Flycatchers

Flycatchers make me nervous. Not nervous like I would be if I were a fly, but nervous like a student who hasn't studied enough and is walking into an exam. Which ones have the wing bars? Which ones *don't* have the wing bars? Is that one's song the "pizza" one, or the "free beer" one? Is this the right habitat for that one?

Okay...I have studied some, so I am not completely in the dark. For example, some songs are really easy to remember, like that of the Eastern Wood-Pewee. And if I am not sure I can put name to song in the field, I will take notes on the song and then identify the bird later by comparing it to songs on the Internet or on CDs that I have purchased.

On my most recent trip to South River Falls (seems like so long ago...but it was only a month back), I listened to and watched several flycatchers. On a couple of occasions I had long looks, and enough time to take some pictures. I remember hearing their song, recognizing them and then taking photographs of them. When I finally got around to scanning through my pictures, however, I was stymied for several moments as I tried to identify the very much non-singing flycatchers in my photographs. I did not realize how much I actually relied on their song to make the identification. I took a few moments, flipped through some field guides, compared to other photographs, and basically re-identified the birds. And I felt pretty silly.

So here are two photographs that I took of a flycatcher on that hike. The first is Acadian Flycatcher. The second is Eastern Wood-Pewee. The second photograph caused me the most trouble in my re-identification efforts, and I still have this tinge of doubt.

Canada Warbler

Each spring when I visit South River Falls, I always look forward to where the trail comes down to the stream that eventually tumbles over the falls as the South River. It is at this stream that I can reliably find Canada Warbler. Their song gives me my only real chance at finding the bird. They blend in so well with their surroundings that without that song I might look right at the bird and not even notice it.

When I finally do find the bird, I then hope for a photograph. A long lens, patience, and a bird that decides to sit still in the open are all required. I have the lens, and usually have the patience. The other two, I think, are just luck. Last year I managed to get a fuzzy shot of a Canada Warbler. This year was about the same.

Hooded Warbler

One of my recent hikes on South River Falls Trail (back in May) yielded the usual menagerie of spring migrants, including some that nest in the mountains of Virginia. One species in particular that nests in Shenandoah National Park is Hooded Warbler.

At the very start of my most recent visit, Tammy and I came across a Hooded Warbler that appeared to be gathering nesting material. I took several photos of the bird as it moved about the bushes very close to the ground. It was quite shady in those spots, so I set the ISO on my camera up to 400 in an attempt to compensate for the low light. When the bird suddenly perched in direct sunlight, I had time to snap several pictures that turned out to be above average. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to readjust the ISO back down to 100 before taking these, so they are a bit overexposed. But I will take what I can get :-)

Ovenbird

Walk anywhere in Shenandoah National Park in the springtime and you will hear the singing of an Ovenbird. Their "teacher teacher teacher" song that gets louder as it goes (like someone is turning the volume up) is a sure sign of their presence. That song is easy to hear, but actually spotting the singing bird is a bit more challenging. You would think that their song would make it easier, but for whatever reason, I find them hard to locate visually even when they are singing away.

I had someone recently ask me how the Ovenbird got its name, and I was stumped. It is an odd name. Why go with something simple like Ovenbird when you could have something more eclectic like Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner?

Okay...I apologize in advance for the detour, but here is where things get complicated. I had picked up my copy of The Birds of Costa Rica in order to find a really complicated bird name that I could contrast with Ovenbird. I flipped through, found Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner, and was pleased with myself for finding such a mouthful. I wanted to include a link to something meaningful for that name, so I did some searching on Wikipedia. This is where I discovered that the Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner just happens to be a member of a family of birds that is referenced by the term "ovenbird". Much to my dismay, the specific North American bird whose name is Ovenbird, is not a member of the family of birds (Furnarlidae) whose name is Ovenbird. Sigh.

