Charlottesville City Big Day: May 2022

June 17, 2022June 18, 2022 / Ezra Staengl / 3 Comments

On May 25^th my brother Theo and I decided to do a birding “big day” in Charlottesville City. On the surface it was a strange date to attempt to run up a large bird list, as peak spring migration was already two or three weeks in the past. However, I wanted to investigate the status of several uncommon breeding species in the city, (i.e., common merganser, prothonotary warbler) as well as see what late migrants we could find. Theo and I are relatively new residents of urban Charlottesville City, and so in celebration of the fact that we no longer had to drive long distances between birding sites we decided to limit ourselves to walking on our big day.

We started our day at 5 am, working south along the Rivanna Trail from Meadow Creek towards Riverview Park. We’d hoped to pick up an owl or two pre-dawn, but we were surprised by how quickly the songbirds started singing, obscuring any owl that might’ve called. The first birds we heard were eastern bluebirds calling from the Pen Park golf course across Meadow Creek from us. The bluebirds were soon followed by a cacophony of northern cardinals, American robins, and common grackles which kept us company all the way until dawn.

Eastern wood-pewee. This photo is from later in the day at Pen Park.

As the sun rose, we entered the paved section of Rivanna Trail that leads from River Road (north of the Route 250 bridge) to Riverview Park. The birding was relatively slow, but we did pick up common breeding woodland songbirds like eastern wood-pewee, great-crested flycatcher, white-eyed vireo, and a single common yellowthroat along the river. An orchard oriole sang from the tall trees by the Riverview parking lot.

Once we reached the Riverview Parking lot, we continued into the neighborhood beyond, walking towards the Riverview Cemetery. The cemetery is located on a hilltop, and from it one can see not only the Rivanna River floodplain below but also the mountain ridges beyond. We spent about half an hour in the cemetery, watching for interesting flyovers. Cedar waxwings were abundant flying back and forth between the large junipers and holly trees, and we also saw a Cooper’s hawk and a belted kingfisher. Unfortunately, probably the best bird present was a duck which we failed to identify as it disappeared behind the trees.

As we walked back north along the Riverview Park trail, we encountered a small group of active chickadees, vireos, and gnatcatchers. Hoping the small mixed flock might contain other species, my brother began making “pishing” noises to attract the birds. Suddenly, a chunky, olive yellow bird flitted across the path. Hoping it might’ve been a mourning warbler, we redoubled our efforts. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the mourning warbler popped back up on top of a tangle of grape vines. It had a complete pale gray hood, pink legs, a yellow underside, and the very faintest traces of eye arcs.

Mourning warbler at Riverview Park. Photographed by Theo Staengl.

A little further along the trail, we were startled into stopping by another duck zooming overhead. Like the one at the cemetery we barely had time to get on it before it disappeared behind the trees, but this one’s large size, long neck, light color, and contrastingly dark head were enough to identify it as a female common merganser. Common mergansers have started breeding on the Rivanna River in Charlottesville in recent years, but they’re by no means common, so it was a treat to see one for our big day. An American redstart, a silent Trail’s flycatcher (willow/alder) and a second (!) mourning warbler rounded out our time at Riverview Park.

Female common merganser with chicks. This photo was taken on the Rivanna River near Charlottesville on May 27 2021.

As we crossed Meadow Creek into Pen Park, we simultaneously heard the sharp chip of a blue grosbeak and the melodious trill of a pine warbler coming from the golf course. We were unable to locate the blue grosbeak, but we did eventually find the pine warbler calling from a large pine in the golf course. We furtively edged our way around the golf course and then continued north along the trail next to the river. One of our main targets there was prothonotary warbler, a bird that breeds along the James River but is very scarce in the summer along the Rivanna. However, we’d seen one along that stretch of trail at Pen about a week before, so we hoped it might still be there. One individual also apparently summered there in 2019. Sure enough, as we rounded a bend in the river, we heard the loud “sweet sweet sweet sweet” song of a prothonotary warbler coming from the opposite shore. We scrambled down a steep bank onto a small sandy beach to search for it. Eventually we located it in a tree across the river from us, but I couldn’t manage more than abysmal photos. We did pick up yellow-throated warbler and a pair of mallards though. As we continued along the trail we flushed a gray-cheeked thrush — an uncommon migrant and a city lifer for me.

