Central Virginia 8/9-10/17

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Old Trail; Crozet, VA; August 9

I did a short hike here just to see if any migrating birds were passing through yet. I encountered a juvenile hawk perched high in a tree, and at first thought it might be a Red-shouldered as they next here, but after looking at the photos, determined that it was a Broad-winged Hawk as there aren't any pale bands on its dark secondaries.

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Broad-winged Hawk

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Broad-winged Hawk

There weren't a lot of other birds out. Some of the male Indigo Buntings still had full breeding plumage, while others were molting into non-breeding plumage.

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Indigo Bunting

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Indigo Bunting

Rockfish Valley Trail; Nellysford, VA; August 10

I had some late morning errands to run in Nellysford, so I hiked a bit on the RV Trail shortly after noon. There weren't many birds out, but I did manage to log 22 avian species, and all of them were ususal summer species there.

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Belted Kingfisher

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Scarlet Tanager

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Eastern Wood-Pewee

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Eastern Phoebe

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Least Flycatcher

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Female Indigo Bunting

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Female American Redstart

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Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

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Ruby-throated Hummingbird

On my return to the parking lot, a Black Ratsnake was sunning itself on the path. It didn't even bother to move as I walked by, other than lifting its head to say hello.

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Black Ratsnake


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