An old birding friend of mine, Gene Davis and I were at the Blandy Research
Station-Va State Arboretum at dawn this morning for a little birding(2 1/2
hrs). We had about 30 min before the wind came up. The highlites: We parked
by the maple collection and picked up a pair of Parula Warblers there. There
was so much early morning bird activity, it was hard to focus on what to
focus on. Along in the Chinese quince we found a yellowthroat-full plumage.
Throughout there were various BG Gnatchtchers, several YB Sapsuckers, a hairy
woodpecker, chipping sparrows, 3 vesper sparrows, white throated Sparrows,
red winged blackbirds, cowbirds, probably 50 tree swallows, 30-40 robins, 2
broad winged hawks, along the pond a G yellowlegs, 2 pectoral sandpipers(3rd
yr I've seen them there but this is the earliest by 8 days), pied billed
grebe, marsh wren in the wetlands. Along the road to the ginko grove in the
,I believe, fir? trees next to the research plot, we picked up 2 prairie
warblers, only one singing. We had great views of them both as they shifted
from hardwood trees to evergreen as we moved them ahead of us. One of the
broadwinged hawks was in the ginkos. If any of you all are anywhere close to
Winchester, the Va. State Arboretum is just a few miles to the east on hwy 50
and I've always had excellent birding there and its one of the better plant
collections on the east coast.(They have a huge plant sale on mothers day)
Dave White
Zion Crossroads
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.