So, where does the term "ovenbird" derive? Building a nest that is covered, with a side entrance, and has a passing resemblance to a dutch oven was the primary driver. The North American bird called Ovenbird apparently does this. Here are a couple photos of an Ovenbird (the North American kind) that I took on one of my recent South River Falls hikes.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

I have to be careful when I tell people that I "go hiking", because they often assume that my purpose is to hike, as in "to get from point A to point B". If I ignored birds and all wildlife, and did not carry a camera, then I might hike that way. But it is very difficult for me to ignore birds or any wildlife, and I nearly always carry my camera, so my objective when I hike is definitely not focused on getting from point A to point B. In fact, if anyone ever suggests that it would be cool to accompany me on a hike, I immediately warn them about what I like to call "birdwatching pace". When I hike, I am slow. Really slow. Any bird song, or movement, or wildlife in general, will distract me and may result in incessant photographic attempts. It is not uncommon for me to average about 1 mile per hour when I hike. If the chosen trail is 6 miles long, then prepare for 6 hours of hiking that is punctuated by frequent stops to listen, look and photograph. I really enjoy the heck out of whatever trail I happen to hike :-)

Three of the last four weekends I have managed to get out to the mountains of Virginia and combine a hike with birdwatching and photography. Two of the three were on the South River Falls Trail within Shenandoah National Park. I really enjoy getting out to the mountains during spring migration because of the increased odds of seeing something more interesting. Last year I even caught a glimpse of an American Black Bear.

This, and the next few posts, will include photos from these trips. For this post, I elected to share one of the more common warblers that occur in the mountains of Virginia. As you descend in elevation in Virginia, the Chestnut-sided Warbler becomes less common to the point of being absent. But "on top" of the mountains, they are everywhere. Their "pleased pleased pleased to meetcha!" song rings out from all over the place. In the spring, when I arrive at the trail head for South River Falls Trail and get out of my car, the song of the Chestnut-sided Warbler is nearly always the one I hear first.

Even More Bugs

My last post showed you several butterflies that I saw on the Doyles River Loop. This post has photos of three more bugs that I ran across.
1. A bee carrying a load of pollen.
2. A Water Strider located in a pool below the Doyles River Upper Falls.
3. A Green Stink Bug found near the Doyles River Lower Falls.

Butterflies of Doyles River Loop

If you hike anywhere in Shenandoah during the month of August, you will see lots of butterflies. Our recent hike on the Doyles River Loop was no exception. I managed to get photographs of four different species of butterfly on the hike:
1. Spicebush Swallowtail.
2. Great Spangled Fritillary.
3. Silver-spotted Skipper. Not a very good photo.
4. Hackberry Emperor. Tammy is the hand model.

Doyles River Loop

A couple weeks back Tammy and I hiked Doyles River Loop in Shenandoah. We actually hiked a variant that began at Browns Gap instead of the Doyles River Overlook. This variant hike was described as being 2 miles shorter than the real hike of 7.8 miles. At the end of the hike, however, my GPS said we had hiked 7.3 miles, only half a mile less instead of the predicted two miles less. So either we took a wrong turn, my GPS is screwy, or the book was wrong. I am voting on #3.

Despite the additional mileage, this was a great hike. It was a warm day and we finished very tired, but there were good things to be seen the entire hike. For example, as I mentioned above, the variant hike began at Browns Gap, following the old Browns Gap Turnpike down the mountain. It is now a fire road for the park, but it was originally constructed by the Brown family to move produce. During the Civil War, however, it was used by Stonewall Jackson to move troops. A little ways down the old road, there was a clearing on the left side where someone had taken care to preserve a grave marker. There is no date on the marker, but the individual, one William H. Howard, succumbed to something on this road and was laid to rest here. According to the marker (and this web page), he was in Company F ("The Fluvanna Hornets"), of the 44th Virginia Infantry, of the Confederate States Army.

Eventually the old turnpike crosses the Doyles River Trail. We turned right on it and followed it down, past a couple "could have been nice" waterfalls until it turned into Jones Run Trail and began to ascend. This took us back up the mountain, again past several "waiting for rain" waterfalls, until we got to the Appalachian Trail. We then followed the Appalachian Trail back to the car at Browns Gap.

