Augusta County, VA, 4/25/16

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Walt Childs and I started out in Ridgeview Park in Waynesboro. It wasn't nearly as "birdy" there as last week, so we didn't stay very long. We were looking for migrating warblers, and none were seen there. We did see a few common woodland species, and a small flowering tree that I had never seen before. Each branch was full of leaves, and there were upright flowers all along the top sides of the branches.

Flowering tree

Eastern Towhee

We made another stop in Waynesboro where we saw a snake swimming in a pond.

Snake

We decided to try the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our first stop was at the Rockfish Valley Overlook at mm 2. Kentucky and Cerulean Warblers are often found there, but it was quiet. I may have heard a Cerulean Warbler far in the distance. We stopped again a few hundred yards past that overlook when I heard warblers singing. We counted at least five Hooded Warblers singing, some on each side of the parkway, but we couldn't locate any of them. We did see one first of season (FOS) American Redstart in some vines, but it wasn't eager to come out for a photo.

American Redstart

We exited the parkway at route 610 between mm. 2 and m.3, and drove parallel to the parkway, but all we saw there were a few Chipping Sparrows. We decided to take route 610 down into the Shenahdoah Valley rather than get back on the parkway. Route 610 was in terrible shape with lots of potholes and numerous holes where the road shoulder had been washed away and down steep inclines. We did, however, see a few Blue-headed Vireos and our FOS Scarlet Tanager.

Blue-headed Vireos

Scarlet Tanager

We decided to return via the Coal Road in Big Levels. There were very few birds there as well. We saw a few more Blue-headed Vireos, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, our second Scarlet tanager of the day, and a few other species.

Scarlet Tanager

Yellow-rumped Warblers

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher gets a meal

Wild azaleas

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