Rockfish Valley Trail 9/2/10


It was a slow day on the trail this morning. I arrived at 8:00, and spent 1 hour and 20 minutes on my 3.0 mile hike. I think that perhaps I got to the trail too early in the morning. As a result of daylight savings time plus the lower September sun, a lot of the vegetation along Reids Creek was still in deep shadows, and for the first hour, most of the birds I saw where sitting still and soaking up the early morning sunlight.

Even though there were not a lot of birds on the trail, I did manage to log 17 species:

Starling
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Cedar Waxwing
Eastern Bluebird
American Goldfinch
American Crow
Eastern Phoebe
Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
Field Sparrow
Indigo Bunting
Blue Jay
Kingfisher
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron


juvenile Cedar Waxwing

The highlights of the hike for me were the herons and Kingfishers. I saw a Great Blue Heron stalking some breakfast in the small pond along route 627. He later gave up and headed north, almost colliding with a Crow that was heading south to join in a mob. A Green Heron was fishing from the power line on the downstream trail, and a pair of Kingfishers were perched together on a tree branch on the upstream trail, but flew away as soon as we saw each other.


Great Blue Heron


Great Blue Heron


Great Blue Heron


Great Blue Heron


Green Heron



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