Yellow Warbler
Golden-winged Warbler - this was a nice monkey off my back but I hope to get better pictures later.
American Redstart
Chestnut-sided Warbler
This Scarlet Tanager was ridiculously close, but my camera sensor doesn't like that unbelievable color.
Veery - it was calling relentlessly the sweetest Veeer call you could imagine. I love a Veery.
Canada Warbler - unfortunately the best shot I could manage.
Blackburnian Warbler hunting amongst the catkins.
Tiger Swallowtail loving a mound of horse poop.
Back down from the mountain we still had some time so we headed to Beaver Lake to hunt some Blackpolls.
Blue-winged Teal
Solitary SP
Yellow-throated Vireo - my ears are getting better at identification. I IDed this one before I saw it which for me is an accomplishment as my untrained ear was never good at picking out different vireos with the exception of White-eyed of course.
Blackpoll Warbler female. This is one bird I will probably never hear, much too high frequency for my rock music damaged ears.
Legs were more fleshy color rather than yellow but I think it was just the evening sun causing artifacts.
Sunday morning I met a Mecklenburgian named David up at Tanbark Tunnel on the parkway and it did not take long to hear and see our quarry.
UCO - Unidentified Cerulean Object. The light was horrible because the sun had not creeped over the ridge line yet, but we watched this Cerulean forage and sing from the tree tops downslope from us and got some great looks. All is right in the world when Cerulean Warblers are singing on territory. There will be a day soon when they are gone. Numbers are declining rapidly.
Next up was a Chukar hunt. Chukars are not found in NC unless you are looking in a hunter's back yard breeding pen. Someone during the meeting found one at the top of Mount Mitchell which is a really weird place for one. Not countable but I couldn't resist. Once we got to the summit it took about 30 seconds to find it hanging out at the restaurant.
Red-breasted Nuthatch are easy to find at the Bald Knob Trailhead.
I love a Red Squirrel.
WB Nut
American Robins deserve to have their picture taken too.
Now that the sun had creeped up I headed back to attempt a Cerulean crush.
Blackburnian
I could have easily called this bird down for better photos but I resisted the urge and I believe it is illegal on the parkway.
It was time to head home but the allure of some more stops on the way was too great to resist. Warren Wilson was my next stop to try for White-crowned Sparrow. I dipped on that target but picked up this mammal.
Groundhog?
Palm Warbler
Cute!
Cape May - in exactly the same spot I had Cape Mays 3 years ago. The fidelity is amazing.
I had to settle for this Indigo Bunting pic. Saw plenty on the trip but they never cooperated.
Finally I stopped at a couple places in Winston for Warbling Vireo but could not locate them.
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
I can't wait to go back to the mountains...
Hell yeah!
ReplyDeleteGoing to be driving through second week of June--not prime time but I'll take even dregs of this kinda stuff, still going to be incredible.
Inhabiting the same state as Ceruleans sounds good. Very good.
You will still get plenty of breeders but most of the migrants will have passed through. Once your all good and settled in NC, hit me up for some birding.
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