FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Nest Mania in the Valley

["Jon Little" <littlejon@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I spent the day with Jake Langeslag, my long-time birding partner from 
Minnesota (his 1st day ever in VA, with 77 species - the
horrid wind killed any prospects of doing better). Having brought the Cold NW 
wind with him, we endured the day anyway and found
some pretty good stuff.

After Jake found a Veery nest with 2 eggs at Shenandoah NP (White Oak Falls 
trail), we couldn't help but spend the rest of the day
indulging in our mutual passion of nest hunting.

On the way back to Blandy (he's a Summer intern there), we stopped at the 
low-water bridge on the Shenandoah, just  north of Front
Royal. During the 1/2 hour spent there, we found the following nests:

Eastern Wood Pewee: 1 ON (nest occupied by brooding adult).

Warbling Vireo: 2 ON - 1 on each side of the river. I love the way they peer 
over the edge when they notice you - like you didn't
notice them first! There are probably another 2-3 nests in the immediate area, 
as there were 2 or more adult males singing on
different territories nearby.

Robin: 1 NY (nest with 4 young ); 2 ON (adults brooding).

Grackle: 3 ON (too many, of course!) + 1 FL (newly fledged youngster out of the 
nest).

Orchard Oriole: 1 FY (Feeding Young - both adults coming & going with food to 
the nest). This nest was about 3 ft above one of the
brooding Robins.

Baltimore Oriole: 2 FY / 1 ON. With a total of 3 active nests, maybe they're 
trying to get a team together??

Biggest nest miss at that spot was Yellow Warbler, which were singing all over 
(just didn't have time).

All-in-all, another great day of birding!

Jon Little
Winchester
















You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email 
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.