We emerged from the trails at Pen Park along Pen Park Lane in the Lochlyn Hills neighborhood and decided to walk to Lochlyn Hills Park, which is another spot with a good view of the sky, to eat lunch. In addition to many more cedar waxwings, we saw both red-shouldered and broad-winged hawks as we were eating.

Unfortunately, after lunch the birding slowed down significantly. We walked back along Meadow Creek towards Melbourne Road, and then up the trail along the John W. Warner Parkway towards Greenbrier Park. At Greenbrier we added wood thrush and pileated woodpecker to our day list, but nothing else. We finished the day sky watching at McIntire Park without adding anything new.

Screenshot of the locations we visited during the big day (in red). Taken from the eBird trip report.

We ended up seeing 66 species of birds (plus the Trail’s flycatcher) and walking a little over 15 miles. Doubtless we could’ve seen many more species had our effort been better timed with spring migration, but it was fun to explore the city during a slightly less frequently birded time of year. We were rewarded with several interesting breeding species, and a handful of uncommon migrants. It’s amazing to me what natural wonders live right outside my door, even though I’m now living in Charlottesville City.

Nelson County Rarity Roundup 2019 Results

October 11, 2019October 13, 2019 / Ezra Staengl / 3 Comments

The results for the first Nelson County Rarity Roundup are in! On October 6, 23 birders from all over Virginia birded in Nelson County, in search of low density fall migrants and to help create eBird data during an interesting time of year in a relatively poorly birded area. The county was divided into 18 randomly drawn territories. Twelve territories received some birding effort, although only six were birded thoroughly for most of the day. Together, all the teams had 113 species, 23 of which were seen by only one team. The rarest bird of the day was a Connecticut warbler found by Drew Chaney and Baxter Beamer at the Three Ridges Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Connecticut Warbler (Photo by Drew Chaney)

Rockfish Valley Trail was productive as usual, with bobolink, two Lincoln’s sparrows, and the county’s fourth record of marsh wren being the highlights. Three of the four previous marsh wren records from Nelson have been in the first two weeks of October, the fourth was in the last week of April. The marsh wren apparently stuck around for at least one day, as Theo and I saw and photographed one at Rockfish Valley Trail on Monday. Elsewhere in the county, highlights included two other Lincoln’s sparrows — one at James River State WMA and one at Democracy Vineyards — as well as a Trail’s flycatcher at the Piney River Railway Trail and abundant gray-cheeked thrushes (8 between all teams). Birds flagged by eBird as late included two yellow-throated vireos, four blue-gray gnatcatchers, two worm-eating warblers, one veery, and one prairie warbler. Between all the teams, we counted 3,594 birds. The most numerically abundant species was cedar waxwing (289), followed closely by blue jay (252) and then by northern cardinal (205). The most numerous sparrow was chipping (92), and the most numerous warbler was common yellowthroat (58).

Common Yellowthroat

Between all the teams, we saw eleven out of the twelve unflagged sparrow species, missing only vesper. We saw 21 warbler species, with the only unflagged species we missed being Wilson’s. We also got all the unflagged raptor species, eleven, including the three falcons. Notable misses included least flycatcher, Philadelphia vireo, fish crow, northern-rough-winged swallow, brown creeper, hermit thrush, purple finch, and summer tanager. Here’s the link to the map of territories, and here’s a spreadsheet with the results. Thanks again to everyone who participated, and I look forward to next year!

Blue Ridge Young Birders Club Field Trip to Rockfish Valley Trail Fall 2018

November 6, 2018November 7, 2018 / Ezra Staengl / 3 Comments

On October 14th I lead a trip for the Blue Ridge Young Birders Club to the Rockfish Valley Trail, a local birding hotspot in Nelson County. I had high hopes for the trip, as the Rockfish Valley Trail tends to be a very productive place for finding uncommon and rare migrants in the fall, with Philadelphia vireo and Lincoln’s sparrows often present. Only a few weeks previously I’d had one of the best mornings of birding in my life there, finding Philadelphia vireo and blue-winged, Connecticut and mourning warblers. Around this time of year last year, my brother and I had two marsh wrens. Six young birders attended the trip.

