Blog post

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