This mid-spring day trip will be spent birding mostly along Green River Cove Road, which traverses through a sizable tract of the Green River Gamelands. Walking will be easy, but it’s always best to bring comfortable footwear.

The Green River Gamelands sit on the Blue Ridge Escarpment and contain quite the variety of managed habitats, from mixed hardwood to pine forest, and early successional to floodplain forest. As such it holds a fantastic mix of both mountain and lower elevation species. We will begin higher up in the Escarpment and should see Scarlet Tanager, Blue-headed Vireo, Black-throated Green, and Black-and-White Warblers among many others before slowly working our way down in elevation. Along the Green River, Louisiana Waterthrush, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo and Yellow-throated Warbler should be plentiful and we will check the grassy powerline cuts and early successional habitats for Blue Grosbeak, Yellow-breasted Chat and Prairie Warbler. Swainson’s & Kentucky Warblers can also be found in this area, often singing from territories right along the road. 

We will make our way all the way to Lake Adger, where we will look for Prothonotary Warbler, Wood Duck and Common Yellowthroat. We will also keep our eyes out for any migrating Osprey or Bald Eagle around the lake as well as the usual species of Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, Fish Crow, Red-shouldered Hawk and others. We may even get lucky and see one of the few Common Mergansers that have bred in this area the past few years. 

Join Michael for what should be an excellent day full of warblers, vireos, tanagers and other spring migrants.