Week Ending October 5, 2014

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This week was one of the craziest I've had this year in terms of trying to get a lot done on schedule. Thursday I had a wedding rehearsal & dinner, Friday I had an all day wedding that I was part of as a groomsman for my buddy Chris, and Saturday I had another wedding to attend for some friends from college. Because of all of this I was only able to get out hiking in the after-work hours of Tuesday & Wednesday this week. We've had absolutely amazing weather all week long, and it was killing me that I couldn't get out more often to enjoy it. Folks are also seeing crazy amounts of migrating birds now, and over 200 Peregrine Falcons were seen over the weekend at Kiptopeke's Hawk Watch, an incredible number, I think I've seen like 5 in my entire lifetime. Merlins and Kestrels were also present so it appears the bulk of the falcons have now made their big move heading southward. Songbird migrations are also ongoing and some of the neatest sightings that were posted to Facebook was a Black-throated Blue Warbler by Donald Freeman at Pleasure House Point, an Orange-crowned Warbler at Back Bay NWR by Barbara Houston, a Magnolia Warbler up on the Eastern Shore by Keith Roberts, and just so many more I don't have time to discuss.

A Great Egret catching the last rays of the sun at Pleasure House Point on Tuesday evening!

I even got emails and texts from people outdoors telling me what they were seeing since it was so rare! Ron Furnish, who lives in the same neighborhood area as me, and actually did a Big Year last year and got just under 700 species, said he located a mixed flock of warblers right at Kings Grant Park, and I saw numerous other reports on eBird of folks spotting warblers. This is really the first Fall that I've been a die-hard birder, so its great to now have a huge network of individuals helping me out in locating the birds. I just need to get the time available to follow through on the reports! As I mentioned, I did get out walking on Tuesday after work and I went to Pleasure House Point. I caught the tide while it was on the way down, though still fairly high at first. But after walking several passes through the park it did go down enough that gulls and pelicans starting flocking in to the mudflats offshore to roost. The sun is really setting earlier and earlier everyday and I'm running out of time now for after work birding trips. I might have a week or two left and then it won't be able to occur for a few months. 

A Lesser Black-backed Gull cruising along the coastline at Back Bay NWR on Wednesday evening!

That should yield me some time to spend on the website here, as the hustle and bustle of migration season starts to wind down towards the end of the month, and my outings are cut to only weekends, weather permitting. Anyways, I got to see all the usual birds at Pleasure House Point, Laughing/Ring-billed/Herring/Great Black-backed Gulls, Royal Terns, Brown Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. But, I also got to see some that I really wasn't expecting, like a flyover of an American Bittern, my first of the season & first at the park ever, and also a Yellow Warbler, another first at the park for me. Additionally, a number of Clapper Rails were really cackling up a storm from the tidal marshes surrounding the park. On two instances, I couldn't have been more than 50 feet away from them, but just could not locate them in the marsh grasses. They are absolute masters of camouflage and hiding. Even with as loud as they cackle, you still just can't spot them unless they run out into the open to catch food suddenly. I only caught a brief long-distance glimpse of one flushing and landing quickly after a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron happend to have landed too close to it, spooking it into the air. No picture on that one though as it was visible for roughly one second and at a hundred yards out or so. I saw another pair of sparrows near the same spot where I'd seen the Seaside & Saltmarsh Sparrows a couple weeks ago, but these ones turned out to be Song Sparrows, which are very common around the area. As the sun started to set, hundreds of gulls (mostly Laughing) arrived out on the mudflats, I'd never seen anything quite like it. With the numbers of birds now migrating through the area, I'm hoping to keep getting out everyday I can after work.

One of only two Semipalmated Plovers that were seen on Wednesday evening. The sunlight this time of year after work provides some interesting angles on the beach!