We walked under Route 151, doing our best to avoid getting our feet wet in the water overflowing from the South Fork of the Rockfish River. The day was cool and cloudy but not unpleasantly so. We encountered a large flock of song sparrows in a dense tangle of pokeweed and began scanning them for Lincoln’s. We didn’t find any Lincoln’s in that flock but saw a few swamp sparrows. As we were walking along a mowed path through a dense, brushy field, a tiny, bright yellow bird dropped out of a tree and into the grass. Curious about what this could be so late in the year, we went to investigate. The bird popped up onto a low branch of a black walnut tree for a few seconds, and I saw it was a Wilson’s warbler.

We continued around the loop towards the back of the field, where we encountered more sparrows. I put my binoculars up to one and saw that it had a yellowish malar, gray supercilium and a yellowish breast covered in super fine, dark streaks — a Lincoln’s sparrow. I think everyone got on the bird, although it soon hopped back down into the brush.

A flock of purple finches flew over and landed in the branches of a leafless oak. We soon began hearing more purple finch calls, and several other flocks joined the first. By the end of the day we counted 34 in small flyover and foraging flocks. It was still early in the year for purple finches and seeing them in these numbers was encouraging for a good winter for them in our area.

Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus)

As we rounded the bend in the path a flock of birds flew up into a tree. One appeared to be a Catharus thrush, which my brother got on and said looked like a gray-cheeked. We slowly crept to the other side of the tree so as not to scare the thrush again and saw that it was indeed a gray-cheeked thrush. We re-found the Wilson’s warbler and a late Eastern wood-pewee nearby.

Once we got back to the top of the loop where we first saw the Wilson’s warbler, we paused for a bit to listen. I heard a yellowthroat chipping in a large patch of common mugwort, so I went to investigate. I found the yellowthroat and a couple of palm warblers, and I was just about to return to the group when Baxter called that he thought he had a Connecticut warbler. The group assembled behind him and we slowly advanced towards the bird, which was entirely obscured by the dense mugwort. I got a brief glimpse of the bird through the vegetation and saw a large warbler with a pale gray hood and a thin eye ring. Suddenly the bird lifted off and flew to the end of the mugwort patch, followed a second later by a similar looking bird. There were two of them! Chaos ensued as everyone tried to see the birds while we debated their ID’s. Eventually we cornered the two birds in a corner of the mugwort patch, and everyone got a decent look. Their eye rings, although fairly extensive, were not complete, making them mourning warblers, not Connecticuts. Finding two of them was still extremely exciting, and it was a Nelson County high count. We photographed a beautiful blue-headed vireo in a willow along the river on our way back towards the cars.

Blue-headed Vireo (Vireo solitarius). Photo by Baxter Beamer.

The next location for the trip was State Route 610, a quiet mountain road that can sometimes have good migrants. When we arrived the area was totally quiet. We had to walk down the road for five minutes before we even heard a bird, which was a pileated woodpecker. I did not give up hope, as I’d birded up here many times before when it first appeared very slow but then incredible bird activity occurred in explosive bursts. Sure enough, a few minutes later the forest suddenly rang with a cacophony of warbler chips, and birds could be seen moving in every tree. The vast majority of the warblers were blackpoll, but we also found several other species including Tennessee, Cape May, bay-breasted, pine and black-throated green. Kinglets were also present in high numbers — we had fifteen golden-crowned and five ruby-crowned on a small stretch of road. I spotted a red-eyed vireo, which was beginning to get late, as well as another blue-headed vireo.

Rockfish Valley Trail and State Route 610 did not let us down!