The number of significant waterfalls on this hike makes it something to return to at some point in the future. On this day, there just was not very much water flowing in the streams. A couple of the waterfalls were just rock walls with no water. In the future, when the weather has not been so dry, a return trip should allow us to see water falling.

Here are a couple of photos from the start of the hike. The first shows the sign for "Brown Gap". All the books, and online maps, show this as "Browns Gap", but the sign on the Skyline Drive did not include the "s" on "Brown" for some reason. The second photo is of the grave marker I described above.

Flora of Rapidan Loop

A selection of four pictures showing some of the interesting colors seen while hiking the Rapidan Loop. I identified these as I wrote this post by comparing my pictures to the pictures found here.

1. Yellow blooms of Black-eyed Susan.
2. Pink petals of Purple-flowering Raspberry.
3. Vivid orange of Turk's-cap Lily.
4. Red fruits of some variety of raspberry. I wanted to make this the fruit of the Purple-flowering Raspberry that is in the second picture, but the leaves of the plant looked different (I have other photos that show this difference better than these photos). I bumbled around the web trying to identify the berry (or actually...not berry, but aggregate fruit), but I ran out of patience before I could make the ID. So for now, it is just a raspberry.

Snakes of Camp Hoover

You may remember me writing a few weeks back about the Rapidan Loop hike that I took in July. I have finally worked through the pictures that I took earlier in the summer and have "caught up" to the photos from the Rapidan hike. As mentioned in that earlier post, my friend Rich accompanied Tammy and I, and he also wrote about this hike. Even better, while we were enjoying the views from Hazeltop, he took a picture of me taking a picture. Then, when he got home he turned that photo of me into a banner for my blog. I liked it so much that I promptly incorporated it into my blog template.

The first third of this hike takes you down from Skyline Drive to Camp Hoover, where you can explore the history of the presidential retreat used by Herbert Hoover. A park ranger is resident in the camp, and he gives tours that describe the history of the camp, the various buildings that remain, and what they were used for. He also pointed out a couple of snakes that regularly sunned themselves on a rock in the camp.

Unfortunately, the snakes were halfway inside a shady crevice in the rock. We did not get great looks at the snakes. One was a Timber Rattlesnake, one of three poisonous snakes in Virginia, so we did not attempt to get very close.

In the first photo, you can barely see two snakes. The one of the left is a Northern Watersnake (the camp is right next to where Mill Prong and Laurel Prong come together to form the Rapidan River). The one on the far right is the Timber Rattlesnake. In the second picture, I was able to crop a photo to provide a closer view of the rattlesnake's head. He looks mean.

Rapidan Loop

This past Sunday, Tammy and I hiked what I am calling the Rapidan Loop, in Shenandoah National Park. We also had a guest hiker: my friend Rich joined us.

Sunday was a fantastic day. Lots of sun. Unseasonably cool. Gentle breeze. All in all, it was a great day for a hike.

The Rapidan Loop, as I call it, is a 7.4 mile loop that starts at Milam Gap, milepost 53, on the Skyline Drive. The first part of the hike follows Mill Prong Trail, which, in an amazing coincidence, parallels a stream called Mill Prong as it cascades down hill. This stream joins another stream, Laurel Prong, to form the Rapidan River. All this water ends up in the Rappahannock River and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.

Where the two "prongs" come together to form the Rapidan River is the former summer getaway of President Hoover, called Rapidan Camp. He would come here, sometimes with his entire cabinet and dignitaries, for summer vacations during his tenure in office. Now it is preserved as part of Shenandoah National Park. For those not inclined to hike down to (and back up from) the camp, there is a van that will shuttle you down to the camp from Big Meadows Campground. History buffs would definitely enjoy the tour, graciously provided by a resident park ranger.

To complete the Rapidan Loop, we left Rapidan Camp along the Laurel Prong Trail, following Laurel Prong upstream. Where the Laurel Prong Trail ends at the Appalachian Trail, turn north and follow the Appalachian Trail back to Milam Gap.