Wednesday, I was able to make it down to Back Bay NWR after work as well. After a quick visit from Liza Eckhardt, Caroline Morse, & Erica Locher, who were nice enough to point out a Chinese Praying Mantis and a Squirrel Treefrog that were hanging out near the contact station, I went and walked the Bay Trail, only to find that the sun was streaming right into my face while heading westward on the trail. So I ended up coming back and just getting out onto the beachfront since the sun was behind me and I could shoot birds out over the water and along the beachline without issue. I walked probably a mile or so south on the beaches, seeing good numbers of Sanderlings, Royal Terns, and the usual gull species, pelicans, and cormorants. A few Caspian Terns were present this time, which I don't see as much as the Royals usually. Willets were also seen, but only a single pair of Semipalmated Plover, and Black-bellied Plover showed up along that stretch of beach this time, and no Ruddy Turnstones were there so perhaps they're all further south already. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and I was fortunate enough to be there as the sun was setting out over the bay itself, extremely beautiful sunset! I did a quick walk around the loop road just before this and found a Great Egret & the same Great Blue Heron that always hangs out around the loop. After this, I got a very nice surprise when a rabbit came walking out onto the gravel roadway. It got spooked though when it was me and ran across, only to then swim across the adjacent ditch. Normal cottontails don't swim, but the rabbits at Back Bay (Marsh Rabbits) love the water. This is the first time I've ever gotten to observe their swimming habit though; it was a wonderful sighting. Ironically, it was in just about the same exact spot as a White-tailed Deer I'd seen swimming a few months ago with Ruth, while we were watching a King Rail on the roadway. The wildlife seems to enjoy this part of the park! As I mentioned int he top part of my blog, the remainder of my week was spent doing structured activities and didn't leave me any chance to get outdoors to take photographs. Hopefully next week I get the chance to really step it up, with all the wedding chaos over with for the year, my weekends will be mine to do whatever I choose to with from here on out into 2015!

One of the two Black-bellied Plovers seen along the beaches at Back Bay NWR on Wednesday evening!

Week Ending September 28, 2014

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This week was quite an intense one for me. On Monday evening after work, my girlfriend Ruth & I went down to the oceanfront in Virginia Beach and walked from 88th Street down the beach around Fort Story. It was a gorgeous night out on the beach, with the sun slowly setting while we walked along. This is one of my favorite stretches of beach in the area since not a whole lot of people like to venture out onto it, since it isn't very accessible the further north you go. Along the beach we saw plenty of Sanderlings, and a few Willets as well. Brown Pelicans is large numbers were flying offshore, probably heading back towards Lynnhaven Inlet for the night to roost. All the typical gulls were seen (Laughing/Ring-billed/Herring/Lesser & Great Black-backed), and a few Royal Terns flew by as well, though I haven't seen any other tern species recently in the area so they may have all moved southward at this point in the season. Up around the large rock jetties that protect the beach we spotted a Least Sandpiper mixed in with a flock of Sanderlings, and shortly after, found a Spotted Sandpiper bobbing its tail up and down on the rocks. Both were the first ones I've seen at this particular location, though neither is anything rare around here. They just usually prefer mudflats more than open beachfront in my experience.

A beautiful Willet along the shores of Cape Henry in Virginia Beach!

We ended up walking to the very end of the publicly accessible beach, which gets you very close to the pair of lighthouses known as the Cape Henrys. Heading back, we saw the same birds again, but we also got some great looks at a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins that were swimming just offshore. There was probably a dozen of them or so, and some were very close in the shallows probably chasing a school of fish of some type. The sun had pretty much set by the time we got back down to 88th Street, an unfortunate reminder that this time of year, each day is shorter than the one before it, and it gets tougher and tougher to get outdoors after normal working hours. Photography also becomes much harder as the light is less and less at the same time each consecutive evening, so its just a matter of time before my photography gets cut to just Friday afternoons & weekends. Which, is fine with me since it gives me more time to work on the website finally as the outings calm down a bit. However, it puts a lot of emphasis on what the weather is doing on the weekends, and unfortunately if we get rain both days, it basically kills my outdoors outings for the week. Hopefully we get a beautiful Fall & Winter though, and I don't lose too much time to rain.

A Least Sandpiper appearing to be floating over the sand thanks to some tricky light from the setting sun!

Tuesday, a very overcast day, I just did a 6 mile walk around my neighborhood. On days where I can't take good photographs, I tend to just walk close to home & leave the camera out of it. The same went for Thursday, another day of dreary weather where I did the same 6 mile walk around Kings Grant/Little Neck. Friday though, was a beautiful, beautiful day, and I left work at 3 PM like I typically do so I can get some extra walking in. I couldn't decide where to go, but, since Ruth & I were leaving later in the evening to head up to Fairfax for a wedding in adjacent Maryland, I decided on First Landing State Park just to stay closer to home. Parking at 64th Street as usual and walking into the park, I was surprised to see not a single person for actually 4.5 of my 5 mile walk. And there was an obvious reason why. The mosquitoes were pretty horrendous, especially for around here. With all the rain we had gotten the previous 3 days or so, there was standing pools of water scattered all through the forest. Each of these pools is a perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes this time of year, and they surely took advantage of it. Even with spray on from head to toe, every surface they could find on me to bite, got tore up, especially along my tshirt line around the back of my neck. The bugs made it difficult to stop for any photographs as I was instantly mobbed, however, as I got closer to the water at Broad Bay, the wind off the bay was enough to stop them for that mile stretch or so, a good relief. On the way to the bay, I did see a large flock of songbirds (most of them American Robins) moving in unison through the trees feeding.

My first Ovenbird sighting in Virginia Beach, Teacher Teacher Teacher!

There was also a lone Ovenbird, which was my first sighting of one this year in Virginia Beach, and I didn't manage a couple pictures while enduring the bites, because they don't usually show themselves in the open. Along the bay, I spooked a Spotted Sandpiper that was walking along the shoreline, and then just a minute later as I reached the first tidal creek, I spooked something even more rarely seen. I was just thinking in my head how 3 years ago I'd seen my very first Clapper Rail at this spot, and not a minute later did a Clapper Rail flush from the marsh about 5 feet away from me, then dive back down about 20 feet away. Try as I did, I still could not get a photograph of this shy marsh bird as it ran through the reeds back and forth for about 15 minutes. They're incredibly beautiful, but incredibly hard to spot, this was the 2nd one I've now seen in the park after over a hundred times hiking here the last 9 years. In fact, the only one I've ever photographed was just down the river at Pleasure House Point, and it wasn't even that clear of a shot, but enough to prove what I saw. I ended up walking to the second tidal creek's bridge and then turning around again. A Belted Kingfisher cruised by and cackled at me for a while, probably the same one that always manages to do this. On the way back down the Osprey Trail eastward, I got a good view of a large juvenile Bald Eagle flying into Osprey territory and taking up a perch in a tall tree. This was met by a lone Osprey continually dive bombing the eagle, as it was not happy that it chose to come to it's area of the park. Most of the Ospreys have actually left the area already as the bulk of them fly south in the winter, but a few do winter over in the area, though up near Pleasure House Point, and I've never seen one do so in First Landing yet. Heading back inland, I got bit up a lot more, and then finally made it out of the park, alive. Afterwards I had to head back home and shower up, eat, and then start the drive north to Fairfax, where we ending up getting to about 9:30 at night. 

A Pine Warbler showing off it's Fall plumage now that the weather has surely transitioned away from Summer.

