September 24, 2007 [LINK / comment]
Morning on the Blue Ridge
Songbird migration season will be over in just a few weeks, so I try to squeeze in time to see what is coming through. On my way to Sweet Briar this morning, I took a short detour and stopped for a few minutes along the the Blue Ridge Parkway. It didn't take long before several warblers and other migrating birds popped into view:
- Magnolia warblers
- Black-throated green warblers
- Eastern wood pewee
- Pileated woodpecker
- Northern parula
- Flicker
- Indigo buntings
I also saw a few Cedar waxwings near the Rockfish River.
Kenilworth Gardens
While at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens early on Saturday afternoon, we spent some time looking for birds. Jacqueline saw a Common yellowthroat, but it eluded me. I saw a group of medium-sized shorebirds that made a lot of noise when they flew, revealing white tail feathers. I'm pretty sure they were Black-bellied plovers, which would be a life bird for me!
- Great egrets -- 7+
- Great blue herons -- 5+
- Common loon (FOS)
- Kingfisher
- Black-bellied plovers -- 10+ (LIFE BIRD!?)
- Red-bellied woodpeckers
- Killdeers
- Red-winged blackbirds -- 50+
- Mallards -- 20+
- Canada geese -- 10+
Just prior to the Washington Nationals baseball game at RFK Stadium, as dusk was approaching, I gazed out toward the east from the upper concourse level and spotted a large white bird wading in the Anacostia River about a quarter mile away. It had to be a Great egret.
S.A.R.S.
For most of this month, it seemed like I saw the same birds behind the Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad every time I went there, but a several new ones (first of season) appeared this past week.
- Redstarts
- Magnolia warblers
- Tennessee warblers
- Black-throated green warblers
- Rose-breasted grosbeak (F; FOS)
- Blackburnian warbler (F)
- Red-bellied woodpeckers
- Downy woodpeckers
- Indigo buntings
- Philadelphia vireo (FOS)
- Warbling vireo (FOS)
- Hummingbirds
- Killdeers
- Cedar waxwings