New River Day 3: Sugar Creek

West Virginia is a place of history, myths and legends. The past rolls off the hills like the West Virginia fog. The fog and rain rolled in overnight and greets us early on Wednesday morning. As we pile into the bus and head up the narrow mountain road to Sugar Creek Ridge I can hear the strains of John Denver singing in my brain…

"Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River…

…life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze,

Country roads, take me home…"

Well, today they are taking me through mist and clouds up to a place where the warblers dwell.

Birding in West Virginia is all about the warblers for me. Though I have loved birds all my life and watched them from my yard, it wasn’t until 10 years ago that I started going out for a walk just to see birds. Until then, I only counted birds that came to my feeders, or the large shore birds I saw at the ocean. If the birds didn’t come to me, I figured I would never see them. Participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count changed all of that for me and now here I am on in the hills of West Virginia chasing warblers.

Our guides today are Geoff Heeter and Wil Hershberger. Geoff is the owner of Opossum Creek Retreat where most of us are staying for the New River Birding Festival. Wil is a quiet man with ears like a bat in his ability to hear sounds. As we pile out of the bus in the mist on the narrow mountain road Wil starts to call like a barred owl to flush the birds. Apparently if the little birds think a barred owl is around they will hurry in and try to mob it and chase it away. Having just recently heard a barred owl at Nina’s house in Ohio, I was amazed at how authentic he sounded. And soon the warblers came in.

We saw a hooded warbler, a black-throated green, cerulean warbler and a yellow-throated warbler. Wil called in an American Redstart as well, but my favorite and the only one I got a halfway decent picture of is the Worm-eating warbler. While its name is not so attractive, I think it is a marvelous bird with its striped ochre head. Sometimes I really like the subtle colors of the woodland birds over the flashy colors of the others. This little warbler sat up on a branch and sang its song in the constant drizzle for us. You can see the drops of water hanging on the branches here.

The Sugar Creek Ridge Road is narrow and winding. Cut into the side of the mountain, it rises steeply on one side and drops precipitously on the other. While there are woods all around us, there is nowhere to sneak off safely and relieve your bladder, especially if you are a woman. And, as usual, we have men driving the bus and leading the trip. Men with bladders of steel and no mercy! Being able to use the restroom is one of the biggest challenges on these birding treks. I finally find a small dirt track that veers off in a somewhat level direction after another woman points it out to me. Fortunately, everyone else is enthralled with looking at the birds and the mist is as thick as ever.

We walk the dirt road for awhile but the rain starts to pick up and it soon drives us off the mountain. Geoff Heeter decides we should take a break in Anstead at the Blue Smoke Café. We are greeted by a gracious hostess and served delicious hot coffee. Here in this small town we also find flush toilets! Yay!

After our stop we travel down Rt. 60 to Hawk’s Nest State Park. Fog continues to roll off the mountainside lending an air of mystery to the day.

KatDoc lost deep in thought sitting under the pavilion where we eat our lunch.

Then, it’s down the hill and across the road for more bird watching. You can see how wet it is from Nina’s coat.


We form our own little Birder’s Parade as we cross RT. 60 to the Hawk’s Nest Overlook.

Birders bird watching…what do we see?

(A complete checklist is posted below.)

I wrote about this disaster in an earlier post. Here is the sign marking the location of the disaster.

And below us on the riverbank as if in homage to the dead workers a flock of Black Vultures lurks. (Click on photo to enlarge. You can see the black vultures on the rocks.)

"...dark and dusty, painted on the sky,

misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye... "

Hawk's Nest tunnel with water flowing through it. Watch a short historical video about the disaster here.

View from the Hawk's Nest overlook. We watched four cormorants fly by below us from this vantage point.

Yellow-throated warbler seen on the path from the overlook.

This beautiful stone building is actually the restroom at Hawk's Nest State park. It's the prettiest restroom we used on our trip.




Aall around the mountains are in bloom. I love the pink flowers of the Redbud trees...

...and the lovely white cross-shaped blossoms of dogwood. Yes, "take me home, country roads..."

...back to Burnwood where the day began. We eat breakfast here everyday now, gathered in the predawn darkness beneath this pavilion where hot coffee, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and fried potatoes greet us every morning. Today's rain has driven us home early and so we decide to see what birds we can see here at Burnwood before heading back to the Farmhouse for the afternoon.

Wil Hershberger and Geoff Heeter @ Burnwood 4-29-09

Wil Hershbeger will be our speaker tonight when we gather at Smokey's on the Gorge for dinner. His presentation on bird calls will be one of the highlights of the week for me.

Nina and KatDoc scoping out the birds in the surrounding woods. Today was a day full of mist, rain, adventure and birds. Yes, we were wet, but we all had a great time and I would do it all again if given the chance.

