Rockfish Valley Trail 10/22/12

All photos are © Marshall Faintich


Although I saw a few large birds on the trail this morning, it was the small ones that stole the show. I arrived a little after 9:00, and had logged 33 species in 2-1/2 hours. I may have gotten more species, but three women with eight screaming toddlers showed up for a walk on the trail, and a lot of the birds went into hiding.

There were hundreds of sparrows on the trail, and I saw 10 species of them: Song, Field, Chipping, White-throated, White-crowned, Savannah, Vesper, Lincoln's, Swamp, and Eastern Towhee. A small flock of Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets were in the large tree at the end of the downstream trail. One of the GC Kinglets had a bright fire-orange crown stripe - just wish I could have gotten some better photos of it.










Pileated Woodpecker


Blue-head Vireo


Blue-head Vireo


White-throated Sparrow


Song Sparrow


Song Sparrow


Song Sparrow


Lincoln's Sparrow


Lincoln's Sparrow


Lincoln's Sparrow


Lincoln's Sparrow


Swamp Sparrow


Swamp Sparrow


Field Sparrow


Immature White-crowned Sparrow


Immature White-crowned Sparrow


Immature White-crowned Sparrow


Vesper Sparrow (left) and Savannah Sparrow (right)


Chipping Sparrow


Female Purple Finch


Golden-crowned Kinglet


Golden-crowned Kinglet


Golden-crowned Kinglet


Golden-crowned Kinglet


Golden-crowned Kinglet


Ruby-crowned Kinglet


Ruby-crowned Kinglet


Ruby-crowned Kinglet


Eastern Phoebe


Juvenile Cooper's Hawk


Juvenile Cooper's Hawk


Juvenile Cooper's Hawk

Yesterday afternoon I put some thistle seeds in one of the tubes of my bird feeder, hoping to attract Pine Siskins and other finches. Within five minutes there was a male Purple Finch at the feeder. When I got home after hiking the trail this morning, there was an American Goldfinch and a Pine Siskin at the feeder, but an interloper (Downy Woodpecker) had other ideas, and the Pine Siskin quickly left the goodies.


Pine Siskin


Pine Siskin and Downy Woodpecker


Downy Woodpecker



E-mail comments on this report


Return to blog page home