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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