[va-bird] Re: Riverbend to Seneca Road Expedition 4/29

Linda,

Your description of your hike is very evocative of all the delights of
spring and makes me wish I was there.  I just have one teeny problem with
your account.  Do you have unresolved hostility toward the ovenbird from
somewhere in your past?  How else can you possibly describe his rapturous
ringing song as "strident blasting"??  Linda, Linda, Linda . . . (We still
love you.  I'm not sure if the ovenbird does though.)

Mary Ann Good

----- Original Message -----
From: "Linda Millington" <millington@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 9:10 AM
Subject: [va-bird] Riverbend to Seneca Road Expedition 4/29


> Birders,
> Dorothy Tella, Erika Wilson, and I set off from Riverbend Park Visitor
Center yesterday morning at 7:30 and hiked to Seneca Road, 6 miles away. (We
left one car at the Northern Va. Regional Park Authority gate at the end of
Seneca Road in Great Falls.) The expedition was the brainchild of hiker
extraordinaire Dorothy. Erika tracked our route on her GPS, gave lessons in
birding by ear, and identified the many varieties of ferns...sensitive,
cinnamon, Christmas, New York,and fragile (for the plant buffs). I was the
notetaker. The trail was lined with purple, yellow, and white violets,
spring beauties, garlic mustard, blooming paw-paws, and bluebells enjoyed by
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. We walked the wooded ridges along the Potomac as
Northern Parulas called above, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers flitted in the canopy,
Worm-eating Warblers buzzed, Great Crested Flycatchers "reeped," and Scarlet
Tanagers called from opposite sides of the river. Two sleek male Common
Mergansers glided by
>  , DC Cormorants dotted the logs, and several Spotted Sandpipers landed on
rocks near the shore. An Acadian Flycatcher posed on a bare branch. We
passed through Fraser Preserve where a Gray Catbird and Brown Thrasher both
held court. It rained lightly on and off, but by the end of our trek, sun
rays came filtering through the new pale green leaves of the hardwood
forest, and we were serenaded by the flute-like tones of Wood Thrush and the
strident blasting of Ovenbirds. We saw no Carolina Wrens and worried about
the lack of them. The trail was passable the whole way as new culverts meant
no more climbing up and down embankments to avoid streams.
>
> The list:
> DC Cormorant 20
> Great Blue Heron 10
> Canada Goose 20
> Wood Duck 3
> Mallard 7
> Common Merganser 3
> Red-shouldered Hawk 1
> Red-tailed Hawk 1
> Spotted Sandpiper 4
> Mourning Dove 1
> Chimney Swift 9
> Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
> Belted Kingfisher 2
> Red-bellied Woodpecker 20
> Downy Woodpecker 3
> Hairy Woodpecker 2
> Northern Flicker 1
> Pileated Woodpecker 9
> Acadian Flycatcher 1
> Great Crested Flycatcher 6
> Yellow-throated Vireo 2
> Blue-headed Vireo 1
> Red-eyed Vireo 6
> Blue Jay 22
> American Crow 8
> Tree Swallow 2
> Carolina Chickadee 14
> Tufted Titmouse 27
> White-breasted Nuthatch 3
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
> Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 24
> Wood Thrush 12
> Gray Catbird 1
> Brown Thrasher 1
> Northern Parula 18
> Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
> Black-throated Green 2
> Prairie Warbler 1
> Black-and-White Warbler 1
> Worm-eating Warbler 3
> Ovenbird 8
> LA Waterthrush 4
> Common Yellowthroat 2
> Scarlet Tanager 5
> Eastern Towhee 3
> Field Sparrow 1
> White-throated Sparrow 17
> Dark-eyed Junco 1
> Northern Cardinal 16
> Red-winged Blackbird 2
> Common Grackle 15
> Brown-headed Cowbird 20
> American Goldfinch 24
>
> Linda Millington
>
> 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.
>

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.

Other related posts: