This week’s adventure involved a trip to the mountains. Shenandoah National Park in Virginia is spectacular this time of year and it was time that I go when everything is green.
For the past five years, I’ve gone with the Mountain Club of Maryland to hike Old Rag Mountain in the autumn. With the mountains blazing in orange and yellows it truly is spectacular. But the spring and summer are also stunning seasons to visit the park.
The beginning of June is known for fawn season. Along the tall grasses of Big Meadows on Skyline Drive, white tailed deer Doe bring out their new borns to have them explore their new world.
But it’s not all that easy to find a fawn as their mothers protect them and keep them safe. I had only one long morning and hoped that good fortune would fall upon me, and indeed it did.
But they weren’t the only lovelies to enjoy in the park. It seems that spring continues in the mountains, with warblers plentiful along the forest. Two ‘lifers’ were found on that day. One is the Chestnut Sided Warbler, and the other is a Blackburnian. Even though it isn’t the greatest picture as I was deep in the forest, knowing that I found not one but two of them is pretty darn exciting.
The Chestnut Sided warblers are also a species to find. Once I learned their song, I realized that they were all along the skyline drive in the forest.
So really today is just a teaser to our little mountain retreat. Just wait until tomorrow and Bambi !
Categories: All about Hoofbeats & Footprints
Emily Carter ~ Nature as Art 
So many cute beautiful birds to see 😊
It’s crazy Andy. I really do have such a bird brain. I keep finding all sorts of birds to share with everyone. It’s a wonderful thing. 🙂
Keep them coming! 🙂 🙂
Looking forward to it! I love that park!! 😀
Me too! I never schedule enough time on the mountains. I really need at least two weeks. 🙂
Wow! All are wonderful catches. I only got a blurry photo of an indigo bunting 2 years ago. The grosbeak are around, but never saw one. Can’t wait for your next post!
Is that right? I don’t see grosbeaks often. Especially Rose Breasted. I see those only once or twice a year. And the Indigos? See them all the time — really really high on the tippy top of a tree. Smucks !
Nice bird 🙂
Thanks Babul
Beautiful pictures, always great representations of the colors (as far as I’m concerned since I haven’t seen these in real time 😉 ). The warblers are beautiful little birds! And thanks for sharing the Grosbeak & Indigo as well, didn’t see a male here this year but I did have a bunch of Indigos in the spring. They’re so cool. 🙂
I agree, Indigos are super cool and their blue is truly as they named them – Indigo blue. Warblers are so incredible, and these indeed are their brilliant breeding colors. I was so thrilled to have found them.