VA Appalachian Trail Birding

Today I joined the Northern Virginia Bird Club for a morning walk to Thompson WMA and the adjacent Sky Meadows SP. I knew that this area was good for some breeding warblers, and I had never been out there before. It turned out to be a great walk. Here are some of the highlights:

10+ Cerulean Warblers (including views of at least 5)
3 Hooded Warblers (great views)
Yellow-Throated Vireos, Worm-Eating and Kentucky Warblers (heard only)
Bobolink
10+ gorgeous Red-Headed Woodpeckers at close range, and even on open fenceposts!
1 Blackburnian Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler

If you're in this area this summer, most of those birds are breeding birds, and you'd have a good shot at them in the right location.

P.s. If I had kids, I would totally subscribe to this magazine: Nature Friend Magazine

20 Visit Hummer

The previous post mentioned the hummer had visited 15 times. It actually ended up being about 20 times during the course of the day. Here are the times, on average about every 15-20 minutes.

11:05, 11:25, 11:41, 11:53, 12:06, 12:25, 12:36, 12:56, 1:10, 1:14, 1:47, 1:59, 2:23, 2:37, 2:54, 3:06, 3:22, 3:33, 3:37, 5:06

As you can see from the above picture, on the last visit of the day, she had something stuck to her bill!

Ruby Throat

This little female Ruby Throat has been at our feeder 15 times throughout the course of the day! Ah, the pleasures of working from home.

Neighborhood Notes

Yesterday, I had the first hummer of the year appear at my feeder, and she returned this morning as well. Exciting!
Also, I took 50 minutes yesterday to stroll around my neighboorhood, a tiny wooded park, and a lake nearby. I came upon some surprising birds: Northern Waterthrush, Swamp Sparrow Common Yellowthroat, and Black-Crowned Night Heron. Sometimes it's amazing what can be found in places you wouldn't expect. This is inside the DC beltway, after all.

Overcast Morning Birding

Despite the threat of rain and overcast skies, my walk with two co-workers to Occoquan Bay NWR turned up 60 species. Highlights were King Rail (heard), 10 Bald Eagles, Prothonotary Warbler (one of 6 species of warbler), and Rusty Blackbirds.
 Complete species list is below:

Canada Goose     8
Wood Duck     6
Gadwall     80
Mallard     5
Ring-necked Duck     2
Lesser Scaup     20
Hooded Merganser     3
Ruddy Duck     50
Wild Turkey     1
Common Loon     2
Pied-billed Grebe     1
Double-crested Cormorant     10
Great Blue Heron     20
Black Vulture     1
Turkey Vulture     5
Osprey     15
Bald Eagle     10
Cooper's Hawk     1
Accipiter sp.     1
King Rail     X
American Coot     200
Solitary Sandpiper     1
Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs     1
Caspian Tern     12
Mourning Dove     3
Chimney Swift     6
Belted Kingfisher     1
Red-bellied Woodpecker     5
Downy Woodpecker     2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     1
Eastern Kingbird     1
Blue Jay     3
American Crow     5
Fish Crow     2
Purple Martin     6
Tree Swallow     10
Barn Swallow     3
Tufted Titmouse     3
Winter Wren     1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     8
Eastern Bluebird     2
American Robin     5
Northern Mockingbird     2
Brown Thrasher     1
European Starling     3
Yellow Warbler     12
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     4
Prairie Warbler     2
Palm Warbler     1
Prothonotary Warbler     1
Common Yellowthroat     5
Eastern Towhee     3
Field Sparrow     2
Song Sparrow     2
Swamp Sparrow     3
White-throated Sparrow     15
Northern Cardinal     5
Red-winged Blackbird     40
Rusty Blackbird     5
Common Grackle     18
Brown-headed Cowbird     6
American Goldfinch     10

FOY Hummer

If you hang it, they will come . . .

Put up our porch feeder yesterday at Lynne's urging ---
And an adult male showed to eat about the same time as Dad did!

Woohoo!

Morning Walk in the Woods

This morning I made it out for a 75 minute walk in the woods beside a local lake, Lake Accotink. Besides being a beautiful morning, there was some great birds to be seen. Seeing a bird that you haven't seen since the fall is like rediscovering an old friend. :)

Highlights today were Winter Wren, 40 YR Warblers, 4 Palm Warblers, 1 Pine Warbler, Rough-winged and Barn Swallows, and a Bald Eagle.

Spring Migrants

Spent a couple hours birding this morning at Occoquan Bay NWR (VA), and found some new spring birds. The most beautiful was a gorgeous male Yellow-throated Warbler. I was also happy to find a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. And there were lingering winter ducks as well: 3 Redhead, lots of Ruddy Ducks, as well as Ring-Necked Ducks, Lesser Scaup, Horned Grebes, Gadwall, and American Wigeon.

Osprey have returned and are nesting.