We have enjoyed all of the Audubon places we have visited
and we set off with high hopes for this one. We saw one sign and then nothing
more. We followed the navigator until it announced “you have reached your
destination”. Hmmmmm. All we could see was a farm. We pulled in to turn around
and a guy comes out of the house and greets us. We said we were trying to find
the Audubon site and he says “you found it”. The guy said they planted all of
the trails (now farmland), but we were welcome to walk anywhere we wanted. He
warned that there were ticks and more so take precaution. We tucked our pant
legs into our socks and off we went. The grass (some kind of grain) was tall
and there were lots of flowers and thistles as well. I almost changed my jeans
this morning for my regular hiking pants, but it was till kind of cool out so I
left them on. With all the thistles I was glad I had the jeans on.
the house where the owner came out to tell us we were free to walk anywhere we wanted
we're not in the tall grass yet....
Cormorant
Clay-colored Sparrow
OK, that's the tall grass & full of thistles
We saw quite a few Orchard Orioles. There was a juvenile
male, an adult male and a female and a baby.
Orchard Oriole male
Orchard Oriole juvenile
Orchard Oriole male
Orchard Oriole immature male
Clay Colored Sparrow
Catbird
Orchard Oriole female
Least Flycatcher
Chipping Sparrow
Dove
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
We stayed a while longer and went in search of the place the
guy recommended for shore birds.
Canada Geese & a Cormorant
White Pelican & a Cormorant
Northern Shoveler
Northern Shoveler
White-faced Ibis
Our next stop was Pipestem Dam near Jamestown.There was a trail there to hike, but it was almost lunch
time so we drove around a while looking for birds down by the dam.
Caspian Tern
Killdeer
We drove into town and grabbed a quick lunch before heading
to McElroy Park where we hike the White Cloud Nature Trail which follows the
James River. It was a very nice urban park and the section of White Cloud
Nature Trail we walked was a nice hike. No ducks in the river, but we did see a
few other birds along the trail.
Song Sparrow
Yellow Warbler - female
Song Sparrow
Hairy Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
We called it a day and headed home. To date, we are now up to 1,124 different birds. 
I just wrote an entire paragraph and Google erased it..GRRRR!
ReplyDeleteHow many states so far? I lost count.. RV seems to be holding up well... I am continually amazed at your knowledge of birds... Panama has has more rain than usual this time of year.. lots of storms with thunder and lightning.. am renting
Gorgona OceanFront so views of ocean are great! keep blogging..
Betty
12 states so far this trip. We leave for Montana tomorrow. I'm way behind on the blog, so we have finished North Dakota. Theodore National Park as amazing! I do miss the beach views from the Bay...….
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