A beautiful day at Hungry Mother State Park Birding Adventure Weekend!
BRDC set up shop at Hungry Mother State Park this past weekend where we shared our traveling booth of wonders with visitors. Area youth dissected owl pellets and studied raptor wings, skulls and talons. While tending our booth we got to scope birds on the lake including, pied-billed grebe, red-breasted mergansers and eastern kingbirds.
Bio Survey, Matthew's State Forest, March 30th, 2015
At long last, the Southwest Virginia Home Educators returned for another fun-filled day of exploration and discovery at the Matthews State Forest. Twelve children of a wide age range and four moms joined Evan Worrell and me (Scott Jackson-Ricketts), BRDC guides, for a five hour plot investigation. We dedicated the morning to bird identification realizing quite a data set once the sun came out.
Early Spring Migrants: Birds: Red-winged blackbird
Avian spring migrants come in two categories: Northbound birds and elevation transients or lateral migrators. The second group mostly consists of our high elevation breeders, such as dark-eyed juncos, that drop off the mountain tops for a few winter months in search of easier food, water and in some cases, shelter. Most of us, however, think of the distance travelers, when we talk about spring migration.
RAPTORS OF HARVEY'S KNOB HAWK WATCH
This project is a partnership with the Community School of Roanoke and Harvey's Knob Hawk Watch. 5th, 6th and 7th graders of the Community School in Roanoke, VA diligently observed and illustrated the raptors at Harvey's Knob Hawk Watch.
BRDC's Blue Ridge Expeditions Launches its First Foray
Blue Ridge Discovery Center is proud to welcome Roald Kirby to our team of naturalist explorers and guides. As program director of our new Blue Ridge Expeditions, Roald brings years of outdoor experience and love of our Blue Ridge to the public through a series of walks, guided hikes and nature lore.
Joy Ranch field trip
Today, BRDC brought six young people, one mom and one staff member to the Music Center, and/or Fisher's Peak along the Blue Ridge Parkway for a walk in the park. Through our Avian Adventures Program we aimed to hear and find birds, who are winding down their typical territorial and breeding behavior, yet we managed to find indigo buntings, red-eyed vireo, field sparrows, a broad winged hawk and hooded warbler.
Birding at Grayson Highlands State Park
Birding with campers at Grayson Highlands State Park 6/29/13 Julie Slater, intern at GHSP, and Blue Ridge Discovery Center have joined forces for a series of on-site programs this summer and fall. (See previous blogs regarding the currency of this association through BRDC’s Fish Bugs program.) Our choice of study for this program was Sullivan Swamp (defined as an Appalachian shrub bog), with a strong focus on birds.
Birding at Joy Ranch
We began by listening and watching birds close to the chapel where we gave our orientation. Then, some of those who knew the campus, took us to a barn swallow nest.
Camp Dickenson
Through Eric Harrold's tireless outreach, BRDC is now engaged with the Methodist Camp Dickenson here in Grayson County with a series of summer programs focused on birds and ecology. Avian Adventures made its first foray last Thursday, June 13th, and along with guide Scott Jackson-Ricketts, Eric led a group of 13 kids for a walk around the riverside property.