Once you leave Camp Rapidan, you are climbing back up to the elevation of Skyline Drive, and then higher as you cross the summit of Hazeltop, the third highest peak in Shenandoah National Park. The last mile or two of the hike is a gentle descent from Hazeltop's summit down to Milam Gap. At the summit of Hazeltop, there is a nice stopping point where you can gaze into the hills and valleys to the west of the park.

Fungus Among Us

On the last leg of the Dark Hollow Rose River loop, a spot of color just off the trail caught my eye. It was a bright orange colored fungus growing on a decaying log. At least, I think it is safe to call it a fungus. I am not too familiar with the classification of mushrooms, lichens and things of that sort. I did spend some time searching Google, with search phrases like "orange shelf fungus" and "big orange lichen", but just did not find something that seemed to clearly match what I saw. The closest I found was a mushroom called Chicken of the Woods (because it supposedly tastes like chicken...you could have a nice T-Rex and mushroom soup, and it would taste very much like chicken soup), but I am not convinced that was what I saw growing on that log.

Babbling brook

After descending past the Dark Hollow Falls, you can follow the Rose River Loop Trail (change the map type from "G. hybrid" to "USGS topo") along the Hogcamp Branch. This is a fairly gentle descent towards the point where the Hogcamp Branch joins the Rose River. The Rose River is part of the Rappahannock River watershed, and its waters ultimately end up in the Chesapeake Bay. For the most part, the Hogcamp Branch is running parallel to the trail. In typical mountain stream form, it provides frequent chances to see water running over rocks of various sizes.

I am sure the description in that previous paragraph is much more bland that the real thing. There is just something so very relaxing about the sound a mountain stream makes as it winds its way through, over and around the landscape. Every chance I get to watch and listen just makes me want to package it up and take it home with me. But, unfortunately, all I can do is take a picture and try to remember that sound.

Deer

Whenever you enter Shenandoah National Park, whether driving, biking or hiking, you are likely to see at least one deer. In my experience, this likelihood increases the closer you are to one of the campgrounds in Shenandoah, like Big Meadows [pdf]. My theory is that there is a lot more food available for the deer where groups of humans spend lots of time. In other words, our trash and handouts are like a big convenience store for the deer (and other animals). Keep in mind that I have not done anything scientific to test my theory (like actually counting deer at various distances from campgrounds). Nor have I actively considered other variables that might be at work here (variables other than the misdirected kindness and general negligence of humans). So, at this point, my theory is nothing more than blog fodder.

And a segue for cute deer pictures.

These are White-tailed Deer. All of these pictures were taken while Tammy and I were on our recent Dark Hollow Rose River Loop hike, which is coincidentally near the Big Meadows Campground.

Questionmark

When we got to the Rose River Falls on our hike a couple weekends back, we took a few moments to catch our breath. We were in the middle of the climb back up to the Skyline Drive, so we needed the rest. But there were also the falls to look at, and about a dozen butterflies in and around this one tree next to the trail. Most of them were Red Admirals, but there was at least one Question Mark.

That's right. There is a butterfly named after punctuation. Actually, there is another butterfly that looks very similar to the Question Mark called an Eastern Comma. So that would be at least two butterflies named after punctuation. Not sure if there are any more.

The Question Mark gets its name from the underside of its wings (see the second picture). The underside is much browner, and cryptically patterned. In the pattern, however, is a small question mark shaped white line. It is really a small white curve with a white dot next to it. On the Eastern Comma (not pictured, but follow the link above to see someone else's picture) there is no white dot, but there is still a hooked white curve. There are other differences between the two on the top side, with the pattern of black dots on the orange wings.

The first picture here shows the top side of the Question Mark. The second picture shows the Question Mark with its wings "up", giving you a blurry glimpse of its signature field mark (look towards the back of the near wing and you will see the curved white line and white dot on the brownish wing).

Yeah, it is something of a reach to say that the white curve and dot look like that thing you put at the end of a sentence that asks a question. Right???