Saturday, we needed to head out to the wedding site by about 1 PM, so I had the morning to go hiking around a new area. After reading numerous posts on the Virginia Birding Listserver, I opted to try out Huntley Meadows Park just about 20 minutes up the road. The park has a large marsh centered in it, with boardwalks criss crossing through it. I was there early enough to where the park wasn't too well lit up, so it was a bit tough at first. I did see a small White-tailed Deer running through the marsh, and then saw a number of songbirds at the north end of the boardwalk system. After winding around the trails for a few loops, I came up with several Common Yellowthroat sightings, a Black-and-White Warbler, another Ovenbird, and a number of more common birds like Robins/Jays/Crows/Chickadees/Titmice etc. I thought maybe I'd find a Brown Creeper but it didn't happen. Having left the park about 9:30 I still had more time so I drove to my typical hiking spot at the South Run Stream Valley off Hooes Road in Lorton. I walked a couple mile stretch downstream, but any birds that may have been present were well concealed in the thick forest, and I didn't come up with anything new unfortunately, but did see some pretty butterflies. The remainder of the day was spent on the wedding & reception, and then Sunday we headed back down to Virginia Beach after dropping one of Ruth's friends off back in Fairfax. This coming week is going to be the busiest yet unfortunately, taking away from my nature photography more than likely. I'm in my buddy Chris' wedding on Friday, and therefore also have the rehearsal for it on Thursday evening. Saturday, we have our 3rd and final wedding of the last 8 days as well at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, so perhaps I'll see a hummingbird or two before the ceremony! After this week, hopefully I'm able to get more outings in, as Fall is now setting in and the leaves should be changing soon!

Seen up at Huntley Meadows in northern Virginia, and not positive on the ID (possible House Sparrow or House Finch), but I liked the surroundings in the photo so I included it.

Week Ending September 21, 2014

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I'm very excited to announce that I will finally be in the Hampton Roads area for a full week this week! I returned home to Virginia Beach from my trip up to Boone, North Carolina late on Sunday (9/14) evening, and now get to hopefully venture out into our local outdoors looking for some wildlife this week. Over the weekend I got my 201st species of 2014, which is now a new personal best after seeing 200 species on the dot last year in 2013. The bird that put me over was a beautiful Blue-headed Vireo (photo featured in the last blog posted). I was very happy that after the first night of my good buddy's bachelor party I was up at 7 AM to see the sun rise in the mountains, and was rewarded with some great sights of migrating songbirds, including Black-throated Green Warblers, American Redstarts, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and the aforementioned Vireo! Now back to Hampton Roads... On Monday, overcast weather, a lot of work to do at my job, and this ongoing nasty cough (presumably allergy related since I always get sick for a week or two this time of year) unfortunately kept me stuck inside. On Monday, the Kiptopeke State Park Hawk Watch continued showing good results, with 80 American Kestrels and 47 Ospreys as the leaders. Merlins, Broad-winged, Sharp-shinned & Cooper's Hawks were all seen as well, so as I keep saying in my blogs, its a great time to see some raptors if you head up to the Eastern Shore. Songbirds were on the move as well on Monday, with Tim Fearington posting some great shots to our Facebook group of Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, and Red-eyed Vireo from his outing at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach. I anticipate there being a lot more photos of songbirds posted this week from Back Bay, Weyanoke, and First Landing on the Southside, and any of the parks (Kiptopeke, Eastern Shore NWR, Magnothy Bay, etc) on the Eastern Shore.

Variegated Fritillary seen at Pleasure House Point!

Tuesday and Wednesday were busy days for me so I didn't make it out at all unfortunately. Thursday though, I headed up to Pleasure House Point after work, and go there about 5 o'clock. I parked along Marlin Bay and headed eastward so that the sun on the horizon would be at my back. I'm saddened to say you can visibly see the change in light after work now, as we are heading into fall and the days are getting much shorter. Soon, once daylight savings time kicks in, I will no longer be able to get out photographing wildlife after work hours, my least favorite couple months of the year. But at least for now I get a couple hours of photography in still. Anyway, at Pleasure House Point, the first birds I came across along the coastal trail were Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. They are very numerous in the park, most of them being immature birds. The tide was all the way up this time, and again even higher than a normal high tide cycle thanks to persistent onshore (northeasterly) winds over the last few days. Because of the high high tide, no exposed mudflats or shorelines were visible along the park, which eliminates the capability of shorebirds to feed around the park. However, this same problem, also turned out to be of great benefit to me.

My first Palm Warbler sighting of the season, made easy to ID by the yellow undertail coverts.

