It was a beautiful day here on the mountain, and I was joined at our place
about 7:45 this morning by fellow Buchanan County Bird Club members Don Carrier
and Mike Sanders to see if we could find some spring migrants. The Robins,
Towhees, Brown Thrashers and Titmice were in full voice when they arrived. On
the way up the mountain they had heard Blue-headed Vireos, and it was only a
matter of minutes before one was singing in the yard. Before we stopped birding
around 12:30 we had 8 Blue-headeds. Another FOS for me was a striking
Yellow-throated Warbler in the yard. This one beat our early date for the
county by two days. Bluebirds and Tree Swallows were visiting nest boxes. Don
and Mike had also found 7 Wild Turkeys as they drove up that morning. We could
hear one gobbling in the neighbor's pasture. Later in the morning we birded the
nearby golf course just across the valley and found 14 turkeys on the fairway.
One male was strutting and spreading his tail. We were also pleasantly
surprised to see 15 Northern Flickers take flight from the fairway, and they
were soon followed by 5 more. We had 6 woodpecker species with sapsuckers doing
their mewing hawk-like call. We also had both Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned
Kinglets. We logged 34 species for the day. The complete list follows.
Roger Mayhorn
Compton Mt
Buchanan County
34 species
Wild Turkey 23
Falcon 1 sp? (Possible Merlin)
Mourning Dove 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3m
Downy Woodpecker 2m
Hairy Woodpecker 1f
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 35
Carolina Chickadee 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Carolina Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Blue-headed Vireo 8 (FOS)
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 8
Tree Swallow 5
Tufted Titmouse 1
Eastern Bluebird 9
American Robin 8
Brown Thrasher 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Yellow-throated Warbler 1 (FOS)
Eastern Towhee 7m
Chipping Sparrow 11
Song Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 3
Northern Cardinal 9
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 16
American Goldfinch 18
House Finch 2
