Rockfish Valley Trail, VA, 7/21/16

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

It's been very hot here. With temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s, the birds have been smarter than I have been. They are hunkered down in the vegetation, or foraging under dense leaf cover, while I have been getting hot in the sun! I did a quick drive up on the Blue Ridge parkway yesterday afternoon, but very few birds were out in the heat.

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Red-eyed Vireo

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Chipmunk

With weekend temperatures forecasted to be near 100, I wanted to get some more birding in this week while I could, so I went over to the nearby Rockfish Valley Trail this morning. Many of the birds were already deep in the cooler vegetation, but I did manage to see at least 22 avian species. Some of the birds were juveniles starting to get their adult plumage.

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Scarlet Tanager

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Scarlet Tanager

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Indigo Bunting

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Field Sparrow

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Eastern Meadowlark

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Eastern Meadowlarks: male, female, and juvenile?

Eastern Bluebirds were taking food to nest boxes, so I assume there's more little ones in the nests.

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Eastern Bluebird

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Male and female Eastern Bluebirds

Several of the common summer species were out and about.

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American Redstart

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Eastern Kingbird

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Great Blue Heron

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Black Vulture

As I approached my car to leave for home, I noticed a distant Red-tailed Hawk. It was boldly colored, and may have been a northern race variety. But the most interesting observation was that a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher kept landing on the hawk's head, and the hawk didn't seem to pay much attention to it.

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Red-tailed Hawk and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

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Red-tailed Hawk and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

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Red-tailed Hawk and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

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Red-tailed Hawk and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

This morning's RV Trail list:

American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Redstart
Barn Swallow
Black Vulture
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Eastern Phoebe
Field Sparrow
Great Blue Heron
Indigo Bunting
Northern Cardinal
Northern Mockingbird
Red-tailed Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Scarlet Tanager
Turkey Vulture
White-eyed Vireo


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