FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Birding Whitetop and Washington Co.

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Area Birders,

Here is a posting from today's Virginia listserv by Sue Heath of George Mason 
University.   I thought you would find it interesting.  I was in the same area 
Sunday and added Hermit Thrush on the gravel road to Whitetop Mountain from Elk 
Garden.  Also saw and heard a Pine Siskin on the road in the open meadows on 
top.  I missed the Alder Flycatcher at the beaver pond between Whitetop 
Community and Whitetop Station at the Virginia Creeper Trail.  It started 
raining before I could get to Whitetop Station.  I was diappointed that the 
area along the road of the wetlands has been filled with slate and someone is 
evidently going to build something there.  I don't know if this is an actual 
intrusion into the standing water area but it seems to be a wetland 
encroachment.  The water is down a little and not up to the fill area.  The 
beaver lodge is massive.  Also had a meadowlark on top of Whitetop and don't 
know if I remember that species up there in the past.  Several Canada Warblers 
on the way up to the Iron Mountain overlook and run-a-way ramp along Va Rt. 600 
below 4,000 feet.  Heard a distant wabler buzzing near Old Rt. 600 
interesection and Va Rt. 600 and got out to check for Golden-wing and Blue-wing 
types.  Heard it one more time but it was breezy and could not get a 
confirmation.

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

-----------------------------BEGIN FORWARD----------------------

Hello everyone,

Todd Day, Ian Topolsky, and myself took off last Friday for some 
southwestern Virginia birding.  None of us had ever birded the Whitetop 
Mountain area and we wanted to do a bit of exploring.  We left on Friday 
afternoon around 3:30 and county/city birded our way down to Marion 
which is on I-81 about 40 miles north of Tennessee where we spent Friday 
night.  The next morning found us heading over the ridge along Rt. 16.  
We found a number of high elevation breeders there including 
CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, SLATE-COLORED JUNCO, BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER 
AND BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER.  Down the ridge into Grayson County we 
found expected species including numerous WILLOW FLYCATCHERS, always a 
treat to hear singing.  With excellent directions from Glen Eller, we 
found our target species, ALDER FLYCATCHER, at Whitetop Station along 
with a singing LEAST FLYCATCHER.  From there we made a brief foray into 
Washington County to get a few species there and find a Chimney Swift 
for my county list.  We found them in Damascas, home of the Trail Days 
event for AT hikers and the bike trail down the mountain through 
beautiful scenery.  Back in Grayson County, we headed up Rt. 600 to the 
ridge along Whitetop Mountain.  There weren't many birds there but the 
view was nice.  A singing BLUE-HEADED VIREO kept us entertained.  We 
then took Rt. 58 through numerous towns including Mouth of Wilson whose 
name has always intrigued me, Galax (an independent city for you city 
listers) and over to I-77.  We headed north from there to Highland 
County which I'll send another e-mail about.

Sue

-- 
Susan A. Heath
George Mason University
Environmental Science Department
Fairfax, VA

Secretary, Virginia Avian Records Committee
Keeper, Virginia Comp List at www.virginiabirding.org

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