Skyline Drive, VA, 8/10/16

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

The first couple of weeks of August seem to be somewhat poor for birding here in central Virginia. Some of the summer residents have already moved on, and only a few migrating birds have made it this far south. Walt Childs and I headed up to the sod farm south of Elkton to look for migrating American Golden-Plovers that might have been blown inland by the easterly winds during the past few days. But when we got there, we saw that the sod was being harvested and the fields were almost entirely dirt. We only saw a few birds in that area.

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American Kestrel

We were close to Route 33, so we opted to head up to Skyline Drive and go north to Pocosin Cabin. We didn't see many birds there, either, and the lack of avian species was made even greater by a large group of "walker-talkers" who were in the vicinity of the cabin.

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Hooded Warbler

I had never been to Big Meadows on Skyline Drive, and as it was only 10 miles north of Pocosin Cabin, we decided to try some birding there. After arriving, we drove to the amphitheater and hiked a bit of the trail behind it. I heard a Pewee and only a few other birds, but made a close approach to a fawn. I wondered if this birding trip was going to be a bust??

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Fawn

We then decided to drive around some of the camping loops, and the tent areas were much more productive.

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Brown Thrasher

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Dark-eyed Junco

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Cedar Waxwing

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Blue-headed Vireo

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Eastern Towhee

But it was the Chestnut-sided Warblers that we saw there that was the highlight of the trip. I saw a first-year Chestnut-sided Warbler in the trees right in front of me. It was either accustomed to people or so young that it didn't know to be fearful of strangers, as it foraged for small larvae just a few feet in front of me.

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

And then papa showed up with a very large larva for junior.

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Chestnut-sided Warblers

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Chestnut-sided Warblers

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Chestnut-sided Warblers

But it was too much for junior to handle, and the larva got away. Papa then recovered the larva.

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warblers

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Chestnut-sided Warblers

But papa decided to not try to give the larva to junior again. It paused, as if to decide what to do, and then took off with the large larva, leaving junior to forage for little ones on its own.

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warblers

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

Walt and I drove to the meadow on the other side of Skyline Drive from the entrance to Big Meadows. We saw a few more avian species there, bringing our trip total to 36. I hiked a bit on the gravel road, and was surprised when a 9-point buck walked right up to me.

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Buck


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