Jim Elder, JoAnne Pierce, Susan Stanton, Sandra Weigand, and I birded at The
James River Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway (near Big Island) and
Fleming Mountain (traveling Rocky Mountain Road between Coleman Falls and
Lynchburg) this morning. Surprisingly, Rocky Mtn Rd was very quiet as it is
usually quite ‘birdy’ this time of year. We got more birds in less than an hour
at the visitor center than the rest of the morning on Fleming Mtn.
Melva and Charles Hansrote were also out birding at the James River Visitor
Center. They had already birded on Fleming Mountain on the way up to the
visitor center. I think the only bird they found on the mountain that we missed
was a redstart. It was so nice to see them as they don’t get out to bird club
meetings or on field trips anymore.
Species highlights were: 4 wood ducks on the James River near the visitor
center (at least 3 were males so I assume that females were still incubating as
we didn’t see any young); a FOS green Heron near the locks at the visitor
center; my first ruby-throated Hummingbird in the wild, i.e., not at my feeder;
a FOS yellow-throated vireo at visitor center (singing continuously near a
completely silent blue-headed vireo); a FOS yellow warbler; a FOS
black-and-white warbler; and 3 FOS orchard orioles (and early date as local
arrival date is 25 April). We saw a total of 48 species in 3.5 hours but first
37 were in less than an hour at Jas River Vis Ctr. Complete species lists
available on request.
Rexanne Bruno
Lynchburg, VA
PS Lynchburg birders: I'm only at 125 (just added the 5 FOS birds listed above)
locally after today (so I think several of you are now ahead of me).