Along the south side of the park, near the marshy islands, I had a pair of sparrows continuously moving from shrub to shrub along the water, and I spend a good half hour or more chasing them around slowly trying to get a clean shot at one. I believe them to be the same species when I saw them in the field, but after reviewing a whole bunch of hard to see photographs, I was able to decipher that they were indeed two different species, the first a Seaside Sparrow, only my second such sighting in my life, and in the same location as the first just a month ago. The second bird, turned out to be a Saltmarsh Sparrow, very similar to a Nelson's Sparrow, but with a much more white throat and chest. The Saltmarsh was the first one I've ever seen, so I got to add another lifer to my list, something I was not expecting upon leaving work just a couple hours prior. Thanks to the high water, the available real estate to hide amongst was greatly decreased, wich allowed me to see them much better than I could have if the water was low, and they could get into the undercut banks and foliage to hide. Aside from the sparrows, there wasn't a whole lot of activity out at the park. I could hear numerous Clapper Rails cackling out in the marshes, but with the high water, there was nowhere to see them run out in the open. Typical birds were there, like Royal Terns, Laughing/Ring-billed Gulls, Brown Pelicans, etc. I did run into Kathy Spencer for the first time so it was nice to also get to meet her out at the park. I ended up heading out about 6:30 PM or so, and the light was already noticeably getting darker so basically, I get an hour and a half after 5 PM to do things outdoors right now, and it will slowly slip away to nothing over the next 6 weeks or so, very saddening. 

Sanderling rooting around one of many, many masses of washed up vegetation due to high winds this week.

On Friday, I brought my gear to work so I could leave right away. I headed down to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Virginia Beach at 3 PM. Earlier in the day several folks had reported lots of snakes being sighting around the contact station area. They were definitely accurate. While walking the Bay Trail, I very quickly found a Black Racer that had slithered quickly off the trail, with just it's tail still visible. Just a few minutes later, I got my first Eastern Cottonmouth sighting of the day. This snake, about 3 feet long or so, was right off it the vegetation next to the gravel trail near where the boardwalk hits it. It was a little unnerving since I didn't see the snake til I was about 10-15 feet away from it. Their brown coloring matches the color of the dying water reeds this time of year and it will get continually more difficult to spot them as the weather changes. But, they also won't be out for too much longer as the weather cools off into fall. Right now, they're all out in the open trying to suck up as much heat from the sun or ground as they can. During the heat of summer, they tend to move off into other areas of the park since it's hot everywhere, and they can maintain their body temperatures with ease. Spring and Fall appear to be best if trying to locate these snakes, and it also lines up correctly with when Back Bay NWR offers their reptile walks that Liza Eckhardt leads. It turned out that there was actually a schedule walk Friday as well, as I ran into Liza about an hour before it was going to start. She pointed out another large Cottonmouth near the end of the Bay Trail that was coiled up and sitting next to the small freshwater pond. This one was in the process of molting, and it's eye was showing a solid blue color due to the skin starting to off the head. Nearby, a group of 3 or 4 small snakes molts were seen, presumably from a whole batch of youngsters that was molting for the first time before leaving their nest area.

A nymph Katydid seen at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge!

