Augusta County, VA 6/2/14

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Walt Childs and I headed west this morning. There had been reports of a Purple Gallinule in Waynesboro for the past 10 days. Although I already have good photos of this species that I had taken in Florida, a Purple Gallinule is very rare in Virginia. We were not disappointed!


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule


Purple Gallinule

We decided to head northwest to look for Red Crossbills up on Reddish Knob. We made a short stop on the way there at Silver Lake in Dayton. The Mute Swans had some little ones.


Mute Swans


Mute Swans

We didn't see any Crossbills on Reddish Knob. There were lots of common woodland birds, and we saw four warbler species: Black-throated Blue, Yellow-rumped, Blackburnian, and Northern Parula.


Black-throated Blue Warbler


Black-throated Blue Warbler


Yellow-rumped Warbler


Blackburnian Warbler


Indigo Bunting


Cedar Waxwing


Dark-eyed Junco growing new tail feathers

On the way home we stopped at Nazarenne Wetlands where we saw a Green Heron, Killdeer, Canada Geese, and barnyard Mallards, as well as stopping at a few other palces along the way. We ended up with 25 to 30 species for the day.


Green Heron


Common Grackle


Juvenile Starling


Black Ratsnake



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