Avian Adventures, Blue Ridge Birders, Community Programs, Event, SWVA
Annabelle Muriano
Help Scientists by Collecting Data with the ...

For four days each February, birdwatchers of every skill level can participate in a global event for the love and wellbeing of birds.

Help Scientists by Collecting Data with the Great Backyard Bird Count
School Programs
Lisa Benish
Science In Nature Program: Session II

Join us October 14th through November 18th (one day per week) for Session II

Science In Nature Program: Session II
Naturalist Gift Guide
BRDC, Admin
A Naturalist's Book List

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.

A Naturalist's Book List
Galax Enrichment Program
BRDC, Admin
Galax Enrichment Week - Primitive Technology

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.

Galax Enrichment Week - Primitive Technology
Book Club
Anonymous
(July 2014) 4. The Sixth Extinction: An ...

"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."

(July 2014) 4. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Elizabeth Kolbert

"iceberg"

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Icebergs in Virginia's Blue Ridge?

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Here's a glimpse of what is probably a very uncommon wintertime event in Virginia. Story and photographs from the New River Highlands of SW Virginia:


"We have been watching the ice form for several weeks since the record breaking cold snap... 5 straight days below 20 and then 12'' of very wet snow (in which the moisture ratio equivalent makes it more like 20''). The ice was so thick that A and E walked across with the New River raging under them...

A few days later we had heavy rains and it appears that the water washed over the ice to form layers of clear and blue slabs of ice, some 10' thick. As the run off swelled the river, this powerful force lifted the ice and deposited it on the banks, stripping the bark off all the trees along the river. Heavy equipment was brought in to remove the ice from the road at the Round House [an historic structure adjacent to the river]." "...the old timers say they have never seen this before. "
-Mike Floyd

Location: Along the New River in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. Photos by Jane and Mike Floyd:




I consider these images to be vessels for time-travel!... a brief glimpse into the distant past, to a time closer to the last ice age, when the New River must have been churning with chunks of ice all through the winter up there in the Blue Ridge. And if you would like to stretch the imagination a bit further, try and imagine Taiga forests (fir, spruce, and birch dominated) covering the landscape behind the ice blocks, and a Tundra-capped Mount Rogers area in the distance...with herds of elk and bison roaming open areas, and gray wolf and cougar lurking in the shadows. - devin floyd




More images of the ice phenomenon, taken along a tributary of the New River:
http://henryreed.com/ice/