Yesterday, Friday, Daryl Owens and I birded some areas of Compton Mt to see
what avian species were there for the finding. We started with my property and
found among the usuals a Wood Thrush, a Gray Catbird, Indigo Buntings and a
Yellow-throated Vireo singing in my backyard. This fellow has been here now for
at least two weeks and is probably nesting in one of the maple trees, as they
have in past years. Eight or more Purple Martins are nesting in my martin house
and gourds. Their gurgling chatter brightens the day. A male House Finch sang
loudly from the very top branch of the Hemlock in the front yard.The male House
Wren that has been singing here for the last month or so has finally given up
and moved on, after trying to take over three bluebird boxes and completely
filling one with small sticks, but never found a mate. Later I heard the male
Baltimore Oriole that is probably also nesting here, as he did for the first
time last year. A Brown Thrasher was singing in the neighbor's pasture.
We then drove out to the Mountain Top Golf Course here on the mountain and
found Blue-winged Warblers, 4 singing males in all for the day, Kentucky
Warblers, 6 singing males by the end of our birding, Yellow-throated Warblers,
Yellow-breasted Chats and American Redstarts. We ended the day around lunch
time with 13 warbler species with the biggest surprise being a Wilson's Warbler
showing up and giving me an opportunity for photos (See attachment). We also
had Red-eyed Vireos White-eyed Vireos, and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.
We ended our birding with a trip around Compton Mt to an area known as "The
Flat", a large flat area that was formerly used for stockpiling coal by a
mining company. Mining there ended there several years ago,and the area has
become a nice open field that Yellow-breasted Chats, Common Yellowthroats
Blue-winged Warblers and Field Sparrows prefer. Near the field's edge we
encountered more Kentucky Warblers and Black-and-white Warblers. We finished
the day with 56 species. The complete list is below.
Roger Mayhorn
Compton Mt
56 species
Wild Turkey
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood Pewee
White-eyed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyedVireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Blue-winged Warbler 4
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Kentucky Warbler 6
Hooded Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Eastern Meadowlark
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Attachment:
2015_5_16 Wilson's Warbler_crs - Copmpton Mt - Mountain Top Golf Course_8697.jpg
Description: JPEG image
