Central Virginia 4/23/18

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

It was cloudy today, but I wanted to get some good birding in today as the forecast is rain for the next two days. I started out on the first 16 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. There wasn't a lot of vegetation to support good birding above 2000 foot elevation, but I had a liitle success on the parkway. At the Rockfish Gap Overlook (mm. 2), I got my first of season (FOS) Hooded Warbler, and then a Pine Warbler along Route 610 close to mm. 4 on the parkway.

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Hooded Warbler

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Pine Warbler

At higher elevations, most of the birds that I could see were high up in the trees.

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FOS B&W Warbler, FOS American Redstart, Blue-headed Vireo

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Eastern Towhees

I logged 21 avian species on the parkway, and then headed down to Sherando Lake where I added a few more species, but saw very few birds there. I then went to Ridgeview Park in Waynesboro where I saw two White-eyed Vireos, some boldly colored Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a few more species.

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White-eyed Vireo

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Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

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Yellow-rumped Warbler

I decided to go over to Lickonghole Creek and Reservoir in Crozet, but thought to drive by the King Family Vineyards on my way there to see if the American Bittern that I had missed yesterday might have returned. I stopped on the road before the entrance when I saw two other birders looking at the pond. I stopped, and walked over to them. They had come from the Lynchburg area to look for the American Bittern, and said that it was there but was hiding now. I saw a Green Heron and a Great Egret, and then a Cooper's Hawk flew across the pond. As soon as the hawk left, three more Green Herons flew in.

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Cooper's Hawk