Highland County, VA 5/24/18

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

As I wrote in a posting a couple of weeks ago, there are 36 species of warbler that are seen annually in Virginia, and 37 if you include the Swainson's Warbler that is local to the Great Dismal Swamp. I include the Yellow-breasted Chat, although ornithologists moved this species out of the warbler family a year or so ago, but it's still a warbler to me. Of these, about a third are fairly easy to find and not too difficult to photograph. Another third are a bit tougher to locate, and the last third require either lots of work or lots of luck to see, much less photograph. I have seen and photographed all 37 warbler species here in Virginia, but never all 37 in a single calendar year. Prior to today's outing, I was up to 24 warbler species seen and photographed here in Virginia in 2018. Two of the tough ones are Golden-winged and Mourning Warblers. I had yet to see either warbler species in 2018, and asked Walt Childs if he wanted to go with me to Highland County and try for both of them. The Blue Grass Valley is fairly reliable for Golden-winged Warblers, and Paddy Knob for Mourning Warblers, but I had never seen both species on the same day.

Blue Grass Valley

We arrived around 10:45 in the morning, and drove up Wimer Mountain Road to its apex close to the boundary with West Virginia. We saw a fair number of common species.

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Barn Swallow

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Field Sparrow

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Chipmunk

The first warbler we saw there was a Yellow Warbler (my 2018 Virginia warbler species #25), and then a Chestnut-sided Warbler.

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Yellow Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

And then, a very cooperative male Golden-winged Warbler (my 2018 Virginia warbler species #26) put on a show for us.

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

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Golden-winged Warbler

On the way back to the car, we heard our fourth warbler species of the day, a Common Yellowthroat, but decided to move on without trying to see it. At this point, Walt and I would normally spend a couple of hours driving around the Blue Grass Valley to look for eagles, hawks, and other species, but we were on a mission, and drove straight to Paddy Knob.

Paddy Knob

We took Route 220 south through Monterey, and turned west on Route 84. Within a few feet of the border with West Virginia, we turned left onto Public Road 55 and made our ascent up towards Paddy Knob. On previous trips, we had heard Mourning Warblers close to the intersection with Route 84, but have only seen them at points #1 and/or #3 shown on the map below. The coordinates for point #3 are approximate, as I could not locate the exact spot on the imagery. Point #2 is also a known spot for Mourning Warblers, but I have never seen one at that location. On our way up, we heard Ovenbirds, Black-throated Green Warblers, Wood Thrushes, and Red-eyed Vireos. We drove past point #3, and stopped at point #2 to talk with two other birders who had seen a Mourning Warbler there about 30 miinutes earlier. We decided to try point #1 first.

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Paddy Knob Mourning Warbler locations

We spent a good amount of time at point #1. We saw several Chestnut-sided Warblers, and this species sounds a lot like a Mourning Warbler to me, so there were lots of hopeful searches in trees, only to find a Chestnut-sided Warbler where we thought there might be a Mourning Warbler. At one point, I think that I had a quick glimpse of the back of a Mourning Warbler that was low in some dense vegetation, but it was gone before I could get a good look. We saw several Red-eyed Vireos, and Walt saw a Black and White Warbler. We heard Veeries, but did not see them.

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Chestnut-sided Warbler

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Red-eyed Vireo

We did get lucky at that site, when we saw both Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoos.

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Black-billed Cuckoo

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Yellow-billed Cuckoo

We decided to try point #2, but only saw more Chestnut-sided Warblers and a female American Redstart.

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American Redstart

We went back to point #1, and then back to point #2, but no success. I walked down the road to point #3, and remembered that location from our last visit to Paddy Knob in 2017, where I got some great photos of a Mourning Warbler, and got lucky again this time (my 2018 Virginia warbler species #27).

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Mourning Warbler

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Mourning Warbler

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Mourning Warbler

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Mourning Warbler

A bit farther down the road, I saw our first Black-throated Blue Warbler of the day.

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Black-throated Blue Warbler

We heard a Kentucky Warbler farther down the road (our 11th warbler species of the day), and saw more Chestnut-sided Warblers. We ended the day trip with 43 avian species, and felt really lucky to have gotten both of our target species.


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