A Summer Bird Walk at the Blue Ridge Center

Ten people showed up on Saturday morning for the regular (every 4^th Saturday) bird walk by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship. With summer well underway, the birds were much quieter and less obvious than they have been recently but the butterflies made up for that. We did get some great looks at a Scarlet Tanager, lots of male Indigo Buntings on open perches, as well as Common Yellowthroats.

We also got a lot of practice for our Annual Butterfly Count, which is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 5 and includes a lot of territory from Leesburg to the Blue Ridge Center. Many of the wildflowers in the meadows that the Blue Ridge Center manages were blooming and attracting numerous butterflies, with lots of  Easter Tiger Swallowtails on the wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) and at least a half dozen Monarchs on both it and milkweed.

 For a list of the birds and butterflies see below.

 Joe Coleman

 

Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship, Loudoun, Virginia, US Jul 22, 2017 8:00 AM – 10:45 AM

Protocol: Traveling

2.2 mile(s)

37 species

Turkey Vulture  4

Mourning Dove  2

Yellow-billed Cuckoo  3

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1

Downy Woodpecker  2

Pileated Woodpecker  1

Eastern Wood-Pewee  15

Acadian Flycatcher  8

Eastern Phoebe  1

Great Crested Flycatcher  1

Yellow-throated Vireo  1

Red-eyed Vireo  10

American Crow  1

Purple Martin  4

Tree Swallow  2

Barn Swallow  3

Carolina Chickadee  5

Tufted Titmouse  4

House Wren  1

Carolina Wren  4

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  6

Eastern Bluebird  2

Wood Thrush  2

American Robin  2

Northern Mockingbird  1

Common Yellowthroat  6

Prairie Warbler  2

Yellow-breasted Chat  1

Field Sparrow  5

Song Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  2

Scarlet Tanager  3

Northern Cardinal  4

Blue Grosbeak  1

Indigo Bunting  8

Orchard Oriole  1

American Goldfinch  4 

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S38266037

 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Butterflies seen:

Spicebush Swallowtail 10

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 35

Cabbage White 2

Clouded Sulphur 2

Orange Sulphur 4

Eastern-tailed Blue 3

Silvery Checkerspot 1

Anglewings 2

Common Buckeye 2

Hackberry Emperor 1

Northern Pearly Eye 1

Monarch 6

Silver-spotted Skipper 3

Least Skipper 2