New River Festival - Belated Post #1

Julie Zickefoose on the hunt for golden-winged warbler at Muddlety....

Geoff Heeter, on the hunt for a Cerulean warbler...

Facebook has killed my blog. It's true. I am woefully late in getting this post (the first of two about the May 2011 New River Nature and Birding Festival) done. It is so much easier to put a pithy post or two and a quick photo on Facebook then to juggle the slow-loading and cumbersome Blogger site to put together a blog post. Besides, writing a blog post is more demanding intellectually (yeah, yeah - no comments from the peanut gallery on the quality of my writing, please) than a quick sentence on FB. But the wonderful New River Festival and the gathering of those wonderful women (and new man, Doug Sanchez!) who constitute The Flock deserve some attention. This trip fed my soul. Just like it did in 2009.

New River Gorge bridge (as seen from the boat in Birding By Boat field trip)

This year I did the Birding by Butt, Birding by Boat and Muddelty field trips. My goal - a Cerulean warbler. The Cerulean has been my nemesis bird for five years. I missed seeing it in 2009 at New River when everyone was racking them up by the dozens. I deliberately chose Muddlety since that mountain is known for breeding Ceruleans and may be lost to mountain-top strip mining any day now. Muddelty, Geoff Heeter and Julie Zickefoose (I was in total birder geek-dom) did not disappoint. Upon hearing that it was my target bird, Geoff and Julie put their trained ears and amazing talents to work and soon picked up a singing Cerulean. They worked hard to get me on the bird and I had satisfyingly long looks at a single male working a treetop just off the road. Yes, I cried. Hard. Sometimes good birds can move you to tears. And my friends, Susan Kaiholz-Williams, Laura Hardy, Kathy Hutton and Doug Sanchez were there to share the moment. It could not have been more perfect. Sometimes the birding gods hand you a lifer. And sometimes, they make the moment absolutely unforgettable.

Jim McCormac pointing out birds before we board the boats.

Birding the parking lot at Burnwood after breakfast. We never lose an opportunity to look for birds - even while waiting for our bus.
Another unforgettable moment occurred while wandering the grounds of Opossum Creek Retreat after breakfast at Birding By Butt. Walking with Doug Sanchez (welcome to The Flock, Doug. You fit in perfectly!) and Susan Kaiholz-Williams, we came across a yellow lady slipper. Susan remarked that it looked like a yellow scrotum. I said it had Hasidic Jew side curls. That's all it took. We all broke into uncontrollable giggles for long, long minutes. I will never be able to look at this beautiful wildflower the same way again.
Yellow ladyslipper (aka Yellow Scrotum Hasidic Jew Flower)

Other life birds at New River included black-billed cuckoo (wonderful looks at Opossum Creek) and golden-winged warbler. Thanks to Julie Zickefoose for getting me both of these birds. Once again, New River didn't disappoint in the sheer volume of birds, the beauty of the mountains and river and the amazing company. As Jeff Gordon once said, "this place is like summer camp for birders". Yes, it is. It really is.

A New Year's Toast

stolen shamelessly, and modified slightly, from an advertisement for Grey Goose vodka (fitting for a birding blog, natch?)

To nearest
To dearest
To my crew
To the cahoots
To the ones who have been there
To the ones who will be there
To dropping everything
To saying anything
To no judgments
To no doubts
To loyalty
To trust
To favors
To lifelongs
To been too long
To nothing's changed
To everything is different
To having history
To having your back
To moving on
To never too far
To growing up
To settling down
To my second family
To friends

Happy new year to all my birding friends. You truly are my second family and are never far from my thoughts and my heart.

Cape May Autumn Migration - It's All About the People

Me and Susan at the Hawk Watch Platform at the Cape May Lighthouse.

The Flock (part of it, anyway) at the Autumn Festival. From left to right, me, Susan, Laura and Delia

The 2010 Cape May, NJ Autumn Migration Festival on my birthday weekend (October 29-31) turned out to be a magical birding experience. A lot of it had to do with the birds - the largest migration fall-out since 1999 (according to the Cape May experts) and two wonderful life birds (lesser black backed gull and cave swallow).

But mostly, the weekend was about the people - my birding peeps. Birding experts and heroes (Pete Dunne, Bill Thompson III, Louise Zemaitis, Jeff Gordon, etc), founding members of the Blogger Flock (who embraced me as one of their own at this very Festival three years ago) and newly-found bird friends and all-around wonderful people.

New friends, Gareth and Rick, at the C-View Inn, relaxing with The Flock after a hard day's birding.

