Rockfish Valley Trail 9/12/11

All photos are © Marshall Faintich


I was hoping to see some warblers on the trail this morning, but only saw one at the end of my hike. It was fairly quiet when I arrived at 8:15, but a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk was hunting at several locations on the trail, so I guess that many of the smaller birds were in hiding. There were lots of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Field Sparrows, and I ended up with 21 species.

Here's this morning's list of species:

Eastern Bluebird
Indigo Bunting
American Crow
Field Sparrow
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Northern Cardinal
Red-shouldered Hawk
Eastern Phoebe
American Goldfinch
Cedar Waxwing
Rock Pigeon
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Tufted Titmouse
Starling
Turkey Vulture
Catbird
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Cape May(?) Warbler


Ruby-throated Hummingbird


Red-eyed Vireo


Northern Cardinal


Cape May(?) Warbler


Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk


Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk

One of the advantages of the Rockfish Valley Trail is that not too many people are on it. One of the disadvantages of the Rockfish Valley Trail is that not too many people are on it, and I am often the one who gets spider web in my face as I walk between bushes on the trail. I try to knock them down with my camera monopod when I see them, but am not always successful. I walked through one this morning, and as I was pulling web off of my face, I glanced down and saw a one inch spider crawling on the neck strap of my camera about two inches from my face. I quickly, but not in a panic, removed the camera from around my neck, shook off the spider, and took its photo - a marbled orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus) - very interesting, but not something I wanted crawling on my neck!


Marbled orbweaver



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