Badlands National Park

 Badlands National Park is one of those environments that calls forth so many different adjectives:  stark, barren, beautiful, amazing...I agree with all of those except for barren. There is so much life in the Badlands. The life we, of course, are interested in seeing are the feathered kind. And we realized that you had to look and look hard to find them among the crevices, the sagebrush, the grasses, the wildflowers, often so very far away and sometimes up close.

The first bird we saw was of the familiar eastern variety: Eastern Bluebird at the eastern visitor center.

We asked at the visitor center where we could find the birds, and were directed to a side road called Conata that exited the Badlands NP, turned gravel, and bordered the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and private property surrounded by a wire fence. It was a remote and quiet place away from the more popular loop road.

This remote place did not disappoint. We saw Western Meadowlark singing on the fence.

Clay-colored Sparrows flying up from the roadside to perch on any fence or wire, the tallest things close by.

The best bird we saw was a Burrowing Owl at a prairie dog town just inside the fence of the private property. It was a bird we had hoped to find on this journey and were delighted that we did. The bird flew back and forth between burrowing mounds, catching insects. It gave us a distant but great show! 

Back on the popular loop road, we stopped at an overlook and peered down the canyon of striated mounds dotted with sage and other small plants. We were delighted to see Rock Wren.

 

We took away memories of great birds we had never seen before and a couple of familiar favorites, and a dozen or so burrs on our shoes and pant legs.

Kiowa Waterfowl Production Area, Iowa

 Crossing the prairies and cornfield of central Iowa making our way farther west to where the western birds are, we took a small detour from Route 20 to the Kiowa Waterfowl Production Area. It was 10:45 when we rolled up to this marshy wetland in between grassy farmlands.

There were not a lot of birds. We saw Wood Duck, Barn Swallow, a female Mallard, and American Goldfinch. The most exciting sight was about 80 American White Pelicans flying over heading southward.

It was great fun birding a habitat so different from the habitats back home in northern Virginia. Seeing the pelicans made our day!

Hebron, Ohio State Fish Hatchery

 Day one of our month long cross country road trip found us taking a lovely detour from I-70 to the Hebron, Ohio State Fish Hatchery. 

 We arrived mid-afternoon and the sun was bright and the air not too humid. We explored some of the trails around the ponds where the fishes are kept at different life stages. 

 Paddle wheel aerators positioned at the edges of the ponds attracted Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, and a lone Great Egret who showed us what adept fisherman he was. This seemed to be to the chagrin of two Belted Kingfishers who strafed the ponds chattering nosily. The Great Egret would not be deterred. We watched him within the span of five minuted deftly remove three small fish from the pond's edge.

 

 

Other birds we saw were two Bald Eagles lazily circling above the drained fish ponds, a noisy Kildeer in one of the drained ponds, Cedar Waxwing,  Eastern Phoebe, American Goldfich, and 40 Canada Geese including a half-dozen goslings by and in one of the full ponds. We saw quite a lot of insects and photographed a few but our identification skills are pretty much nil. Even though we don't know their names, we were happy to observe them on this beautiful day.

Birding In and Around "The Mon"

 Dan and I are enjoying a four day stay in a small well-equipped cabin in Blackwater Falls State Park near Davis WV. The weather is cooler than  normal by about ten degrees so that has meant that the mornings are in the 30's and the afternoons are in the 50's. As long as the sun is shinning it's a great time for spring birding. Depending on what elevation we have found ourselves, spring is either just beginning with leaf buds  or deeper into the season with nearly full tree canopies. 

There are several wonderful and wild places  that converge in this part of the Mountaineer State. Blackwater Falls State Park, Canaan Valley State Park, Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and Monongahela National Forest "The Mon." 

Some of these places are very wild and all have great opportunities for spring birding!

At 7;30 a.m. when the sun hit the forested tree tops on the Lindy Point Overlook Trail in Blackwater Falls State Park, we were greeting by a singing Magnolia Warbler, one of several migratory songbirds we saw on the one mile round trip trail. A Black-throated Blue Warbler drew our attention with his song.

A Red-breasted Nuthatch foraged a lichen covered tree. These birds are sometime seen in our Falls Church VA park in fall but they breed up in the mountains.