Bird Finding in Virginia: Rockfish Valley Trail

June 16, 2018June 17, 2018 / Ezra Staengl / 3 Comments

Note about this post: On past birding trips I have found bird finding guides extremely helpful. Written by people familiar with local hotspots, these books give the sort of tips and tricks for birding a location that can take many visits to figure out for oneself. Since there is no recently updated bird finding guide to Virginia, I have decided to make an online version through writing posts like this. I will try to publish a new one every week. Soon I will add a page on this blog with links to all the bird finding in Virginia posts that have been published so far. Some of my friends from the Blue Ridge Young Birders Club have agreed to help me on this project. Welcome Baxter Beamer, Tucker Beamer, Max Nootbaar, Ira Lianez and Drew Chaney to the birdsandbuds team! We will stick to our local area for now, as that is where we are most familiar with the birding locations, but I would like to make this a statewide project. If anyone reading this (especially in other parts of the state) would like to contribute articles like the one below, please send me an email.

Just past the town of Nellysford on the Rockfish Valley Highway (151), the Rockfish Valley Trail (RVT) is currently the most birded eBird hotspot in Nelson County. Although there are certainly other locations in Nelson waiting to be discovered by birders, the RVT will remain one of the classics. Driving 151 South, the Rockfish Valley Trail parking lot is on your right immediately after Horizon Village Road and the Bold Rock Cidery.

The Rockfish Valley Trail traverses cow pastures, overgrown fields and floodplain forests. Sections of the trail run along both the South Fork of the Rockfish River and Reid’s Creek.

Section of the Glenthorne Loop Trail.

From the parking lot, the Rockfish Valley Trail runs east and west along the South Fork of the Rockfish River. Although both sides are good, I find that the eastern side — known as the Glenthorne Loop Trail — is usually more productive, especially for sparrows in the fall. To get to the Glenthorne Loop Trail from the RVT parking lot, go under the bridge beneath 151. On the other side of the bridge you will see a large cow pasture to your right and a row of densely planted cedars to your left. Walk down the path between the cedars and the field, watching for eastern meadowlarks and grasshopper sparrows in the field. Once the cedars stop, the path splits off in two directions and crosses an extremely brushy field. During the spring and summer, the willows along the river here are a good place to see orchard orioles, eastern kingbirds and sometimes yellow warblers. In previous Octobers this field has been an amazing spot for sparrows, with large numbers of Lincoln’s and swamp present. I also had two marsh wrens here last October.

The trails eventually meet back up to form the beginning of Glenthorne Loop in front of Reid’s Creek, and from there you can either cross the creek on a bridge into another large field, or continue on the RVT side. This area, behind the brushy field, is a great place for fall warblers. I’ve had multiple blackburnian, blackpoll, bay-breasted and black-throated-green warblers in the early successional forests that border the path here. This is also a great area for olive-sided flycatcher in the fall, although the tree they used to perch on has fallen down. The trail goes back into the woods before coming out next to the cow pasture again, now following Reid’s Creek to the south, and I’ve never found it worth continuing at that point. Other than more grasshopper sparrows, meadowlarks, white-eyed vireos and the occasional warbler, there usually aren’t many new birds there, so I turn around and bird the west side.

If you don’t cross under 151 and instead follow the trail west from the parking lot, you’ll walk in between a large field and a small riparian corridor along the river. Extensive jewelweed patches grow next to the river here, and people often have mourning warblers in them during late August. As you walk this section of trail, scan exposed perches for flycatchers. Many species of Empidonax flycatchers can be found in the fall, including willow, least, yellow-bellied and probably alder. Olive-sided flycatchers are also annual. In the fall, watch for warbling and Philadelphia Vireos in the willows. The trail extends for about a mile before you have to turn around.

Philadelphia Vireo

Good birds seen at the Rockfish Valley Trail include: Olive-sided flycatcher, yellow-bellied flycatcher, least flycatcher, Trail’s flycatcher sp., northern waterthrush, mourning warbler, Connecticut warbler, blackburnian warbler, Wilson’s warbler, blue-winged warbler, black-billed cuckoo, warbling vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, gray-cheeked thrush, Lincoln’s sparrow, marsh wren, dickcissel and bobolink.

The Rockfish Valley Trail is a great place to bird any time of year, but especially in migration. In my opinion September and October are the best months to bird the RVT, as that is when most of the warblers, flycatchers and sparrows are coming through. I hope I’ve inspired you to come out to Nelson County to do some birding!