Greetings Earthlings,
Every once in a blue moon or so I try to get up to Skyline Drive an hour
or so before dawn in fall to listen to nocturnal migrants, especially
thrushes, as they seem to descend as dawn tries to break. I also hope to luck
into good numbers of warblers for the first few hours of the day. In 2006,
Ian Topolsky and I had a few mornings in September and October that were
memorable for both nocturnal happenings and warbler watching.
I arrived at Hughes River Gap (Stony Man overlook) just before five-thirty
AM. I was greeted by 57 lovely degrees of Fahrenheit, a pair of distant
Barred Owls hooting, and a slow trickle of southbound thrushes. For the
first 25 minutes or so, I had a few Swanson's and a few Veeries, and three
Yellow-billed Cuckoos. From about 5:50 until 6:10 the thrush numbers picked
up, and their altitude got much lower. I ended up with six cuckoos, nine
Veery, and 12 Swainson's. A Screech-Owl started to call, unsolicited, about
a half-hour before dawn.
The coolest thing I saw predawn was a highly noticeable comet, almost
directly overhead, but a little bit south. With a naked eye it was hard to
miss. I've asked the only astronomer that I know about it, but I haven't
heard
back from him yet.
As dawn approached, I scurried up to Stony Man. I parked at the lot near
Skyland and walked to the summit. Not much along the way, though two more
hooting Barred Owls. Unfortunately there wasn't much at the summit. Best
bird up there was a Yellow-rumped Warbler. I also had Black-throated
Green, Black-throated Blue, and American Redstart, as well as Eastern
Wood-Pewee. There were Pewees at every stop. I did have a
fresh-out-of-the-wrapper
Northern Harrier slipping by below the ridge. It was a great look from
above.
I cut bait at Stony Man and went to the Thoroughfare Overlook, just a bit
north of Skyland. This was my most productive stop of the day, though the
constant cloud of gnats around my head was more than a little annoying.
Here I heard a rich chip note of a warbler as I was getting out of the car,
and was relatively certain it was a warbler from the genus that used to be
called Oporornis. The bird was calling from the scrubby clearing below the
overlook, at the north end, right in the sun. I was able to get around it,
and managed a good look at an adult male Mourning Warbler.
There was a bit of activity from the other end of the scrub, at the south
end of the parking lot. My gnats and I headed over there and did a lot of
pishing. The birds were interested, but most stayed fairly high in the
trees, offering a steady diet of unsatisfying looks. Here I had a female
Golden-winged (a plumage I don't remember seeing in a very long time), a young
Bay-breasted, a Worm-eating, a Black-and-white, two Chestnut-sideds, a
Blackburnian, two Black-throated Blues, a Black-throated Green, a Scarlet
Tanager, Least Flycatcher (still chebekking it's big head off), two
Blue-headed
Vireos, and two Red-eyed Vireos.
My last stop was back at Hughes River Gap, where the gnats continued, and
I added a striking male Hooded Warbler, a Tennessee, a Magnolia, five more
Chestnut-sideds, another Worm-eating, another Bay-breasted, and another
Black-and-white. Three Pewees were quite obliging.
I did four different eBird checklists, and they are all here if anyone is
interested:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11469650 Pre-dawn stop at ;
Hughes River Gap
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11470220 Stony Man
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11470226 Thoroughfare Overlook
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11470025 Second stop at ;
Hughes River Gap
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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