlook (mm. 12). We heard American Redstarts and Hooded Warblers, and maybe a distant Cerulean. Hickory Springs Overlook used to be my "go-to" site for Cerulean Warblers, but they have been tough to find there this year. A couple of years ago, the Park Service took down a large tree at the north end of the overlook that was a favorite foraging site for multiple migrating warbler species, and this year they cut down a large tree at the south end near the road that was a favorite site for American Redstarts and Cerulean Warblers. I don't know if the tree had died, or if the Park Service just wanted to open up the view, but the large tree is down the hill from the overlook and clearly cut near the base, and doesn't look like it had been broken by the wind or lightning. I continued down to the south end of the cirque (mm. 7.5) and got my Cerulean Warbler as # 9 for the day, but didn't see any other warbler species. It was already close to 3 p.m., so I headed for home.

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Cerulean Warbler

Old Trail; Crozet, VA; 5/27/2020

It was warm, muggy, and overcast, but the rain was supposed to hold off until late this afternoon. I did about an hour-long hike here in Old Trail. In wooded areas of Western Park, I saw 5 Yellow Warblers, a single bird and 2 pairs. I only got good looks at two of them - both males, and I assume the other warblers of the two pairs were females. These warblers were far enough apart that I think they were not the same 2 warblers.

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Yellow 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

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Yellow Warbler

In the Western Park wetlands, I picked up my 11th warbler species in less than 24 hours.

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Common Yellowthroat

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Common Yellowthroat

And I saw an empidonax flycatcher. It was near to where I had seen and recorded an Alder Flycatcher six days ago, but today, this flycatcher was not singing, so I couldn't identify the species with any certainty.

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Empidonax flycatcher

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Empidonax flycatcher

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Empidonax flycatcher

At 10:30, I was about as far away from my car as I would be all morning, and it started to rain. I am not complaining. Birding the past 24 hours has been a blast!


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