I ran into Kent Davis at the bottom of the Mill Mountain Star Trail on
this rainy first morning of May, so I joined him in birding up the
mountain. Fewer species today (barely made 50), but good birds,
including 15 warbler species.
It started out relatively quiet near the trailhead. We did manage to
pick up one each HOODED, BLACK-THROATED BLUE, and BLUE-WINGED WARBLER
(possibly the same bird from yesterday). Not much at all at the stops
on the way to the top; it seemed we had just missed a big feeding
flock of warblers as it worked its way around the mountain.
The summit was dead quiet until we ran into a nice group of migrants
that included CAPE MAY WARBLER, NORTHERN PARULA, many YELLOW-RUMPED
WARBLERS, and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH--a great bird for Mill Mountain.
On the way out, another flock (possibly the big one from earlier)
contained many more yellow-rumps, a CHESTNUT-SIDED, a NASHVILLE, and
an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, the latter being only the second one I've
ever encountered on Mill Mountain.
Rainy days can be deceptively good for birding.
Wes Teets
Buchanan, VA
Roanoke City/Mill Mtn, Roanoke City, US-VA
May 1, 2015 7:39 AM - 9:38 AM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
50 species
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 4
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 4
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 1
Carolina Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Wood Thrush 3
American Robin 5
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling 5
Ovenbird 2
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Nashville Warbler 1
Hooded Warbler 1
Cape May Warbler 1
Northern Parula 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 2
Pine Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Canada Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 3
Chipping Sparrow 5
Field Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
Scarlet Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 5
Indigo Bunting 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
Pine Siskin 2
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 1
View this checklist online at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S23160674
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
