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July 6, 2010 [LINK / comment]

"Byrding" in West Virginia

It was by sheer coincidence that West Virginia's senior senator Robert Byrd passed away just as we were about to travel there (in part to go bird watching) last week. Alas, the "Silver-capped Orator" is no longer with us.

Nearly all the birds we saw in West Virginia were at one of two major places: Bald Knob (BK), elevation 4,824 feet, and Cranberry Glades (CG). We saw Juncos and Cedar waxwings at both locations. Birds listed with an exclamation mark are only found at high elevations or in northern latitudes, and do not nest in Virginia. At Cranberry Glades we heard Common Yellowthroats signing, but I never saw any.

  • Dark-eyed Juncos ! - BK, CG
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler ! (M) - BK
  • Cedar waxwings - BK, CG
  • Green Heron - GR
  • Killdeers - GR
  • Phoebes - GR
  • Belted Kingfisher - GR
  • Hooded Warbler - GR
  • Blackburnian Warbler (M) - CG
  • Magnolia Warblers ! (M) - CG
  • Chestnut-sided Warbler (M) - CG
  • Red-eyed Vireo - CG
  • Blue-headed Vireos - CG
  • Red-breasted Nuthatch ! - CG
  • Cooper's Hawk - near CG

Bell's Lane, midsummer

On Bell's Lane yesterday morning, I finally saw some orioles -- several in fact, both male and female. I couldn't be sure which species the females were, though.

  • Baltimore orioles (M, F?)
  • Orchard orioles (M, F?)
  • Willow flycatcher
  • Indigo bunting (M)
  • Brown thrasher
  • Goldfinches (M, F)

Gulf of Mexico oil spill

For any bird watcher, the consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are almost too painful to bear. I wish I could help out, somehow, but I just don't have enough training in handling wild birds to be of much use. Ed Clark of the nearby Wildlife Center of Virginia recently visited the shores of Louisiana and reported on what he saw there.

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 06 Jul 2010, 11: 42 AM  .




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Hits on this page (single blog post) since July 2, 2007:

My blog practices

My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:

  1. Wild birds (LAST)
  2. War
  3. Science & Technology *
  4. Politics
  5. Latin America
  6. Culture & Travel *
  7. Canaries ("Home birds")
  8. Baseball (FIRST)

* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007

The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or strikethroughs, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.

The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.


Blog errata
(preliminary)

April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"

April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"

: "" should be ""