Early Saturday morning, we drove to Belle Isle State Park in Lancaster County, VA. Belle Isle SP is a lovely park of 892 acres on the Rappahannock River and bordered by Morattico Creek and Deep Creek. In normal times, camping, canoeing, and horseback riding are some of the recreational offerings as well as a new visitor and nature center located on the Rappahannock. The original house, Bel Air mansion built in 1790 and since restored, is privately owned but can be rented out. The state park also has farm fields which are used and harvested every year. This year winter wheat was growing.
There are lots of trails but we prefer the Watch House Trail which is .61 miles from the camp store to the Rappahannock River. It starts at the big red ban with the tin roof where Barn Swallows and Eastern Bluebirds compete for insects in the early morning sun. We often see a male Eastern Bluebird perched on the peak of the barn roof.
Along the trail bordered by a narrow old growth woods serving as a windbreak for the wheat fields, we spied two Indigo Buntings chasing each other from woods to field and back again. Occasionally they would alight on dry wild growth, taking a breather until the next chase.
It is possible these two males were competing for territory as Belle Isle is part of their extensive breeding range.
The trail leaves the fields and enters marsh and mostly mature pine woods with nice shrubby undergrowth.
A male Mallard looked very alert on the end of this log in the water,
but then two other males flew over and this duck took off to join them
and circle over the marsh. They looked like young males so it was
probably three duck dudes enjoying the warm morning air.
Red-headed Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers and Brown-headed Nuthatches are frequently seen in this area and we saw all three species in the Loblolly pines. Migratory Prairie Warblers were flitting in and out of the bayberry (myrtle) bushes and undergrowth, pausing to sing their ascending somewhat mysterious spring song.
These small bright yellow warblers with distinctive black under eye curved stripe are fun to watch. The p[ark is part of their breeding range. The Prairie Warbler's numbers are declining thus putting them on the watch list of conservation groups. We saw and heard at least four during our morning at the park.
We pretty much had the park to ourselves early in the day. A jogger was the only human we saw. There are a a lot of trails here so seeing other people first thing in the morning is not a given. Social distancing is easy here.
Along the trail we spied a nest, most likely unused and possibly from last year, made from a combination of twigs, grass and plastic.
We drove to the visitor center, which was closed due to Covid-19. It's on the Rappahannock River and has a nice native plant garden and meadow. The rafters of the porch have some fake snakes nailed there to discourage Barn Swallows from nest building there, but during this time when few if any people are around the building the Barn Swallows took advantage and ignored the fake snakes, while building their grass and mud nest on the beams.
We walked the meadow path and saw butterflies and other insects in the grasses and young trees. This Halloween-hued butterfly landed on the ground right in front of us. I took a photo and looked up the name of the insect later.
It's a Meadow fritillary ( I had to look it up on-line) only 1-1/2 inches wide. At this moment we realized why a lot of birders we know also study butterflies and moths. They go hand in hand and are equally as beautiful and important to our natural world.
In the meadow an Eastern Kingbird gave us great views from a small tree.
The best field mark of these flycatchers is the white tail tip. These migratory birds spend winter in Central America and breed in most of the eastern U.S.
We headed over to the Mulberry Creek boardwalk on, appropriately, Mulberry Creek.
Shady and scenic, and the perfect tonic for easing concerns about current events. It was about ten and time to head back to the river place to do some much needed work. Spring morning in a nearly deserted state park was the perfect way to begin a weekend.