Preening Gray Catbird

Near the beginning of our hike on the Dark Hollow Rose River Loop, as we were switch-backing down to the Dark Hollow Falls, a couple of Gray Catbirds were flitting about in the bushes next to the trail. As we came around one of the switchbacks, one of the pair stopped in a nice, sunny spot and decided it was a great place and time for a bit of preening. I stopped and watched, happy at the chance for some photographs of a bird that was not flying away. My favorite is the third photograph below, where the bird looks like it is in the middle of some type of Japanese traditional dance.

American Redstart at nest

Here is one last photo from the Sugarloaf hike. Very early in the hike, we stumbled across the nest of an American Redstart. It was right next to the trail, but since the trail does not get much traffic, I suspect that the few people who get near the nest just walk on by, not even noticing it. We lingered for a few minutes, a respectable distance away, while I attempted to get a picture of an adult feeding a nestling. The adults, however, did not give me much time to take a photo (I imagine their priorities were a tad different from mine). They would bring in some tasty morsel, quickly give it to one of the nestlings, and then be off again in search of more food. The photo below is the best I could muster under the circumstances, factoring in that I did not want to linger too long for fear of distressing the adults.

Dark Hollow Rose River Loop

Yesterday, Tammy and I took advantage of the weather and hiked another loop within Shenandoah National Park. For this outing we combined a couple of well known hikes to waterfalls into a loop that was just under 6 miles long.

Near the Big Meadows Campground and Byrd Visitor Center [pdf], the Dark Hollow Falls hike is one of the more popular hikes in the park. It is short, but steep, and gets you to a series of three waterfalls (depending on how far down the hill you want to hike). Even further north of Big Meadows is the Rose River Loop Trail, that gets you to another set of falls.

When you hike down to the very bottom of the Dark Hollow Falls trail, you intersect with the Rose River Falls loop. So we combined the two into one hike. We started at the Byrd Visitor Center, hiked over to, and down, the Dark Hollow Falls trail. At the bottom of the Dark Hollow Falls Trail, we picked up the Rose River Loop Trail and hiked that until we got back to the Skyline Drive near Fisher's Gap, a few miles north of the visitor center. Finally, we took the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail from Fishers Gap back to the visitor center.

If you would prefer to see that route on a map, then go here for just that, courtesy of my GPS.

Of course, I got lots of pictures on the way, especially of waterfalls. In the near future, my favorite pictures from this hike will be showing up in this blog. This one is of Dark Hollow Falls.

Red Admiral

While walking up Keyser Run Fire Road (which, in some maps, is named Jinny Gray Road), it seemed like there was always one of these black butterflies with an orange stripe on their wings fluttering about. I managed to get this photo while one paused on a rock by the trail. Some searching on Google led me to decide that I had taken a picture of a Red Admiral.

Gypsy Moth Mayhem

While hiking the Sugarloaf Trail, Tammy and I kept getting tricked into thinking it was about to rain. The occasional clouds that obscured the sun, and being under the canopy of trees, caused the light to sometimes dim as if rain clouds were rolling in. And then we would notice the sound of what we thought were raindrops falling through the trees. But then the sun would come back out, and that sound of raindrops would persist. And we never felt a single raindrop.

So we focused on that sound and decided that it was like a really, really slow rain. Almost like the rain on the very edge of a storm. Since nothing was wet and it was really more sunny than cloudy, we knew it could not be rain. But that sound of something falling through the leaves was always there.

When we later stopped to examine some caterpillars on the side of the trail, we finally put two and two together. There were lots of caterpillars. At first, I was assuming these were Eastern Tent Caterpillars, but after some searching on Google, a bit of reading (here and here) and some picture comparisons, I have decided that these were Gypsy Moth Caterpillars. The Gypsy Moth is an introduced species in North America. We have Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, and his fleeting interest in entomology, to thank for this.

The caterpillars were happily munching on leaves. Everywhere you looked you saw caterpillars on leaves, and the leaves had holes in them or giant chunks missing from them. And when you examined the trail closely, you noticed bits of green leaves everywhere. Our conclusion was that the massive number of Gypsy Moth Caterpillars were chowing down on the leaves in the canopy, and an endless stream of leaf pieces were falling down to the ground.