Vertebrates at or near Highlands Biological Laboratory

Weather: beautiful sunny days, light NW wind (weak front passed day before)

Other notes: migrant warblers were often in small flocks where the sunshine first caught the trees in the morning.   A Red Crossbill put in a brief appearance on Sunday morning, one of the world's most peculiar birds ... see below and also notes from last week about mature cones on the white pines.

Please send additions/corrections to Haven Wiley

Birds

	Mute Swan	2 as usual
	Red-tailed Hawk	several beside I-40
	Broad-winged Hawk	1 sailed over I-40 east of Old Fort
	Cooper's Hawk	2 sailed across the highway between Franklin and Asheville (both large and so probably females)
	Mourning Dove	6
	Ruby-throated Hummingbird	6
	Belted Kingfisher	1 beside the pond
	Downy Woodpecker	1 called from the woods
	Hairy Woodpecker ***	1 in woods beside the pond -- see last week's notes on the calls
	Pileated Woodpecker	1 called at Coweeta, another flew over the road near Asheville
	Blue-headed Vireo **	6 singing in brief bouts from scattered points all around the station
	Blue Jay	6
	American Crow	4
	Carolina Chickadee	6
	Tufted Titmouse	2
	White-breasted Nuthatch	2
	Red-breasted Nuthatch *	1
	American Robin	2
	Carolina Wren	1 singing
	Gray Catbird	1
	Tennessee Warbler	4 in a small migrating flock
	Northern Parula	1 female
	Chestnut-sided Warbler *	3 including two that sang briefly, one of which still had its chestnut sides
	Magnolia Warbler *	2 including one in the small flock of Tennessee Warblers
	Blackburnian Warbler *	1 in dull fall plumage
	Black-throated Blue Warbler **	1
	Pine Warbler	1 in white pines
	Worm-eating Warbler	1 calling and seen in thick shrubs beside the pond
	Yellow-breasted Chat	1 in thickets behind the lab, unusual at such a high altitude
	Rose-breasted Grosbeak *	1 squeaking (like sneakers on a basketball court) high in trees
	Northern Cardinal	2
	Eastern Towhee	4
	Song Sparrow	3
	Dark-eyed Junco **	4
	American Goldfinch	2
	Red Crossbill **	1 flew over the dining hall making its distinctive calls ... jip-jip, jip-jip ... a specialist on extracting seeds from conifer cones ... not found at Highlands since the last time there were mature cones on the white pines!

Mammals

	Gray Squirrel	2
	Red Squirrel *	3 calling

* northern species that extends southward in the mountains to southern Appalachians

** northern species that extends southward in the mountains and has evolved a distinctive subspecies in the southern Appalachians

*** species with a northern subspecies that extends southward in the mountains to the southern Appalachians