We are used to seeing the Carolina Chickadee back home, with their "chick-a dee-dee-dee" song but up in the mountains of "The Mon" we were thrilled to hear the high pitched "feeeed me" song of the Black-capped Chickadee before seeing the bird which looks nearly identical to the Carolina Chickadee. The song distinguishes the species.

The view that greeted us at trail's end was nothing short of spectacular...

 We left the trail and headed to the falls overlook, a gentle accessible trail with a wonderful view of Blackwater Falls.

 

Out of the park and on the road through the Canaan Valley, we took a walk on the Freeland Road boardwalk in the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

This .6 mile walk meanders through bog and wetland and stands of the endangered Canaan Spruce. common Yellowthroat, Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow (below, top) , and American Goldfinch (below, bottom) filled the air with music.

 On Tuesday afternoon we took a ride up to the Dolly Sods. Elevations there range from 2,500 feet to 4.700 feet. The vegetation there is bog and heath more typical to southern Canada. Before climbing the winding gravel Forest Road number 19 and 75 up to the Sods, we drove the winding hardtop Lanesville Road through what is best described in West Virginia as a "hollar". Small rolling farm fields and meadows and a rocky river describe this lovely landscape.

 

A special treat in the meadows bordered by post and wire fencing were Eastern Meadowlark and the Bobolink. Both birds are quite camera shy and kept their distance.

 

After seeing these wonderful birds, we crossed into Dolly Sods but we had a lot of gravel road to climb to get to the top.

 

The eastern border of Dolly Sods in Forest Road 75. It's quite straight as you can see.

We drove about eight miles to 3,999 feet elevation at Bear Rocks. The weather was more close to winter with north-west wind, spiting rain and even icy snow flakes!

Dan was a good sport standing near the edge of the overlook as the wind whipped around us. As you can see the trees even grow according to the wind up here. Dolly Sods Wilderness is over 17, 000 acres and used to serve as training grounds for soldiers in WW2. There are signs warning about unexploded bombs and grenades. And people hike and camp all over this place! 

Wild places are great but so is coming back down the mountain!

Warblering at Belle Isle State Park, Lancaster VA

 We arrived at Belle Isle just after sunrise on Thursday, May 6th. The air was brisk as a cold front has blown through the day before. We were hoping that migratory warblers would  be hunkering down in the park while the north breezes persisted. 

Along the track that took us through open fields, pine forests, marsh and meadow, we heard and saw quite a few warbler species. Some allowed us good views, but others remained more skulky in the dense under story and tall grasses.

A pair of Blue Grosbeak fed along the path allowing us to walk within 5 years before flying to the cover of bayberry on the edge. This is the showier male with his rusty brown female nearby.

 

We spied Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs probing the muck around the edge of the marsh. Good to see them this time of year as they will migrate to northern Canada.

 

The unmistakable rising call of the Prairie Warbler greeted us as did this small bird gleaning bits of insects from spider webs. After taking a bite, he would open his beak wide and sing.

 Belle Isle SP is in their breeding range and most likely this little fellow will take up residence there.

Along the bayberry edges of the marsh we spied at a distance another yellow-hued warbler. We soon identified the bird as a female Prothonotary Warbler. These birds are cavity nesters preferring swampy flooded areas. 

Later in another area of the park Dan saw the male of the species. This was the first time we had the fortune of seeing these bright yellow warblers at Belle Isle.

The meadow before the path ends at the Rappahanock River shore was full of birdsong from Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Indigo Bunting.

In the pines the song of the Eastern Wood-pewee drew out gaze high to see this little somewhat drab flycatcher adding it's distinctive "pee-o-wee" song to the morning chorus.

 We drove across the park to the  small forested area near the canoe and small boat landing where the squeaky wheel call of the Black and White Warbler greeted us in the shade.

Next we drove to the visitor center where construction was underway to stabilize the shoreline in an environmentally friendly manner, creating a living shoreline rather than piling large rocks creating a rip-rap border which serves no ecological purpose. The path through the meadow was closed but we enjoyed seeing the barn Swallows nest building in the eaves of the visitor center despite the artificial snakes nailed to the rafters.

The light sconces were acceptable perches under the porch roof too!

The four hours in Belle Isle SP yielded 50 different species of birds including three Bald Eagles, two adult and one juvenile soaring and swirling around each other. If you go to Belle Isle, you are pretty much guaranteed to see Bald Eagles and more!