Blue Ridge Parkway, VA 9/20/17

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

With afternoon temperatures forecasted in the upper 80s, I decided to go back up on the Blue Ridge Parkway where cooler temperatures would prevail, but it was fairly warm there as well. I stopped at the same spot on Route 610 where I had 8 warbler species yesterday, but I didn't see any warblers there today. However, I did see a Bunting that I thought was a female Indigo Bunting, and took several photos of it. Most of the photos are slightly out-of-focus, but the one below clearly shows a pale yellow throat with dark lines on each side of her throat. Even the out-of-focus photos with her head at different angles show the pale yellow throat. I haven't seen this coloring on an Indigo Bunting, so I did some research, and found that a male Indigo x Painted Bunting hybrid was reported in 1974 (https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v091n03/p0485-p0487.pdf). Female Painted Buntings have a greenish-yellow throat. I wonder if this might be a female Indigo x Painted Bunting hybrid?

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Unusual Bunting

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Unusual Bunting

I stopped at various places along the first 14 miles of the parkway, and saw a few avian species, but only one place where I found a small flock of warblers.

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Female Black-throated Blue Warbler

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Northern Parula

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Northern Parula

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Northern Parula

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Northern Parula

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Blackpoll Warbler

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Blue-headed Vireo

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Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

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Scarlet Tanager

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Downy Woodpecker

I ended the outing with a stop at the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch where i saw a few adult and juvenile Broad-winged Hawks.

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Broad-winged Hawk

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Adult and juvenile Broad-winged Hawks

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Broad-winged Hawk

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Broad-winged Hawk


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