Common Raven
The remnants of Hurricane Michael moved through the area last night, and were pushed quickly to the northeast by a cooler and drier air mass. I thought it might be a good birding day to look for species that the two weather systems might have brought here. When I left my house in Crozet at 9:00 this morning, the temperature was in the mid-50s with a 10 m.p.h. wind. But by the time I got to the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway 15 minutes later, the temperature was in the mid-40s with a 20+ m.p.h. winds at these higher elevations. I stopped at various locations along the first 12 miles of the parkway, but all I saw was one Common Raven, and I heard one Carolina Chickadee. All the rest of the birds were hunkered down to stay out of the wind.
Common Raven
I decided to go a little farther than my usual 12 mile parkway route, and continued on to the Three Ridges Overlook (mm. 13). This overlook was in the morning sun, and perhaps a little sheltered from the wind. Finally, I saw a few birds, including my first-of-season (FOS) Purple Finch (a female), and two warbler species: Common Yellowthroat and Pine. I saw another warbler that I haven't identified. It was most likely a first year Pine Warbler, but the tail looks a bit short to me.
Purple Finch
Common Yellowthroat
Pine Warbler
Pine(?) Warbler
I turned around and headed north, stopping without any luck at various sites where I often see warblers and other species. I decided to try birding at the nearby Ridgeview Park in Waynesboro. When I first got there, it was still a bit windy, and I saw a few woodland species.
Carolina Wren
Eastern Towhee
Northern Flicker
Mallards
I saw a small flock of my FOS White-throated Sparrows, but was only able to get off one poor photo of them.
White-throated Sparrow
And then, two things happened at the same time that changed my luck. As I walked a bit farther down the trail near the river, the wind died down quite a bit, and at the same time, three hawks, two large hawks and one smaller hawk, took off from being perched high in a tree. This all happened so quickly that I couldn't identify them, but within a minute, all sorts of birds appeared. I added four more woodpecker species: Pileated, Downy, Red-bellied, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Another FOS bird appeared: Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and a Blue-headed Vireo got busy looking for insects.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-headed Vireo
Cedar Waxwings seemed to be everywhere. Some were adults; others were transitioning from juvenile to adult plumage.
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing
I looked down and saw another warbler: an Ovenbird. And then I saw a female Black-thoated Blue Warbler and then a Magnolia Warbler.
Ovenbird
Black-thoated Blue Warbler
Black-thoated Blue Warbler
Black-thoated Blue Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Well, this was turning out to be a good birding day. I wondered if the winds might have died down up on the parkway, so I drove back to my usual warbler spots. The north (lower) end of the large cirque (mm. 7.5) was quiet except for a few Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice, but the south (upper) end of the cirque was "birdy." Lots of birds were flying in and out of dense leaf cover. I saw another Blue-headed Vireo and another Ruby-crowned Kinglet, as well as several Dark-eyed Juncos.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Dark-eyed Junco
And there were more warbler species.
Cape May Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
American Redstart
American Redstart
I saw two warblers that I could not identify. One of them might have been a female Blackburnian Warbler, but I'm not confident enough of this to make the call, and the other one might have been a female American Redstart.
Blackburnian(?) Warbler
American Redstart (?)
At Hickory Springs Overlook (mm. 12), I saw a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk starting to circle when an adult Red-tailed Hawk flew in and they did some aerial combat, before flying off together.
Red-tailed Hawks
Red-tailed Hawks
Red-tailed Hawks
Red-tailed Hawks
Red-tailed Hawks
And then, I ended the day's birding as it started six hours earlier, with a Common Raven.
Common Raven