Wintergreen Area 5/22/12

Wintergreen Area 5/20-22/12

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

A slow moving low pressure area has brought hot, muggy, unstable air to the mid-Atlantic states, and we have a mix of sun, clouds, and rain that can pop up in a matter of minutes. On Sunday (5/20) I stopped on the way out to photograph a fox kit that I have seen a few times on Rodes Valley Drive. This kit is not the same one that I photographed a couple of weeks ago on the other side of Stoney Creek.

The sun came out late yesterday afternoon, and I hiked close to home. A Flicker gave me a colorful display as it landed in a nearby tree, and Northern Rough-winged Swallows were gathering nesting materials.

Fox Kit

Flicker

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Buck moth caterpillar (Hemileuca maia)

Rockfish Valley Trail 5/22/12

I hiked on the trail this morning for a couple of hours and saw 32 avian species. The highlights were my FOS (for the RV Trail) Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Baltimore Oriole. An Eastern Wood-Pewee posed for me, and I saw a Green Heron at the highest point of a very large tree.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Green Heron

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Belted Kingfisher

Indigo Bunting

Baltimore Oriole

Stoney Creek 5/22/12

When I got home, I checked on the Red-shouldered Hawk's nest in my back yard. Mama and papa were not there, so I didn't have to worry about being attacked again. The chicks are starting to lose some of their fuzz. As I am looking at the nest from about 20 feet below, and not able to look down into the nest, I knew that there were at least two chicks, but thought I might have seen the tops of another fuzz ball. Now that the chicks are bigger and moving about, I could see a third one. One of the chicks spent a couple of minutes doing what I can best describe as forcefully nodding it head up and down. After looking at the photos, I can see that it was trying to chomp down on a mouse! Yum!!

Red-shouldered Hawk chicks

Red-shouldered Hawk chicks - LUNCH!

Red-shouldered Hawk chicks

E-mail comments on this report

Return to blog page home