Crozet, VA 8/8/2020

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Old Trail

It was very overcast this morning, and the mountains were engulfed with fog, so I decided to do a little birding here in Old Trail. I ended up with 21 avian species. I wasn't in a hurry to process my photos, as I hadn't seen anything really special - until I started processing the photos!

I started off at the wetlands near the lodge, and saw a HUGE Rock Pigeon perched on a railing there. While Mourning Doves are common here, it's unusual to see a Rock Pigeon, and this one was so big that it reminded me of the Woodpigeons I had seen in England. It also was very light in color, and I wondered if its plumage just made it look bigger.

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Rock Pigeon

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Rock Pigeon

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Rock Pigeon

I then hike along the golf course pond, where I saw a few interesting species.

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Eastern Kingbird

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Eastern Kingbird

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Indigo Bunting

There were more birds in the trees on the south side of the pond. I saw another Eastern Kingbird in a tree with a Blue Jay and a juvenile Cedar Waxwing. The Cedar Waxwing was on the pond side of the tree, so I spent most of the time there trying to get a picture of it in focus with all the branches in the way. I should have focused more on this Eastern Kingbird. When I began going through my photos on my computer, I saw that this Eastern Kingbird had orange crown feathers! I have never seen an Eastern Kingbird with such feathers, and cannot find any descripton of this species with this feature.

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Eastern Kingbird

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Eastern Kingbird


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