Liza also pointed out a couple of Obsure Birdwing Grasshopper, which are absolutely giant, probably 4 or 5 inches in length. After walking back down the Bay Trail I had a songbird fly in fast over top of me and land in a small evergreen. I followed it around and was able to identify it as a Palm Warbler in fall plumage, a first for me in 2014. After, I did a loop around the Loop Road, finding just a Great Blue Heron, a couple of Belted Kingfishers, and an American Crow. I thought I might run into some more warblers but unfortunately this was not the case. It was pretty windy out, and that might have the smaller birds sticking to heavy vegetation. I didn't hear any Prairie Warblers off in the scrub area of the park either, so they must all be gone already and headed further south. With the songbirds clearly not out, I went down to the beach in the hopes of at least finding some shorebirds. The standards were all out there...Willets/Sanderling, gulls, terns, pelicans, cormorants, etc., but nothing unusual was present along the beach unfortunately. So I headed back up and over the dunes towards the parking area, photographing a beautiful Viceroy (very similar to a Monarch) on the way. I knew the reptile walk was going on so I just tried to avoid whatever crowd it attracted by walking the Bay Trail just to the Bayside Trail and back around to the visitor center area. Here I found yet another Cottonmouth, outstretched on the trail in the same location that the American Bittern was hanging out in all winter last year. This Cottonmouth was quite girthy, apparently having been well fed recently. I did a 180 and walked all the way around to try to get in a better spot for photos with the sun behind me. When I got to it's spot, it was no longer there. That's not a fun feeling, thinking it must have gotten into the brush somewhere nearby, but noone its there watching you. I did spot it finally and it then went out onto the small pond, swimming across the surface gracefully thanks to it's large body which floated very well. I took a few shots and then headed off home. Saturday & Sunday we had overcast skies so I worked hard pretty much all day long on updating the website, moving things around, and I finally completed putting species ID tags into all 70,000+ photographs I've taken over the last 5 years, so now I can just type a bird name in on my computer, and it'll show me all the times I've photographed them. This will greatly help me in completing my Photo ID Guide here on the website so its nice to finally have all that out of the way. The next few are looking cloudy as well but hopefully I can get out after work at least sometime during the week.

Eastern Cottonmouth showing just how buoyant their large, girthy, bodies can be.

Week Ending September 14, 2014

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Though I was out of town over the past weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, and didn't make it back to Virginia Beach until late Monday night, I heard a lot about how much rain we had over the weekend. On Monday, some parts of the area reported 4-5 inches of rain, which is an incredible amount in a 24-hour timespan! Thanks to this nasty weather to start the week, I'm sure not too many folks ventured out to seek out wildlife. Even at the Hawkwatch site at Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore, only 2 raptors (1 Osprey & 1 Merlin) were observed on Monday. So, for the sake of wildlife viewing, I'm not too bummed that I was traveling back to Virginia beach on Monday, but I do love a good downpour, so I still wish I'd been here to see it. Rainfall is kind of the reason I do the full time job I do (hydraulic engineer), and flooding control is my specialty so it's very interesting to me when I get to see just what nature can conjure up against engineered systems like storm drain culverts & inlets. The weather hung around for Tuesday as well, and yet again resulted in another slow day at the Hawkwatch site, though much better than the prior day with a total of 29 raptors sighted. No new species were recorded, but a Peregrine Falcon (only the 3rd thus far this season) was seen. Wednesday, the weather finally took a turn for the better and it was quite a gorgeous day out. As my luck would have it, and I'm going to blame this on all the traveling and running around I've had to do recently, I came down with either a cold or a nasty bout of fall allergies. So another day for me of not getting outdoors, and it was the perfect day to get out, the Hawkwatch sighted 275 raptors, the most in a single day thus far this season! Among the raptors included the first Swainson's Hawk sighting of the season, a species that shows up in small numbers during migration but is typically a more western species, and a bird that I've never had the pleasure of seeing.

Black-throated Green Warbler, one of many migrant songbirds I saw while out of town this weekend. Folks have been reporting numerous species in Hampton Roads this week as well.

There was also a lot of reports of huge numbers of shorebirds out on flooded farmfields across southern Virginia Beach on Tuesday and Wednesday, though I've been told the birds have since moved off as the field have totally dried up now. Thursday, continuing my illness, I missed out on my final chance for the week to get out and about in the area. Unfortunately, though I'm excited, I'll be heading out of town Friday around lunchtime to head up to the mountains of North Carolina for a good buddy's bachelor party at a cabin near Grandfather Mountain. I'm hoping to get out to do some hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday and maybe Sunday before we head back, but will not have any further personal observations to report on from the Hampton Roads area as a result. I am also hoping that whatever is causing me to not feel so hot the past few days will relinquish it's hold on me so I can enjoy the weekend with my friends. 

Another migrant songbird, the beautiful Blue-headed Vireo.