Jersey-licious Laura (on the right) and saucy Susan at the C-View Inn

After arriving Thursday evening from business in Harrisburg, I hit the early morning Friday field trip at The Beanery. My first friend sighting was Jeff Gordon, newly appointed president of the American Birding Association and his lovely first lady, Liz Gordon. Then other friends arrived: Laura, Susan, Delia and Delia's partner AB.

Lots of hugs, giggles and catching up, interspersed with some birding, ensued. Throughout the next three days, we traveled Cape May marveling at the birds and enjoying each other's company.

Susan, Bill Thompson and Delia doing some bird-gazing

Top left: Jeff and Liz Gordon leading a field trip at The Beanery

Top right: Delia getting ready to enjoy whipped cream with a side of blueberry pancakes at Uncle Bill's

Bottom left: Parts of the Flock representing in Cape May (from left: Laura, Susan, Delia and me). Photo courtesy of Laura Hardy


A recent study by a psychologist at Stanford University concluded that one of the best things a man can do for his health is to be married while one of the best things a woman can do for her health is nurture relationships with other women. The myriad ways we connect with our women friends, offering unconditional support in tough times, love and laughter in good times and sometimes just an easy quiet being is undoubtably good for our souls. Being able to share our feelings in a non-threatening atmosphere boosts levels of serotonin, helping combat depression and foster well-being.

I didn't need a study to tell me that these women (and men) are good for me and my soul. But it did reinforce for me that time with my friends is the greatest gift I can give myself. Combine that with a hobby that never ceases to instill in me a sense of wonder and awe in powers greater than myself, and it was definitely a magical weekend.

photo courtesy of Laura Hardy

Counting Birds and Friends

Wakerobin trillium (photo by Tim Ryan)

New River was amazing in so many ways. First and foremost, I attended the festival for the birds. It is my goal to get to 200 life birds this year (before attending the festival, my ABA life list was 178). Living in eastern PA, I already have a lot of warblers on my list, but there were a few that were target birds for me - cerulean and chestnut-sided. I actually need to concentrate more on shore birds to get those numbers up and New River was not really the place for shore birds!

Secondly, I was attending the festival for the Flock. I met some of the Flock at the Cape May, NJ Autumn Migration Festival last year. After "lurking" on their blogs for over a year, I finally met them in person and they welcomed me with open arms. Now I am a full-fledged Flock member. But a lot of the Flock were new to me:

Jane from Wrenaissance Reflections
Mary from Mary’s View
Nina from Nature Remains
Tim from From the Faraway, Nearby
Kathie from Sycamore Canyon
Kathy from Life, Birding Photos and Everything
Kathleen from A Glorious Life
Jane from Jaylynn’s Window on Nature
Barb from My Bird Tales

Jeff from Jeff Gordon

Bill from Bill of the Birds and

Julie from Julie Zickefoose

Then there were friends that were not Flockers - Geoff Heeter, Dave Pollard, Keith Richardson, Connie Toops and my hotel next door neighbors and breakfast-at-Burnwood buddies, Dave and Kristi (thanks for pointing me in the direction of the good coffee!).

I don't know what was more exciting - the life birds or the life friends. Sharing a love of birds and nature brought us close online but being such caring and warm people made for easy laughter and true affection.

But back to the birds. I saw 12 life birds on this trip. Ten at the Festival and another two at the cabin in Renick.

Yellow-throated vireo, yello-throated warbler, Northern waterthrush, Louisiana waterthrush, black-throated green warbler, Canada warbler, bobolink, ruffed grouse and chestnut-sided warbler and Swainson's thrush were my Festival birds. American woodcock and yellow-bellied sapsucker were my Renick birds. On the Greenbriar River trail I also think I saw a Swainson's warbler and magnolia warbler, but without a positive ID, I can't count them.

My two days in Renick were restful and delightful. I love spending time with my uncle and his daughter (both from Maryland) who bought 80 acres on a mountain in WV ten years ago and built a beautiful vacation cabin. It is a misnomer to call it a simple cabin - it's a gorgeous log home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a field stone chimney with a woodburning stove, wraparound deck with a porch swing, copper trimmed kitchen and homemade quilts on the homemade wood beds. The home is decorated with animal heads, antlers and skins from my uncle's successful hunting trips (he makes his own bows and arrows!). It's not as yucky as it sounds. I have gotten 10 life birds on their property alone (including these last two) and they humor me with long walks in the rain in the Monongahela Forest and Greenbriar River trail.

Handcarved wood bed with Christy's hand-stitched quilt.

Barry and Christy on the Greenbriar River Trail.

