On Sunday May 29, Diane Holsinger and I birded Shenandoah Mountain in
Rockingham County from the Briery Branch Dam to Flagpole Knob. The goal of our
trip was to find the red crossbills reported in that area by others in the last
several weeks. We didn't find any crossbills, but we did see a number of
interesting birds, the most notable of which included the following:
A total of 8 yellow-rumped warblers (mostly singing males and a few females)
along the dirt road to Flagpole Knob. We saw yellow-rumps in the Norway
spruces at the first large clearing just south of Rte 924, in the planted pines
and Norway spruces at the old cabin site, in the balsam firs at the beginning
of the dirt road to Bother Knob, and in the Norway spruces at Flagpole Knob (A
few of the birds may actually been on the WV side of the ridge). Two summers
ago, I had yellow-rumps carrying food at the Bother Knob road site in
mid-summer. It would be interesting to follow up in a few weeks to see if
these yellow-rumps are part of an increasing nesting population or just late
migrants.
Two red-breasted nuthatches in the Norway spruces at the old cabin site.
Two brown thrashers at the beginning of the road to Bother Knob. I presume
these birds are local nesters because of the rather late date, but they could
potentially be late migrants. This site is at an elavation close to 4000 ft or
more ( I don't have a topo map handy). Whether nesters or migrants, this seems
to be a rather high elevation record for this species.
Other birds included more expected high elevation species such as black-capped
chickadee, junco, Blackburnian, black-throated blue, black-throated green,
Canada and chestnut-sided warblers, rose-breasted grosbeak, veery, and
blue-headed vireo.
The hemlocks in the area have been hit really hard by the hemlock wooly
adelgid, probably accounting for the greatly reduced numbers of black-throated
green warblers as compared to numbers there 15 to 20 years ago. On the way
down the mountain we saw a singing, apparently territorial, Blackburnian
warbler in a stand of pitch and table mountain pines. In my experience nesting
Blackburnian and black-throated green warblers in the mountains of west-central
Virginia are typically most numerous in stands of hemlocks at mid- to high
elevations. Are these species and other choosing less than desirable habitats
as the hemlock stands decline? I would be interested in hearing if others have
made similar observations.
On a more positive note, on the way back to Harrisonburg, we saw an adult bald
eagle flying south along Dry River at Montezuma. I have also seen adult bald
eagles between Montezuma and the Bank Mennonite Church in mid-winter in recent
years. As the bald eagle populations continue to increase and nestings
increase in interior locations, birders should keep a lookout for nesting bald
eagles in the vicinity of North and Dry Rivers as well as near the flood
control dams in the mountains.
Good birding!
Craig Tumer
Washington, DC
---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new Resources site!
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
