Folks-
A late post - my apologies. One of these species appears to be new to
Todd's arrivals list (LEAST FLYCATCHER).
I spent Thurs afternoon through Sat night collecting fish and
intermittently birding in the mountains of SW VA, with UVA's Mountain Lake
Biological Station as a home base (Pembroke, Giles County). The station
itself is about 4000 ft up Salt Pond Mountain, so its bird assemblage was
not especially diverse yet.
At the station, BLUE-HEADED VIREOS and LEAST FLYCATCHERS were abundant
and very vocal. I suspect both arrived earlier than Thurs, as they had
established clear territories. Also observed around the station were
WHITE-BREASTED and RED-BREASTED NUTCHATCHES, the much-studied DARK-EYED
JUNCOS, a number of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, a BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, as
well as many common birds I failed to write down (but included BLUEBIRDS,
BARN SWALLOWS, TREE SWALLOWS, CHIPPING SPARROWS, ROBINS, CARDINALS, etc.).
We also heard an EASTERN SCREECH OWL and someone in the group saw a RUFFED
GROUSE.
Out and about during collecting trips we saw NO. PARULAS and RED-WINGED
BLACKBIRDS in abundance and I heard one CERULEAN WARBLER, though I was not
able to get a look at it (very unfortunate for me, as I have never seen
one!). We also saw a group of BANK SWALLOWS that had returned to their
holes in the river bank at the same spot on the Roanoke River where they
nest every year.
That's all I can remember that strikes me as interesting.
Dave Hewitt
Gloucester, VA
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