Birding at Whitetop Mountain, VA

I’ll share some pictures of a little birding trip we took this morning. We went with some of our Winston-Salem Audubon friends to Whitetop Mountain, at the westernmost tip of the state of Virginia, in the heart of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. There was a risk of thunderstorms, but we all took a chance and drove the two and a half hours to get there, and had great luck. The overcast skies kept the temperatures down, and the birds up! It poured for most of the drive back, but that was alright.

How about that view!? It was worth the trip all by itself!

Here’s Gail, looking pretty serious. Pretty and serious. But you gotta know, the birding folks we hang with are pretty serious about it!

That’s me at the far left. I fit right in with the rest of the bird nerds! LOL

The dude with the long, white ponytail at the far right is a member of the Blue Ridge Audubon group. He and his wife, right next to him, were our most gracious guides for this outing. They knew all the local scoop on what birds where.

They took us to a part of the mountain where the Appalachian Trail cuts through. It was cool to walk even a tiny portion of it. That’s Princess Gail nicely taking up the rear, with her nice rear! 😉

We were at this spot, though, specifically to look for the Vesper Sparrow, which usually summers further north, but sometimes shows this far south at the cooler altitudes in this type of habitat. We found it!

Besides many of the regulars, we saw several other birds you don’t see every day, including Kentucky Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Alder Flycatcher. And we heard others that were too elusive to be seen, including Blue-headed Vireo, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Least Flycatcher, and a real treat, the beautiful song of the Veery thrush.

People who like birds tend to be naturalists in general. We frequently stop to ooh and aah about this plant, or this tree, or this bug, or this butterfly, or….

beautiful mountain flowers,

and a beaver’s home within a marshy river,

and even the man made beauty of planted Christmas trees, a classic Blue Ridge industry.

It was another awesome trip to the Blue Ridge, and we are grateful for a safe trip home in heavy rain. We are already looking forward to our next trip to this beautiful part of the world!

6 thoughts on “Birding at Whitetop Mountain, VA”

  1. All right! Have to love the blue ridge. I really like the eastern mountains. I have great memories of being sung to sleep by vesper sparrows in the Adirondacks.

    1. Cool memory, Joan! Yes, it’s an evening singer, as it’s name implies. We were lucky to hear it singing it’s heart out (like in the picture) at around 10:00 AM. 🙂

    1. Oh, good, Linda! I always hope people check out the bird links, because they provide nice, concise information, including the typical songs. Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂

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