Rockfish Valley Trail 9/19/13

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

It was an unusual morning on the trail. I arrived at 9:00, parked just off route 627 on Glenthorne loop, and headed south on the east side of Reids Creek. After a quick look across the first wooden bridge and not seeing any birds, I continued south on the east side of the creek, all the way to the no trespassing sign, back-tracked to the vehicle tracks that lead to route 627, and then took the path from the road back to the first wooden bridge. It was a struggle to log 15 species in that first 30 minutes.

As soon as I crossed the bridge to the west side of the creek, I saw good avian activity between Yellow Bird thicket and the bog area. There were a couple of warblers, Black-throated Green and Magnolia, flitting about at the edge of the bog area. When the two warblers headed north to the picnic table area on the downstream trail, I followed them, and then looped back to the bog area. It had now been an hour on the trail, and I had 20 species.


Great Blue Heron


Black-throated Green Warbler


Carolina Wren


House Wren

I decided to walk the perimeter of the bog area, and saw a House Wren, my 21st species of the morning. Rather than walk the perimeter back, I decided to hike through the bog area, and head for home. As I neared the north end of the bog area, close to Yellow Bird Thicket, there was a lot of acivity. A Tufted Titmouse was chattering away, and then I saw a small flock of warblers: Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Black&White, Chestnut-sided, and American Redstart. If was cloudy overhead and dark in the dense tree cover, but I did get a few photos.


Black-throated Green Warbler


Magnolia Warbler


Magnolia Warbler


Magnolia Warbler


Chestnut-sided Warbler

After about fifteen minutes of foraging, the warblers flew over my head and into the trees along Reids Creek. I now had 31 species for the morning, and decided to see if I could re-locate any of the warblers from the east side of Reids Creek. About 50 feet south of the first wooden bridge, there are some large evergreen trees. The Magnolia and Black-throated Green Warblers had made their way into one of those trees, and popped out to see who I was.


Black-throated Green Warbler


Magnolia Warbler


Magnolia Warbler



E-mail comments on this report


Return to blog page home