Birders,
With regard to Catbird Heaven, Carole Miller and I stopped there yesterday
(Monday) morning and spotted a couple of Yellow-breasted Chats! So great to
see and hear them.
Linda Millington
Upperville, VA
On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 11:45 PM, <BlkVulture@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Greetings,
This past weekend I did some birding around various parts of Fauquier
County that are north of I-66 with Perri Borowiecki and my father, Mike.
On Saturday afternoon Perri and I went up to G. Richard Thompson WMA and
spent a little time at Sky Meadows. Thompson was dead; as dead as I have
ever seen it. It was late, around three PM, and it was gray, chilly (about
48 degrees), and a bit of wind. The only species we had here on Saturday
that we didn't get on Sunday was Blue-headed Vireo. Sky Meadows was a bit
more lively, but nothing atypical. Some species included Red-headed
Woodpecker, White-crowned Sparrows, Eastern Kingbirds, and loads of
Meadowlarks.
Also on Saturday we visited the bridge on Rectortown Road where it crosses
Goose Creek. This is the only publicly accessible spot in Fauquier that I
know of where Cliff Swallows nest. They are a bit fickle here, as we
stopped here twice. The first visit only had a couple that breezed through
quickly. When we came back around seven PM, there was about a dozen of
them.
There are a few nests already completed under the bridge, which I don't
know if they are this year's or last. It doesn't seem like those nests
would
survive an entire year under that bridge, as it does rock a bit when cars
travel it. We never saw a swallow enter a nest, but we were looking under
there when there weren't any around. Also at this spot are Warbling
Vireo,
Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow Warbler, Rough-winged Swallow,
Phoebe (active on a nest), and a few other birds. I've linked an eBird
checklist below (which will also provide a map):
_http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10574880_
(http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10574880)
Sunday morning my father, Perri, and I hit the chilly Trillium Trail at
Thompson WMA at about seven-thirty AM, eager to see a few of the birds
from
the Northern Virginia Bird Club's excellent trip list the previous day.
We
had good luck with about everything we had hoped to see. Good looks were
had at Kentucky Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Scarlet Tanager,
Yellow-throated Vireo, American Redstart, Hooded Warbler, Wood Thrush,
Cerulean Warbler,
with all of these birds in song for most of the morning. There was a
Winter Wren in full throat near the junction of the Appalachian Trail and
the
fire road. Checklist for the Trillium Trail walk is here:
_http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10581472_
(http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10581472)
After wrapping up at the Trillium Trail, we headed north to another parking
area named the Appalachian Parking Area, once dubbed by a few regulars to
this area as "Catbird Heaven." Not nearly the Catbirds that once were
there, but the habitat still remains good for them. We waked south on
the AT
about a half-mile or so before turning back. There were good numbers of
Hooded Warblers and White-eyed Vireos here, as well as Redstarts, my first
Indigo Bunting (silent), and a small flycatcher that was probably an
Eastern
Wood-Pewee, as it was on the treetops moving about, but not calling, and
never finding itself in full view. The habitat here might be attractive
to
Blue-winged Warblers, which have bred in the WMA in years past, but have
seen their habitat disappear as the trees grew taller. Checklist to this
under-birded area is here:
_http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10581671_
(http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10581671)
Only other things to note from the past few days in Fauquier that I have
seen were two Bobolinks on a wire near Remington on Grassdale Road seen
Friday the 27th, and two Ring-necked Ducks appeared on a private lake near
Warrenton after having not been seen for a few weeks there.
Cheers,
Todd
-------------------------------
Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
-------------------------------
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