Eight members of the Rockingham Bird Club made a second annual early June
overnight visit to Cranberry Glades in West Virginia on Monday and Tuesday,
June 6-7. Participants this year were Clair Mellinger, Charles Ziegenfus, Tom
Pendleton, Tom Mizell, Ken Hinkle, Mike Smith, Richard Schiemann and John
Irvine. This year the group stopped by Paddy Knob on their way west. The
rather
exhibitionist MOURNING WARBLER (whose territory lies just about 3.4 miles
south along Forest Road 55 from its intersection with State Route 84 just west
of the Virginia--West Virginia line) sang lustily for us and even did so
from open perches on both sides of the road, giving us excellent views in good
light. We heard another one singing farther along the road. Four Least
Flycatchers were heard along 55. A pair of Eastern Bluebirds was on territory
in
what looked like an unusual locale for that species--hardly any short grass
to hunt food in except along the narrow road margins; the vegetation was more
reminiscent of the growing-up shrubbery a Yellow-breasted Chat would like,
though no Chats were about. The butterfly life there was rich, with Hobomok
Skippers and Dreamy Duskywings particularly numerous along the road. Possible
Appalachian Tiger Swallowtails skipped by also.
By early afternoon we were in the Cranberry Glades, where from the boardwalk
loop we saw an ALDER FLYCATCHER at some distance and heard, but did not see,
Canada Warblers on territory. Late in the afternoon we made our way along
the Highland Scenic Highway, and after a quick trip into Marlinton for supper
we were back on the same road. From one parking area we walked along a
boardwalk where Mellinger, who bands SAW-WHET OWLS each fall, gave his
whistled
imitation of a Saw-whet Owl's toots. From a distance over on the other side
of
the ridge, Mike Smith's keen ears picked up an answering series of toots and
he headed out to the road with the rest of us following. At the road we
could all hear it.The bird came up close--it was dark by then and was not
seen--and then it seemed there were two birds responding, one from nearby, the
other from farther away. After considerable back-and-forth, the nearer bird
gave
a series of cat-like wails and then ceased calling. And we all had what we
felt was the best bird of the trip.
Next morning we made another pass by the Nature Center for the Glades in
hopes of seeing RED CROSSBILLS, of which we had enjoyed good looks at a group
in
the treetops a year earlier. This year we were told by Center personnel
that the crossbills, who had been seen almost daily there in summer 2004, were
very rarely there this year. But Ziegenfus checked out a distant treetop and
spotted a few, and before they left that tree some ten minutes later, the
flock had grown to 21 individuals of both sexes, with up to 17 in a scope view
at once! Then it was on to the Glades boardwalk for another try at its
potential goodies. A Ruffed Grouse drummed in the distance. Chimney Swifts
were
nesting, as they did in pre-chimney America, in hollows in dead trees standing
in the swamp; and a different distant SAW-WHET OWL answered Mellinger's
whistled toots. Best of all, the pair of CANADA WARBLERS (likely the same
birds
that we had glimpsed the year before, as they were in the same place on the
boardwalk) gave us good, if fleeting, looks.
We headed south of Hillsboro to a locale new to all of us--Beartown State
Park, a jumble of faults, canyons, holes in rocks, and extensive and
complicated
boardwalks and stairs to help the visitor get around this astonishing
terrain. ACADIAN and LEAST FLYCATCHERS called; a pair of WINTER WRENS matched
their surroundings perfectly and sang and sang; a Veery flew up out of a hole
in
one canyon wall. We watched a fat mouse busily eating a leaf before it
dodged back into a tiny cavern, and a red squirrel scampered among the ferns
and
went up a tree.
Back in southern Highland County, on the way home Tuesday afternoon, we
turned into Rt. 604 to do a careful check of the field where a pair of
Loggrerhead Shrikes had nested in 2004. No shrikes were present, which may
have been
one cause of the astonishing number of birds in the field surrounding the
hawthorn nest tree of yesteryear. Fourteen species! And grackles and
Red-winged
blackbirds in considerable numbers.
Farther up the valley toward Hightown we turned off onto Route 640 onto
Route 638 and later 637. Along those stretches we saw at least 7 male
BOBOLINKS.
It was a pleasant two-day trip with a total of 86 species. This included
seven kinds of flycatchers, both cuckoos, and twelve warbler species
(Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated
Green,
Blackburnian, Black-and-white, Ovenbird, Northern Water-thrush, Mourning,
Common Yellowthroat, Canada).
John Irvine
Harrisonburg, VA
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