On Friday, I made the trip out to Boone, NC with my friend Chris, who is getting married in October, and chose to have a bachelor party out here in the mountains at a cabin with three of his groomsmen (myself included). Friday night, still not feeling well from whatever I caught this week, I went to bed pretty early compared to the other guys, around 11 PM. Because of this, I was up right at 6 AM like I usually am, which was welcomed. Everyone else was still sleeping through the morning, so I spent some time out on the back porch of the cabin, which was on the second floor of the building, and looked down on the treetops below. I hadn’t expected much, given that it was a dreary, on-again off-again rainy morning, but I started to see songbirds almost immediately. For a couple of hours, I walked the grounds of the cabin (the Kumbaya Cabin, officially known), and I managed to pick up quite a number of migrants starting to make their way south for the coming winter. Black-throated Green Warblers, Blue-headed Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, American Redstarts, Chestnut-sided Warbler and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were all seen, better than I could have anticipated. By the time the other guys had gotten up and moving, I’d probably taken 200 photographs and seen 20 odd species of birds from the porch. Once ready, we grabbed lunch at a local bbq joint, which was not very good, and then three of us headed out to Grandfather Mountain State Park. About the time we reached the park, the clouds actually broke and the sun began to come out, just in time! We parked on the way up the mountain side and then hiked the last 500’ or so elevation change to the swinging bridge at the top. This was Chris’ and his friend Mike’s first time to the park, to which they were shocked by the $20 admission fee per person (as was I), but, they were amazed by the views from the top so at least everyone was happy. There is apparently a Hawk Watch program here at the park similar to the one at Kiptopeke, and when I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk, someone radioed to the team that one was sighted coming down the mountain. They ran past us as we exited the Mile High Bridge and went back down to the parking area. We stopped down at the zoo section of the park, saw the bears, and actually the Cougars as well, then headed out down the Blue Ridge Parkway southward towards Linville Falls. At Linville, we walked the typical trails out to the first two overlooks, finding the river flowing quite full and some of the trails being a sloppy mess. We headed back again to the car, this time driving back to the cabin for dinner.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, one of the most hyper songbirds you can find, rarely sitting still for more than a split second...I got lucky on this one.

On Sunday, we got an early start, and stopped halfway in Burlington, NC to watch part of the first NFL games of the day, but then made it home about 4 PM or so to Virginia Beach. I did some catching up on what was going on around my area while I was out of town and the Hawk Watch site at Kiptopeke reported huge numbers of raptors moving down the Eastern Shore with over 500 Ospreys being sighted on Saturday & Sunday. Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks also look to have begun showing up now as 130 of the two species were counted, and 446 American Kestrels were seen as well. Sunday also proved to be the best day so far for Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, and Broad-winged Hawks as well. Interestingly, while I was out in the mountains I had gone up to Grandfather Mountain and found out that it also is a hawk watch site. I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk and a park worker radioed it down to the team, whom I later saw running up the mountain to try and spot it, though it doesn't appear they recorded it in their counts, I plan to send in a photograph that I took of the bird as soon as I get a chance too. It also seems that the same birds I was seeing out in the mountains were being seen around here on their migrations as well. Warblers appear to be the big ones that people have been focusing on, with lots of beautiful photographs being added to Facebook over the weekend, especially from Weyanoke Bird Sanctuary in Norfolk. Many warbler species like Common Yellowthroats, Prairie, Palm, Black-and-White, Magnolia, and Black-throated Blue Warblers have been sighted in Hampton Roads. With Craney Island now open every other Saturday for birders, this has also become a hotspot for seeing fall migrants. This week, folks reported an Eared Grebe, a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and Wilson's & Red-necked Phalaropes as well. This coming week I should be able to put together a bit better of a blog since I will finally be in town for a weekend and hope to get out hiking quite a bit. It seems that everything is now on the move south so the migration is really starting to get going, and there should be some great sightings over the next week as well!

The view from Grandfather Mountain looking east down the slopes of the Blue Ridge.