I spent the morning birding what we are now referring to as the
Parsons Tract here at Natural Bridge. This is the largest chunk of
land on the property, and contains Foamhenge (for now), nearly ten
miles of trails, the highest point on the property (at around 1450
ft), and a variety of habitats, including wetlands, meadows, lots of
scrub, and riparian woods.
Despite the wind, there was a good amount of activity. Flyover PURPLE
FINCHES and AMERICAN PIPITS were nice, as was a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET,
a species I haven't seen much of this winter.
The big surprise was three duck species in the wetland behind
Foamhenge. We've had WOOD DUCK here before, but never HOODED MERGANSER
or BUFFLEHEAD.
Some other bird species seen here recently (but not today) are
American Woodcock, Hermit Thrush, Gray Catbird, and Fox Sparrow.
We've been hearing both Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs in the wetlands,
and there have been plenty of Mourning Cloaks flying around in the
warmer weather.
Stay tuned for more shameless Natural Bridge hype.
Wes Teets
Buchanan, VA
P.S. I'd like to thank everyone who answered our survey questions.
I'll get back to all of you personally during the week. I will also
post some tentative plans for the program to be reviewed by the list.
Natural Bridge Park--Parsons Tract, Rockbridge, US-VA
Mar 9, 2014 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
42 species
Wood Duck 2
Bufflehead 1
Hooded Merganser 2
Black Vulture 3
Turkey Vulture 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 3
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 1
Common Raven 1
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 17
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Eastern Bluebird 4
American Robin 13
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 15
American Pipit 2
Cedar Waxwing 13
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Field Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 7
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Northern Cardinal 10
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 6
House Finch 2
Purple Finch 2
American Goldfinch 1
View this checklist online at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17370370
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
