Red Crossbill
A week ago, William Leigh had posted seeing two Mourning Warblers on Reddish Knob in the Allegheny Mountains; one on FR 85 north of the Briery Branch four road intersection, and another one a bit further north on FR 539. I hadn't seen this species yet in 2020, and didn't know if these Mourning Warblers were already on nesting territory, or were still migrating, but thought it worth a look. Tink Moyer and I took two vehicles to maintain social distancing, and made the 1-1/2 hour drive each way to get there. We only stopped a couple of times on the way up Briery Branch Road to look for other species, knowing that we could take more time on the way back down. We spent about 45 minutes looking for the first one without success, and decided to head back to look for Red Crossbills and other warbler species, rather than continue on down to FR 539. As soon as we got back to the four road intersection, we spotted the first of at least six Red Crossbills. Some of them were going and coming, so an accurate count was not possible, but we saw four perched in trees while two others flew away.
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbills
Red Crossbills
Red Crossbills
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill
We then headed up towards the summit, and then back down to the reservoir. We logged 10 warbler species on the way up and down from the Reddish Knob summit: Ovenbird, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Black and White, Chestnut-sided, Pine, Hooded, Yellow-rumped, American Redstart (seen only), and Canada (heard only). Noticely missing was Blackburnian.
Ovenbird
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
BBlack-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Pine Warbler
Pine Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
We logged 32 avian species up there before heading on to our last stop of the trip.
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Dark-eyed Junco
Eastern Towhee
Chipmunk
We hadn't seen a Northern Parula on this trip, so we decided to make a quick stop at nearby Hone Quarry, where we added 5 more species to the day list, bringing the total to 37. We heard multiple Ovenbirds there, and got our 11th warbler species of the day.
Northern Parula
Northern Parula