Bird Seen Today:

Sugar Creek Ridge

1. Red-tailed hawk
2. Pileated woodpecker
3. White-breasted nuthatch
4. Carolina chickadee
5. Tufted titmouse
6. Yellow-throated vireo*
7. Red-eyed vireo
8. Blue-headed vireo
9. Black and white warbler
10. Hooded Warbler
11. Black-throated green warbler
12. Worm-easting warbler*
13. Cerulean warbler*
14. Yellow-throated Warbler*
15. American Redstart
16. Indigo bunting

Anstead

1. Chimney Swift
2. Starling
3. American Robin
4. Common Grackle

Hawks Nest State Park

1. Canada Goose
2. Double-crested cormorant
3. Black vulture
4. turkey Vulture
5. American crow
6. Pileated woodpecker
7. Eastern Phebe
8. Robin
9. Tufted titmouse
10. Carolina chickadee
11. Red-eyed vireo
12. Ovenbird
13. Blackbrunian warbler
14. Yellow-throated warbler
15. Northern cardinal
16. Brown-headed cowbird

Burnwood Picnic Area, Fayetteville, WV

1. Turkey Vulture
2. Crow
3. Carolina chickadee
4. Tufted Titmouse
5. Robin
6. Woodthrush
7. Indigo bunting
8. Eastern Towhee
9. Chipping sparrow
10. Northern Cardinal
    

*Life Birds

I submitted all of these bird counts to eBird and to my amazement, I am now one of the top 100 eBirders in Fayetteville, WV. How can this be? Well, the truth is, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology needs more eBirders. Just recently they started a blog of their own called Chip Notes-eBird Buzz. If you don't think you can actually make a difference, here is their first post explaining why they need more ebirders and yes, you can do it! (Click on the link to go to the original post.)

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Do you eBird?
Based on recent research we've learned that roughly 70,000 people use eBird more than 50 times a year to gather information on birds. Most surprising to us was the fact that just 10,000 people entered data into eBird at least once, and even more remarkable is that just 2500 people entered more than 50 eBird checklists last year. What this tells us is that there is a large community of people out there using eBird as an information source, but a relative few actually contribute data. We want to better understand what drives our users, and ultimately participation in eBird. Why people submit data, why they don't, what's good and bad about eBird? Helping us answer these questions will make eBird a better tool for birders, and ultimately put more data into the hands of scientists and conservationists. With that, we ask you, the eBird community how we can be better...
Posted by Brian Sullivan at 5:40 PM

New River Day 2: Cranberry Glades

Luna Moth 4-27-09 Fayetteville, WV

A day that starts out with a Luna moth can only get better and it did. Our early morning hot breakfast at the Burnwood picnic area had to hold us for several hours as we drove to Cranberry Glades in the Monongahela National Forest. We drive north under sunny skies gaining altitude as we travel until we reach an elevation of 3400 feet. Since I live out west at 3300 feet, this does not seem too high to me, but I can see the vegetation change the higher we go. When we finally get out of the bus at Cranberry Bog the trees are barely blushing with new buds compared to the tiny celery colored leaves back in Fayetteville.

Right off the bat our faithful guides Connie Toops, Geoff Heeter and Keith Richards find us some chestnut- sided warblers. While I have seen and photographed this bird in its winter plumage in Arizona, this is the first time I have seen it in its breeding plumage with the lovely chestnut streak running down its side. A pair of males are fighting over territory from opposite sides of the road, flying back and forth and singing their challenge songs of spring.

The day starts off cool as we meander down the ½ mile board walk but soon the brilliant sunlight warms the air around us. Everyone is mesmerized by what we are seeing. It’s hard to know where to look first with all the bird activity around us and new life bursting from every tree and branch.

A frog sits in a pool alongside the walkway watching us with wet dark eyes. Yellow-rumped warblers flit about the treetops gleaning insects and singing as the day goes by. A small olive green warbler, plain and tiny, perches atop a distant pine tree. We are only afforded a quick glance or two but the consensus is that we have seen a Mourning warbler, which is a Life Bird* for me.

Yellow-rumped Warbler 4-27-09 Cranberry Glades, WV

Blackburnian Warbler Cranberry Glades, WV 4-27-09

Farther down the trail a small black and white bird with a throat of flame flies high into the sky. It lands on an open branch revealing its flaming throat. Looking through my binoculars, I can’t believe that dazzling shade of apricot and fire. It is a Blackburnian Warbler, another life bird for me. I fumble between binoculars and camera. I cannot get enough of this bird. I photograph it, look through my bins and take my turn at the spotting scope. I have only seen this color in a flaming sunset before, and now I am seeing it on the throat of a bird. This vision will be emblazoned on my mind for the rest of my life I am sure. This is a magnificent bird and yet another Life Bird for me.

Golden-crowned Kinglet 4-27-09

As if my heart were not full already a sweet little Golden-crowned Kinglet flies down and sings briefly on an exposed branch.

