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Honeymoon, and then some...



Hi C-birders!

Okay, I promise, this is my last post for the day...

Anyway, Airlie and I had a great honeymoon. And even though I didn't 
receive Jack Peachey's advice until I got back

On Sun, 14 Oct 2001, Jack Peachey wrote:
>  
> I can't resist reply to the listserve to Josh's comments.  I wish you best 
> wishes Josh, but really you should be keeping your eye on the sparrow,
> which in this case is your new bride.  Forget about the birds!

I did, indeed, pay much more attention to Airlie than the birds.

However, I have to plug the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed. River's 
Edge, near Floyd, VA. The proprietor is a Quaker lady named Lee, a 
wonderful cook. She makes several field guides (Peterson and Audubon 
rather than Sibley or Kaufman) available to the guests, and even a pair 
of compact binoculars; we enjoyed our stay so much that we donated a copy 
of "Birds of the Blue Ridge Mountains" to her library. B&B guests also 
get to use her canoe; she drops you off upstream and lets you wander back 
down to the B&B, which took us 3 liesurely hours. The place is on the 
shore of a large tributary of the New River.

We saw our only rain of the four days while driving out there Sunday 
night. I awoke the next morning to a Brown Creeper outside our room's 
window, which overlooked the river. We discovered that Airlie had 
forgotten her asthma medicine, which bought me some birding time while 
she called around looking for more. There appeared to be a hawk movement 
going on, as I saw one Black and two Turkey Vultures and a Sharp-shinned 
Hawk all rising overhead in a short span of time. A White-throated 
Sparrow sang from up the hill, and a warbler (probably Yellow-rumped) 
chipped, while a bunch of Song Sparrows lurked on the riverbank.

Since we had to drive into town for her medicine, we also stopped at the 
local birder-centric store. Bought a copy of the ABA's Birder's Guide to 
Virginia, which I have to say was not as good as the Florida, Texas, 
Massachusetts, or Southern Arizona volumes; very stripped down of detail. 
We tried to use it to navigate around the Mountain Lake area, and got 
rather lost. We did see a Ruffed Grouse while wandering the endless 
gravel roads, as well as a couple of Common Ravens, and heard some 
White-breasted Nuthatches; not much else. Found some nice gentians 
blooming by the roadside, and a salamander or three.

We also bought a new pair of binoculars at the birding store, Airlie's 
wedding present to me! I would have bought one for her too, but the store 
only had one pair we both liked. They're Kahles 8x32. I'd never heard of 
them before, anyone else know the brand? The storekeeper said it was a 
sister company of Swarovski, which until recently made rifle scopes. 
They're certainly good binocs, especially the close focus; I can focus on 
my socks now!

The next day, we used the canoe and drifted down the river, stopping for 
a picnic on a sand bar. During our picnic, a cold front blew through, 
dropping temperatures and pushing lots of vultures of both types. I also 
spotted an American Kestrel passing over. All but two of the ducks on the 
river were Mallards; the two exceptions were, of course, Woodies. A huge 
"murder" of American Crows, at least 40 birds, was mobbing some unseen 
threat; I heard at least one raven in the crowd.

I woke up at some point that night and heard a Great Horned Owl hooting.

Our last day there we headed up to the BRP, stopping for lunch en route 
at the amazing Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd. Airlie got intensely sleepy 
after lunch, as usual, so I hawkwatched from Rocky Knob while she napped. 
Saw mostly more vultures of both types, but also one Sharpie, one 
Red-tail, and two cold-defying Monarch Butterflies. The Red appeared to 
be a local boy hunting rather than a migrant, and was being harassed by a 
silent corvid almost as large as itself; anther Raven maybe? Then we took 
a hike around Smart View, which was beautiful but not terribly birdy.

Thursday we checked out and headed down the BRP to a craft fair in 
Asheville that Airlie couldn't bear to miss (I had to beg out of TAing a 
lab that afternoon so she could go). At one point north of Boone, a huge 
bird exploded off a hillside, nearly collided with the windshield of the 
car in front of us, and awkwardly flapped off into the woods: Wild 
Turkey! Later, we stopped at Linville Gorge for a bathroom break. 
Surprisingly, a vireo was singing from the trees over the parking lot! 
Sounded like a Red-eyed, even more surprising; would have expected 
Blue-headed at this time of year. Also heard Red-breasted Nuthatch and 
Ruby- and Golden-crowned Kinglets in a chickadee flock by the creek.

That was the end of the honeymoon, but not the fun or the birding. On 
Saturday the class I TA had a field trip to Merchant's Millpond SP. The 
water there was very low, making canoeing difficult, but attracting a 
Great Egret. Two Pileated Woodpeckers flew over the nature trail. We also 
saw a Wild Turkey running along the roadside on our way out there. Not 
many other birds of note, but had great looks and hopefully photos of a 
Cottonmouth. Several Red-backed Salamanders and lots of Beech Drops 
around the camping area. There was also this strange stuff forming 
underwater balls around a few submerged sticks: gelatinous surface, but 
hard underneath, and a wierd repetitive starry pattern on it. In salt 
water, I would have called it a sea squirt/tunicate. Anyone know what 
this stuff was?

Then on Sunday, Duke professor Paul Manos led a walk focusing on Oak and 
other trees for the Duke Natural History Society. Had nine oak species, 
and Norm Budnitz spotted a Black-throated Green Warbler at Occoneechee 
Mountain. A Belted Kingfisher was on the pond there. The Blackwood 
Division of Duke Forest had few birds then, but was a gorgeous mature 
upland deciduous forest; I'd really like to see it next spring...

Good birding!

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/