Mountain Birding

The New River, West Virginia, as seen from the high bluffs of Hawk's Nest State Park. Paul Shaw and I led a trip in this area today, and had some absolutely fantastic birding. We had about 70 species, and were only in forested habitats.

The day started before the crack of dawn, and as I was driving up to the meeting place, I saw this gorgeous Luna moth. He - it is a male; note the large fern-like antennae - was probably only a day or two old and as fresh as you'll ever see one.

Our group, birding the Sugar Creek mountain. A picture-perfect day down here, and the birds were insane.

Worm-eating Warbler trilling his heart out. We had perhaps a dozen today.

Female Black-and-white Warbler, gathering nesting material. We found her nest, way up the slope, and were able to watch her work on it through the scope. This species nests on the ground, in a leafy cave-like structure.

Rather poor digiscope of a Yellow-throated Vireo building its nest. We had plenty of these, as well as Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos.

Male Black-throated Green Warbler. We did well on warblers today, including some mind-blowing views of Cerulean Warblers.

Some plants were looked at, too. This is a Red Trillium, Trillium erectum. We found a hillside with many, and lots of other wildflowers, too.

A great day, and I especially look forward to my trip to Cranberry Glades on Thursday.