We all watch in awe as bird after bird is revealed to us. Everywhere we turn there is something new to see. Flowers are blooming everywhere, yet on the rolling hills of West Virginia the deciduous trees are still bare at this elevation.



A ring of spruce and pine wraps around the open bog in a bright green circle. Above the sky is a pale blue dome. I can't help but wonder what it will all look like in a month when everything is green and lush and bursting.

Susan and Nina 4-27-09

I look to see Susan scanning the skies while Nina searches the ground below. Each has their own interest, their own view of this world we are walking through today. Each has her own story to tell of this wonderful experience.

The birds are everywhere, and I am doing my best to census them. Besides adding species to my list, I am trying my darndest to count how many birds I am seeing. Even a trip to the outhouse yields yet another bird as I wander up the path. First I hear a rustle in the leaf litter beside me, then I find a pair of dark-eyed juncos digging in the leaves. This is why I watch birds, because birds are everywhere.

After living in the desert for two years now, I am intrigued once again by the advance of spring in a deciduous forest. The bare-branched trees always look like hands raised to the open sky. Now with the new red, lemon and lime green buds on the tips of the twigs it makes a subtle pattern as the trees grow up the slope. Looking through my lens it all gets flattened into a textured painting in my mind. I wander back down the path to capture one more photo.

Close beside the boardwalk what appears to be a red and green bird growing out of the soil is actually the bud of a skunk cabbage. These plants covered the floor of the swampy woods I grew up in. I do not see them in Arizona. As memories flood my mind, I find myself wondering: How did I get here to this tundra-like world on the east coast? It is so like places I have been before and so unlike anything I have ever seen. It is a merging of habitats for me. I feel like I am in New England and the Rocky Mountains all at once. I am here, today, in this new place as well as in the past. I am a growing thing and this is a new spring time for me.

Cranberry Glades Bird List:

1. Mallard
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Broad-winged hawk*
4. Hairy woodpecker
5. Northern flicker
6. Blue-headed Vireo
7. Blue jay
8. Common Raven
9. Black-Capped chickadee
10. Red-breasted nuthatch
11. Golden-crowned Kinglet
12. American robin
13. Chestnut-sided Warbler
14. Yellow-rumped warbler
15. Black-throated green warbler
16. Blackburnian Warbler*
17. Black and white Warbler
18. Mourning Warbler*
19. Eastern towhee
20. Chipping sparrow
21. Dark-eyed Junco
22. American goldfinch
23. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
24. Brown-headed cowbird
25. Pine siskin

*Life Birds (A Life Bird is the first time a birder has seen a species and can add it to their Life List. A Life List is a list of all the bird species a birder has seen in their life. I like to include the dates and places I have seen birds. I keep my Life List in a book and eBird keeps track of it for me when I submit my bird counts.)

Meeting the Flock

Lynne of Hasty Brook and Nina from Nature Remains 4-26-09

It is a sunny day as Nina and I set out for the New River Birding and Nature Festival. We follow the back roads of Ohio until we reach the highway and head southeast to West Virginia. The rolling hills of southeast Ohio speed past us outside the car window. Soon the wrinkles of the earth deepen to steeper slopes and rocky ravines. We cross into West Virginia at Point Pleasant via a bridge that crosses the Ohio River, which marks the boundry between these two states. When I see the name of the town I realize that this is THE Point Pleasant of the movie Mothman and the book The Mothman Prophecies. Both the movie and the book recount the historic bridge collapse in 1967. On December 15 at 5:00 p.m. the cables snapped and the Silver Bridge fell into the Ohio River below killing 46 people and injuring 9. I couldn’t help but think about it as we crossed the new bridge.

We arrived at the Opossum Creek Farmhouse late in the afternoon. A huge banner hung from the front porch welcoming “The Flock” of 2009. I don’t know who first came up with that name for this group of Birding bloggers, but it certainly fit. Nina and I tumbled wearily but excitedly out of the car. We gathered our gear and headed into the house to meet and greet everyone else. After picking out our beds and stowing our gear we gathered in the kitchen for introductions.

Mary of Mary's View 4-26-09

TR, From the Faraway, Nearby 4-26-09
(No, he didn't stay with us,he was just visiting!)



Wren, from Wrenaissance Reflections reflecting 4-26-09

Susan Gets Native 4-26-09

The always prepared, KatDoc!

Then, like any good bird blogger, we headed outside to watch birds!

I saw my first Blue-winged warbler at the Farm House with the help of KatDoc. Lifer! Here is the list of the other birds seen that very first day at the Farm House:

1. Turkey Vulture
2. Mourning Dove
3. Blue jay
4. Crow
5. Carolina chickadee
6. Tufted Titmouse
7. Wood thrush*
8. Robin
9. Gray Catbird
10. Cedar Waxwing
11. Blue-winged warbler*
12. Eastern Towhee
13. Song sparrow
14. Northern Cardinal

*Lifer! (First time seeing this species of bird.)