Good topic, Elisa
I hiked the upper part of the Fore Mountain trail one morning, it was a bit
slower than I expected. 5 Eastern Towhees were the most abundant, one Common
Raven and one Pilleated Woodpecker sparked the morning up a bit. A driving
route the next day was pretty tough with no place to pull off and lots of blind
corners/hills. One group of Chickadees looked like Carolinas and sounded like
Black-capped (as far as I can distinguish them), another group looked like
Black-capped and I didn't hear them.
I went out both nights to places where Allegheny Woodrats were found in the
'90s, but no luck. The place I wanted to go on Jingling Rocks Rd, where they
also live trapped E Spotted Skunk, is closed because of private land owners on
both ends. Durn it. An eleven year survey found the Woodrat in 27 counties in
VA, much more widespread and abundant than I had imagined. See:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev3_000180.pdf ;
Even farther off topic, I went home via Dolly Sods, WV, the type locality for
Appalachian Cottontail. Lots of people there, but no bunnies. Oh, well, maybe
next time.
Good birds,
John Fox
Arlington
