Rockfish Valley Trail 6/27/11

My orginal plan for this morning was to head over to a new-for-me site in Augusta County to see where else there might be a good summer birding spot in the area, but the weather forecast of increasing clouds followed by rain changed my mind, as I did not want to drive 100 miles round trip to look at rain and not birds. Instead, I decided to see what might be on the Rockfish Valley Trail very early in the morning. I usually arrive between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m., but got there at 7:00 this morning. There was a light cloud cover, but heavy fog after last night's rain. The grass was very wet, and my boots were soon waterlogged.

I started off on the east side of Reid's Creek on the Glenthorne Loop trail, and by 7:30 the sun had burned off the fog, except for the west side of the creek and along route 627, where shadows and fog persisted until about 8:30. It was definitely cooler this early in the morning, but this summer's crop of flies were up and about by the time I got there.

It turned out to be a remarkable birding day for me. I hiked Glenthorne Loop (some parts twice), upstream and downstream trails, and part of the Spruce Creek trail. By 8:30, heavier clouds started to roll in, but I stayed until 10:00. Yesterday on the trail, I had a great afternoon, logging 28 species between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. : 6/26/11 blog page

Eastern Bluebird Indigo Bunting Blue Grosbeak American Crow Turkey Vulture Field Sparrow Chipping Sparrow

American Goldfinch Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Eastern Kingbird Red-winged Blackbird Great Blue Heron Eastern Meadowlark

Northern Mockingbird Northern Cardinal House Finch Louisiana Waterthrush Common Yellowthroat Carolina Chickadee Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Red-eyed Vireo White-eyed Vireo Eastern Phoebe Eastern Wood-Pewee Red-bellied Woodpecker Flicker Cedar Waxwing

This morning I saw 25 of yesterday's 28 species - all but the Louisiana Waterthrush, Cedar Waxwing, and Flicker.

Great Blue Heron

Carolina Chickadee

Common Yellowthroat

House Finch

White-eyed Vireo

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

In addition, I saw another 14 species this morning that I had not seen yesterday afternoon, bringing my morning total to 39 species, and my 24-hour total to 42. This is not even close to Tim H.'s 101 species on the trail in a 24-hour period, but it was a birding "big day" for me. I have seen all of these 14 species after 8:30 in the morning this summer, so getting to the trail very early in the morning is not required, unless you prefer cooler temperatures.

Black Vulture

Green Heron

Juvenile Common Grackle

Juvenile Common Grackle

Yellow-breasted Chat

Orchard Oriole

American Redstart

Based on its bill length, I thought that I had seen a Hairy Woodpecker this morning, but after inspecting the photos, the black tail bars suggest a Downy Woodpecker, although Hairy Woodpeckers can rarely exhibit this feature.

Downy Woodpecker

Mixed in with a large flock of Vultures was a Cooper's Hawk.

Cooper's Hawk and Vultures

And there was an unusual looking Song Sparrow mixed in with some other Song sparrows. This one had yellow lores, and a small pointed and pinkish bill. Could it be a rare summer Savannah Sparrow? Probably not, as it also has a long rufous tail, and a Song Sparrow is the more likely choice.

Song Sparrow

Considering another 18 recently seen species following the spring migration period, one can possibly see 60 or more species this summer on the Rockfish Valley Trail. In addition to the 42 species seen in the past 24 hours and listed above, I have logged the following species during the past few weeks:

Pileated Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Cowbird Red-tailed Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Broad-winged Hawk

Kingfisher Yellow Warbler Eastern Towhee Northern Rough-winged Swallow Scarlet Tanager Canada Goose

Grasshopper Sparrow Ruby-throated Hummingbird Blue Jay White-breasted Nuthatch American Robin Starling