But, did you see birds?

Right about now, I can hear my birding friends saying, "Enough, already, with the tram ride and the boat ride and even the river. Didn't you take any bird photos while you were in the New River Gorge area?"

Here you are - the best of my bird pictures from last week:
Don't laugh and say, "It's just a robin." Good birders look at all the birds, even the common backyard ones. Nascent photographers like me appreciate robins because they are big enough, close enough, and patient enough to allow one to fiddle with the camera settings. This is my first bird portrait after attending Wil's 2 hour photography class, in Manual mode. Imagine what I could accomplish if I took one of his weekend workshops!

Studies in black, white, and shades of gray:

Carolina Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

You all know whose hand this is.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

For my friend Lynne of Hasty Brook:

Turkey Vulture

an elusive singer, hiding in the bushes at Meadows House

Carolina Wren

How to photograph a flitty little bird:

Focus on the lichen-covered nest and wait.Set your camera on "continuous" mode and keep shooting.

Sooner or later, you get lucky.Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

At a bird banding, don't blink

or you'll miss the moment of release.

Good-bye to spring birding in the New River valley.

See you next year!

I'm already making plans for New River, 2011. Dates are May 2-7. Will you Flock with us?

Birding by Butt, 2010

Wednesday was the "Birding by Butt" day at Opossum Creek for the Elderhostel gang. (I will never get used to "Exploritas," a really stupid name change for this long-standing program, with a tradition that you are never too old to learn something new.) The schedule is pretty much the same as it is for the participants of the New River Birding and Nature Festival - breakfast and lunch by Wendy of Cathedral Cafe, casual bird and nature walks with Jim McCormac, and bird banding with Bill Hilton, Jr.

Because the early morning temperatures hovered around freezing, Bill didn't open his mist nets, but instead set feeder traps to catch some birds for his demo. He checked them before calling us out to see him work; any female bird with a brood patch was released immediately, so she could get back to her job of incubating or brooding her young.

The first bird Bill had was this chickadee, a Carolina, not a Black-capped, in case you weren't sure.After working through the ID and demonstrating the technique of bird banding, our little guy was ready to go.
The next bird was a White-breasted Nuthatch. We knew he was a male because of his dark black cap (the female's is lighter in color), and also because Bill had already told us he let the females go.
Bill turned him over to show us the rusty-brown undertail coverts. Why a bird who spends his life with his belly plastered up against a tree would have color markings where no one (presumably) would ever see them is one of the many mysteries of birds.
But, this guy had another surprise up his sleeve, so to speak. When Bill began examining him closely, he found the bird was already banded. I have been to a number of bird banding events, and I had not witnessed a recapture until now.

This is what banders live for - a chance to catch a banded bird and track his band number, to find out who banded the bird and when and where. It tells us a lot about bird migration, life span, and so on.

If you have attended one of Bill's banding demos, you may have noticed the anomaly in the picture below. The bird is banded on his right leg, and Bill always bands males on the left. Why? "Because females are always right," of course! Not all banders follow this protocol, giving us our first clue that this was not a bird Bill had banded.
In searching his Opossum Creek records, Bill learned that he had held this bird before, at the New River Festival in 2008. At that time, he discovered and reported the band and received this certificate, telling him that this bird was originally banded in 2005, right on Opossum Creek property, by the guy who used to give the demos for the festival.
This makes three times the bird was been caught and handled, in 2005, 2008, and 2010. Given that he was an adult bird in 2005, at least one year old, we know that he was hatched in 2004 (or earlier), is at least 6 years old, and lives at Opossum Creek. I think that's pretty neat! It also shows that the "stress" of being caught and handled must not have bothered him too much, or that he is a pretty forgiving character, since he keeps coming back for more.

Despite the cold, we were there for the birds, so off we went to find them. A pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were working on their nest, as they do every year. I wonder if Geoff pays them to build where we can watch.
Scott Shalaway and fellow birders watching the gnatcatchers.
It may not look like Jim is birding, but his bat-like ears are at work, picking out bird song.

We did get a few birds on our morning walks, including Northern Parula (too high in the tree tops for a photo) and Ovenbird (too skulky for pics,) so I settled for plant photographs.

Blue violets. If you want a specific ID, see Jim's informative and educational post on identifying violets. If I had to guess, I'd say Common Blue Violet, but don't quote me.

Fern fiddle heads.

And this gorgeous wild orchid, Showy Orchis, Galearis spectabilis, growing in the ditch on the side of the gravel road, very nearly overlooked.

The only trouble with my morning at Opossum Creek Resort was that it had to come to an end.

River front property

Back on the New River, riding a jet boat and NOT seeing any birds, I found myself photographing some fishing shacks, nestled comfortably between the railroad tracks and the river.

Privacy is guaranteed - no roads to attract annoying door-to-door salesmen or people passing out religious tracts. Since there is no electricity or running water, you won't be distracted by all the comforts of home. Nothing to do but fish and watch the river roll on by. (And, probably, drink a lot of beer.)

Can I interest you in one of these?How about a fixer-upper, a handyman's special? No extra charge for the rock crushing the front porch or the weeds growing on top of the caved-up roof.

I thought that's what you would say.

From mountain top to river valley

Off the back patio, behind the lodge at Hawks Nest State Park, is a terrific view of the New River valley. The average guest might be content to stand and stare. The courageous take a tram ride to the bottom.

Here's one of the little four passenger tram cars.

[click to enlarge]

Please note the lack of handles on the door. The operator pulls back on the latch, then inserts a large allen wrench into the hole where a handle once resided in order to let passengers on and off. Not an auspice beginning.

Our park ranger assured us, "If it were dangerous, they'd make you sign a waiver."Oh, that is reassuring to someone with a fear of heights!

And here are the two sides of the station, where one boards a tram car and begins the descent.

"Mama!"

Safely at the bottom, here's the lower level station.

and the huge gears that run the operation.

At the dock, we are met by Cap'n Ricky and his jet boat, which has two speeds - "idle" and "go very fast!"
Not the best day for a boat ride, the weather was cool and gray and cloudy, but we made the best of it. First a quick run downstream, to the dam, where I added Great Blue Heron and Wood Duck to my trip list.

Then, back up river, first running parallel with the railroad track, and the ubiquitous Paulownia ("Princess trees"), an accidental import from China, if you believe the tales,

then under the train bridge, complete with coal train!

This is my "Rainman" shot.

Our destination? A view of the famous New River Gorge bridge, from underneath.

We had to negotiate a few rapids, but no one fell out. Cap'n Ricky takes every precaution, since he "can't swim a lick nor a stroke." Reassuring to have a boat captain who says, "If you hear me scream and see me jump out, grab a life preserver and follow me." He insists he has never had an accident, "because I've seen the paperwork involved." The only birds I saw on this end of the river were two Spotted Sandpipers.

Maybe that was because this is the captain's idea of a leisurely boat ride:
Next post: River front property - can I interest you in a holiday home?