They are interested in wildflowers and trees the way I am interested in birds. They taught me much about the flowers we saw so now I can ID some of them myself. Marsh marigold, trillium (all kinds), star chickweed, serviceberry, squirrel corn (my favorite of all the flowers we saw), may apple, hobblebush, hemlock and red spruce, swamp buttercup, dwarf bearded iris, wild geranium, golden ragwort, yellow buckeye (my favorite tree), Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose and wild ramps. As a chef, the ramps and the morels on their property were more interesting to me than the flowers.

But the birds rule all! My life list is now up to 190. Ten more to go this year.

New River Festival - Picture Sampler

Although I posted twice while at the New River Festival, I spent the better part of today going through downloaded pictures, handwritten notes, smudgy from the deluge of biblical proportions all week long, and the postings of my Blog Family. Posts about birds and friends are stewing in my mind. I want to give posts the time and effort they deserve since the Festival gave so much to me. So in the meantime, here are some pictures- just a sampling of the 200+ photos I took in West Virginia.

After the Festival, I traveled to my uncle and cousin's vacation cabin in Renick, WV to spend another 2 days doing some hardcore birding (okay, a bit of relaxing, too!). I learned a lot about trees and wildflowers while I was there, so I will post those pictures soon.

Looking in vain for the f***ing Swainson's warbler. Damn bird. Good people.

Keith Richardson, tour guide extraordinaire, imitating Lynn's look of joy as she gets another lifer.

Susan and Dick watching a millipede crawl up Keith's hand. When the rain makes looking skywards tough, birders look to the ground for insects and flowers. We are an adaptable bunch.

Two members of the Flock, Susan and Lynn, posing in front of General Lee's tree. We were laughing so hard, I never read the sign to learn the historical significance of the tree. Oh well.

Listening for the bobolinks in the meadow. Amazing field trip and one of the best experiences of the entire festival.

Susan and Chet Baker. What a bundle of warm puppeh love (I'm talking about Chet, not Susan - she's a bundle of love of a totally different kind - but they both give great hugs!).

Countdown to New River Festival

Now I'm getting nervous. New River Birding and Nature Festival is a few short days away! As Susan says, "Is anybody ready to pee their pants yet?". I have been incredibly busy with work (budget season with a cantankerous CFO) and family obligations (hosting Easter weekend for 20 people) that I didn't see New River sneaking up on me.

Suddenly I have a to-do list a mile long to get ready for my 8-hour drive and my week with the Flock in West Virginia. Get the oil in the car changed; buy bug spray and sunscreen; assemble electronics (GPS, laptop, cell phone and camera) along with all their assorted chargers; buy a West Virginia road atlas in case the GPS fails me; decide which bird books to bring; pack the Teaching Company CDs (European History and European Lives from 1715 to 1914 is my latest purchase) to make the car trip entertaining and informative (I hate long distance car travel); put bottles of water and the Freez-Pak in the freezer for the cooler in the car; buy snacks for the drive; check that the hotel has wi-fi; stock the house with frozen pizza, Gatorade and Mountain Dew for the housesitter who has a particularly monotonous diet; buy enough cat food, litter, suet and bird seed so the housesitter can take care of my animals; remember to buckle the stone chicken in the passenger seat so she can be the New River flock mascot (thanks Susan) and pray that I don't get stopped by a trooper on the way down. Explaining a cement chicken riding shotgun may be hard to do.

I have the 1/2 week package at New River, so I don't arrive until Wednesday evening and my first field trip, Birding by Butt (gotta love it!) is on Thursday morning. Then it is Cranberry Glades on Friday and High Country on Saturday. After checking out of the hotel on Sunday, I will be driving an hour or so to Renick, West Virginia, to spend two days with my uncle and cousin who built a vacation cabin there. I have done some pretty sweet birding on their property (7 life birds on my last visit), so I anticipate another two days of birding after my three days at the festival.

Mostly, I am nervous about meeting the rest of the Flock. I met Lynne, Kathi, Susan, Laura and Delia last fall in Cape May, NJ at the Autumn Migration Festival. I was a lurker on their blogs for almost two years and never had the nerve to comment or introduce myself. Now they have opened their arms and their huge, wonderful hearts to me and I feel like a freshman at a new high school, worried about fitting in. There will be other members of the Flock that I will be meeting for the first time, like Mary. Sweet, wonderful Mary who moves me to tears with her blog posts and gorgeous pictures.

So the tension builds as the trip approaches. Part of me is nervous but most of me is so damn excited I can hardly stand it! Lots to do, lots to look forward to...