For four days each February, birdwatchers of every skill level can participate in a global event for the love and wellbeing of birds.
Join us October 14th through November 18th (one day per week) for Session II
With all of the wonderful apps available, it is still a good idea to have a shelf of guides to call on. We love paging through them while planning our next exploration, exploring their beautiful illustrations, and carrying our favorites with us for quick reference.
BRDC recently hosted a Primitive Technology course as part of Galax Middle School Enrichment Week. The students were engaged with a variety of hands-on activities that connected them to skills used by early American Indians and materials found in their backyards.
"Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs."
On a windy Friday evening, BRDC volunteers gathered to celebrate a successful year of programs and events. Lukas Burgher, Aaron Floyd and Rick Taylor spit roasted 2 young hogs for the group to enjoy.
Aaron thanked everyone for a great year of service toward BRDC's mission to inspire creativity, discovery, and critical thinking focused on the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2016, our Volunteers contributed to 6,000 hours of kids being engaged in natural science valued at over $30,000 dollars. He also emphasized the important role that volunteers play in BRDC's growth. Several volunteers shared stories about their experiences working with kids over the year and Lisa Benish mentioned all of the many upcoming opportunities for volunteers to participate.
We are leaving shortly for our winter home in SW FL and are reluctantly saying goodbye to our beloved Blue Ridge mountain wildlife farm. As you can see from a photo of the house and immediate surroundings (we own 107 acres) taken on Oct. 3, the prevailing colors are tending towards brownish grasses and sedges, yellow goldenrods, and white and purplish asters. There are many signs of the approaching frosty weather.
On Saturday, September 24th, an enthusiastic group of Galax Middle School students visited Bill and Margaret Dunson’s Baywood farm just a few miles west of Galax. The Dunsons bought this farm with the intention of converting it from agricultural use to a wildlife resource, with improving bird habitat as the guiding principle. They have returned fields to a more natural sequence of seasonal grasses and wildflowers with an emphasis on native plants. A series of small ponds dot the landscape, some with fish and some without, to demonstrate the impact fish have on various aquatic insects and to illustrate the contrasts.
Our weather is showing some cool night time temperatures, but frost is still 2-3 weeks away and there is lots of insect activity and still some late bird migration underway. Fall fruits are much in evidence, offering immediate snacks and some long term food supply. One of my favorites is the blue fruit of arrow wood viburnum. They are small enough for many species to eat and we have so many plants that they last into the fall. In contract, the winterberry hollies in our marshes are very bright red and seem to be a fruit that is not eaten so early as the viburnums. Isn't it interesting that such different colors are both so attractive to birds?
On September 23, thirty seventh graders from Grayson County Public Schools attended the Mahogany Rock Hawk Watch to experience the niche dedication of Hawk Counters and the mass migration of Broad-winged Hawks. Jim Keighton from the Blue Ridge Birders has been recording the migration of birds of prey for nearly twenty years! Each fall Jim sets up his swivel chair and interpretive displays along the parkway and begins scanning the sky. Not only does he diligently track the migration but he also takes the time to educate the passerby about the migration occurring overhead.
Aiming for peak broad-winged hawk migration, the explorers club hit the road to visit Grandfather Mountain Hawk Watch. We arrived not a minute too early! As we were setting up shop on Linville Peak (across the swinging bridge), kettles began to form to the southeast. It was if the hawks were appearing out of thin air, rising from the forest canopy below. We had incredible views looking nearly directly down on the birds. They were taking advantage of the thermals forming on the southeast facing slope of the mountain and soaring right in front of us. They circled up and up in kettles of thirty or more birds until they reached cruising altitude and one by one they would peel off continue their journey south toward Central and South America.
Imagine yourself arriving at this site after a 12 hour wagon ride in the late 1700's...site of an iron furnace and forge where early pioneer tools, as well as pots and pans were cast. Later, electric power for the town of Independence was generated until 1935.
The Blue Ridge Explorers Club visited the falls and discovered stoneflies and caddisflies under rocks in the creek, rock overhangs, coneflower, wingstem, an unknown species of lizard, and Cedar Waxwings swooping down to catch insects at the top of the falls.
On a recent bike ride along the New River Trail in VA I was more or less in auto-pilot and was paying less attention to my surroundings than I should have. My biking companion Mason suddenly shouted that he had run over a copperhead! I was shocked that I had been so careless to have not noticed the rare snake and also doubted that it was really a copperhead.
Late summer is a time in our area of southwest Virginia for flowering of natives such as goldenrod, ironweed, impatiens, virgins bower, wing stem, green headed cone flower, great lobelia, thistles and others. Many of these flowers are an important nectar source for the beautiful butterflies we enjoy in our fields. Just as different flowers bloom during different months, different kinds of butterflies also emerge in seasonal patterns.
"One night, poet and environmental writer John Lane tuned in to a sound from behind his house that he had never heard before: the nearby eerie and captivating howls of coyotes. Since this was Spartanburg, South Carolina, and not Missoula, Montana, Lane set out to discover all he could about his new and unexpected neighbors."
We are pleased to announce our partnership with Grayson County Public Schools to connect local youth to the Blue Ridge through hands-on programs with students, providing grade specific SOL’s and STEM learning concepts. The $10,000 award from Grayson County Schools for the 2016-17 school year, supported by matching funds and volunteer support from BRDC, will reach students across the school system and enrich the public school experience through hands-on and interest-driven activities.
