Saturday morning started out overcast and ended up sunny, hot and muggy in Richmond, but it turned out to be a great day of birding for the eleven birders who turned out at the main section of James River Park in Richmond at the crack of dawn and hung in right up until lunchtime.
The day started auspiciously for the early arrivals with an overflight by a Common Nighthawk. Over the course of the morning, fourteen warbler species were seen or heard, with the highlight being some very nice views of a male Magnolia Warbler, and a frustratingly brief glimpse of a Mourning Warbler that tantalized us with its song from both sides of the trail for a good fifteen minutes. Prothonotary Warblers were active, and we found one bird making trips with food to a nest hole on one of the smaller trails along the river. We had sighting of both orioles, with especially good views of a couple of male Baltimores.
The highlight of the day was probably the explosion of Scarlet Tanagers that the group experienced on the bridge over the railroad tracks, with as many as four males in view at one time. We also had a brief but very clear encounter with a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. After allowing most of the group to get a nice look at it on the south side of the trail, it executed a lazy glide across to the north side, directly above our heads, to another perch where it lingered briefly.
About half the group that overcame growling stomachs and wilting heat as the morning progressed were treated to great views of a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher foraging and returning to a nest along the fence-line to feed its youngsters. A Green Heron made an appearance for a couple of the group on the walk back out.
Thanks to a group with sharp ears and eyes, we saw or heard a total of 64 species. Complete list is below.
I have a few photos of the trip, and I am experimenting with making them available in a Flickr group. If you are interested in joining the group, send me an email. Also, if you have photos from today's trip that you would like to add, you can either email them to me, or if you already have a Flickr account, you can add them to the group from your photostream after joining.
-- Lewis Barnett Chair, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science University of Richmond, VA 23173 Location: James River Park - Main Section Observation date: 5/12/07 Number of species: 64 Canada Goose 2 Wood Duck 1 American Black Duck 2 Mallard 10 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Great Blue Heron 2 Green Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Killdeer 1 Mourning Dove 4 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 Common Nighthawk 1 Chimney Swift 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 2 Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 Great Crested Flycatcher 4 White-eyed Vireo 3 Red-eyed Vireo 6 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 3 Carolina Chickadee 10 Tufted Titmouse 4 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Carolina Wren 5 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4 Veery 2 Swainson's Thrush 1 Wood Thrush 3 American Robin 4 Gray Catbird 2 Northern Mockingbird 2 Brown Thrasher 1 European Starling 4 Cedar Waxwing 10 Northern Parula 10 Magnolia Warbler 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler 4 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Yellow-throated Warbler 1 Blackpoll Warbler 5 Black-and-white Warbler 1 American Redstart 3 Prothonotary Warbler 4 Ovenbird 2 Northern Waterthrush 1 Mourning Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 3 Canada Warbler 2 Scarlet Tanager 6 Eastern Towhee 1 Song Sparrow 1 Northern Cardinal 8 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 Indigo Bunting 1 Common Grackle 12 Brown-headed Cowbird 10 Orchard Oriole 2 Baltimore Oriole 4 American Goldfinch 4 House Sparrow 2 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://www.ebird.org) You are subscribed to VA-Richmond-General. To unsubscribe, send email to va-richmond-general-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. To adjust other settings (vacation, digest, etc.) please visit, //www.freelists.org/list/va-richmond-general.
