I know that "great" is a relative term, but in my opinion, this was a "great" birding day for me. Regular readers of my blog postings may remember that my highest priority birding objective is to photograph all 36 of the warbler species that have been seen in my local central Virginia area, even if I have to travel a bit out of the area to photograph one or more of the species. I still needed five species to accomplish this goal (Bay-breasted, Connecticut, Golden-winged, Mourning, and Prothonotary). I remembered meeting Margaret O'Bryan at the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch last autumn, and her telling me that she had
Golden-winged Warblers at her place in Highland County VA, located near the Virginia/West Virginia border. With the help of some local birders, I was able to obtain contact information for her, and Margaret kindly offered to let me come and go birding on her property. She said that there were both Golden-winged Warblers and Brewster's Warblers (Golden-winged X Blue-winged hybrid) singing there. |
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Common Yellowthroat
Juvenile and adult American Robins
Field Sparrow
Baltimore Oriole
House Wren
Red-tailed Hawk
Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Oh! Did I mention Golden-winged and Brewster's Warblers? :-) The first one we encountered was an interesting warbler. Male Golden-winged Warblers have black throat and auricular (eye) patches, and females have gray patches. However, first year adults can have some white mixed in with the black or gray. As I am certainly not an expert on this species, my best guess is that this bird is either an immature male Golden-winged, or perhaps a cross between a Brewster's and a Golden-winged showing combined characteristics. Very little throat patch is seen when the bird has its head somewhat down, but more throat patch is seen when its head is raised as it sings. The darkness of its auricular patch varied with its direction to the sunlight. All opinions on the bird would be appreciated.
Golden-winged or Golden-winged X Brewster's hybrid
Golden-winged or Golden-winged X Brewster's hybrid
Golden-winged or Golden-winged X Brewster's hybrid
Golden-winged or Golden-winged X Brewster's hybrid
Golden-winged or Golden-winged X Brewster's hybrid
Golden-winged or Golden-winged X Brewster's hybrid
Golden-winged or Golden-winged X Brewster's hybrid
We also saw a warbler that was clearly a Brewster's.
Brewster's Warbler
Brewster's Warbler
Brewster's Warbler
Brewster's Warbler
Walt then guided us on a drive with multiple stops along the two state border. At times, we were driving on good roads that intersected farm fields, but most of the time we were on curvy, bumpy, single-lane, gravel mountain roads with sharp drop-offs and no guard rails. Soon after leaving Margaret's, I had a couple of firsts. We saw a few Bobolinks in breeding plumage, and previously, I had only seen this species in non-breeding plumage. And we saw a couple of Cliff Swallows sitting on a power line - another new life species for me.
Bobolink
Bobolink
Bobolink
Bobolink
Bobolink
Cliff Swallow
Cliff Swallow
We stopped several times to listen and look for warblers. We heard or saw American Redstarts at several locations. We went to one location where Walt had seen Mourning Warblers before, but we didn't see any. But at that location we saw at least a dozen Chestnut-sided Warblers, and many of them were so close to us that my long camera lens could not focus on them.
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Canada Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
We saw a lot of non-warbler species as well. There was a single Common Loon on a small lake, and the only Loon I had previously seen was a flying bird up at the hawk watch. As we were leaving, we saw our 46th species of the day, a Wild Turkey.
Male Hairy Woodpecker
Female Hairy Woodpecker
Common Loon
Common Loon
Common Loon
Today's List (46 species, counting the Brewster's and Golden-winged separately):
Canada Goose Turkey Vulture Broad-winged Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Wild Turkey Mourning Dove Ruby-throated Hummingbird Hairy Woodpecker Flicker Eastern Phoebe Eastern Kingbird Blue Jay American Crow Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Eastern Bluebird American Robin Northern Mockingbird Catbird Brown Thrasher Cedar Waxwing Starling Golden-winged(?) Warbler Brewster’s Warbler Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler American Redstart Common Yellowthroat Canada Warbler Scarlet Tanager Indigo Bunting Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Baltimore Oriole Bobolink Eastern Meadowlark Red-winged Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Common Grackle American Goldfinch |