Field Trips Announced for 45th Annual Spring Mt. Rogers Naturalist Rally
If you were to glance at a biodiversity hotspot map of the United States, you would see a striking pop of color stretching across the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the highest level of diversity right here in our backyard among the three highest peaks of Virginia: Mount Rogers, Whitetop Mountain, and Pine Mountain. Is it any coincidence, then, that people have been coming to this region for 45 years to take part in the Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally?
If you were to glance at a biodiversity hotspot map of the United States, you would see a striking pop of color stretching across the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the highest level of diversity right here in our backyard among the three highest peaks of Virginia: Mount Rogers, Whitetop Mountain, and Pine Mountain. Is it any coincidence, then, that people have been coming to this region for 45 years to take part in the Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally?
Since 1974, researchers, amateur naturalists, outdoor recreationists, families, and students have come together to experience the natural history of one of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth. Blue Ridge Discovery Center is honored to continue this tradition by hosting Mount Rogers Naturalist Rallies every May and August.
This May, BRDC is pairing some of our most popular field trips with a variety of new opportunities to explore, discover, and share the wonders of the Blue Ridge. There’s something for everyone. Check out the list below!
45th Annual Spring Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally
May 10-12, 2019, Konnarock, VA
Featured Speaker: Lara Call Gastinger, Botanical Artist & Illustrator
Field trip topics will include:
Appalachian Cove Forest Diversity
Astronomy
Astrophotography
Birding
Bushcraft
Drawing From Life
Edible/Medicinal Plants
Entomology
Fairwood Cultural History
Fly Casting
Fly Fishing (proper licenses required)
Fly Tying
Geology
High Elevation Plants
Hiking and Camping with Bears
Hiking to Mt. Rogers
Kids Programs
Mammals
Native American Lifeways
Natural History of Whitetop
Salamanders
Storytelling
Stream Ecology
Trail Building
Wildflowers
For full field trip descriptions and to register, visit: https://blueridgediscoverycenter.org/mrnr. This event kicks off Friday, May 10th, with a locally-sourced dinner and presentation by our featured speaker, Lara Call Gastinger. Field trip sign-ups begin at 4:00 PM on Friday. All field trips have a limited number of participants and will be first-come, first-served.
Tickets are just $10 for non-members for the weekend. As always, members and youth attend for free! (Please register online.)
See you there!
Birding Burke's Garden in Winter
Great horned owl photo by Adrianna Nelson
The cold wind brought a bite to the air while our group huddled on the porch of Mattie’s Place to plan the day of birding in Virginia’s highest valley on February 9th. Members of the group had driven as far away as Boone, NC, to have the opportunity to bird this amazing spot. The combination of open fields, large white oak trees, spring-fed streams, and high sandstone ridges attracts a wonderful assemblage of wintering birds to Burke’s Garden. Because the valley is so inviting to birds, it also attracts birders. BRDC has been leading trips to the valley over the last 8 years and this year 25 folks joined us for the trip. In addition to the usual wintering song birds, the valley usually provides opportunities for wintering waterfowl (including tundra swans) and a broad array of raptors: bald eagles, golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, American kestrels, the occasional rough-legged hawk, and the potential for several owl species.
Wilson’s snipe photo by Adrianna Nelson
After loading up in the vehicles, we took our time checking ponds and wetlands for waterfowl. Following the waterfowl search, we paused to take a closer look at two adult bald eagles perched near their nest on a large white oak in the valley. We were able to get some great views with the spotting scopes without disturbing the birds. From there we search the northwestern corner of the valley for golden eagle and other raptors. Along the way we stopped to watch a flock of mallards actively bathing in a small pond and spotted several Wilson’s snipe. These shorebirds are hard to spot while sitting still along the wetland margins that they search for food. Luckily we had some keen eyes in the group who spotted the well-camouflaged species. While walking back to the vehicles, some of the group were able to get a fleeting glimpse of a golden eagle as it soared out of sight. After returning to Mattie’s Place for bowls of homemade chicken noodle soup and sandwiches on freshly-made sourdough, we continued our search of the rest of the valley.
Eastern meadowlark photo by Adrianna Nelson
As we wound our way around the valley, we spotted many of the typical wintering birds of the area as well as several American kestrels, ravens, red-tailed hawks, Eastern meadowlarks, and we even got a wonderful view of a great-horned owl roosting in a white pine. As the daylight and our energy was waning, we found ourselves drawn back to Mattie’s Place for homemade cream-filled doughnut holes and the softest glazed doughnuts that we’d ever tasted. While climbing out of the valley in the BRDC van, we discussed various theories as to why this valley is so great for winter birding. We all decided that whatever the combination of reasons, the trip is well worth it!
Virginia Master Naturalist Course begins this week!
Love Southwest Virginia? Want to learn more about it? The Holston Rivers Chapter Virginia Master Naturalist Basic Training Course begins this Thursday. If you’re ready to connect with the natural history of our region as a Master Naturalist, check out the course details here and register today!
Love Southwest Virginia? Want to learn more about it?
The Holston Rivers Chapter Virginia Master Naturalist Basic Training Course begins this Thursday. If you’re ready to connect with the natural history of our region as a Master Naturalist, check out the course details below!
From Christi Edwards, VMN Holston Rivers Chapter:
Our Basic Training Course (classes and field trips) starts Thursday evening, Feb. 14th, at the Higher Ed Center in Abingdon and ends in May. Enrollment is required ahead of time.
The course is a great opportunity for new members to learn from regional experts about our region's natural resources, environment, and community. Whether you're a business person, teacher, parent, retired professional, college student, avid outdoorsman, or like me and didn't grow up here but love being outdoors and learning more about our region and where to go and what to do to enjoy all it has to offer . . . this is a great way to meet new people in a fun and interesting learning environment. It's an opportunity to learn about the many events around our region, new places to visit with your family, and unique and interesting ways to volunteer in and around your own community.
If you are interested in this year’s training class, or if you know someone who would enjoy it, please use these links and attachment to learn more.
Feel free to contact me (contact info below) for more info on class topics, speakers, or examples of our volunteer projects in southwest Virginia.
VMN Holston Rivers Chapter https://holstonriversmn.wordpress.com/
Virginia Master Naturalists http://www.virginiamasternaturalist.org/
Christi Edwards
Abingdon, VA
VMN Holston Rivers Chapter
The Blue Ridge: A Geological Autobiography
If the Blue Ridge could write its own long and complex history, surely it would chisel the words in stone. Fortunately, it did just that. And fortunately, we have a translator in our midst. During our January 2019 Geology Expedition, USGS Geologist Arthur Merschat unraveled the story of the geologic events that left Virginia’s oldest basement rocks exposed for us to access and admire.
If the Blue Ridge could write its own long and complex history, surely it would chisel the words in stone. Fortunately, it did just that. And fortunately, we have a translator in our midst. During our January 2019 Geology Expedition, USGS Geologist Dr. Arthur Merschat unraveled the story of the geologic events that left Virginia’s oldest basement rocks exposed for us to access and admire.
The Blue Ridge Mountains as we see them today are a result of several major geologic events. Initially, tectonic plates drifting together over time caused continental collisions during the Grenville orogeny and produced the supercontinent Rodinia around 1 billion years ago. Around 750 million years ago, Rodinia began to break up and caused a series of lava flows and volcanic eruptions. The final breakup resulted in the pulling apart of the continent and the formation of oceans, and for a time, Virginia existed as a tropical marine environment located south of the equator. Evidence of this can be seen in the fluvial to marine sedimentary rocks of the Chilhowie Group along Whitetop Rd. However, during the Alleghenian orogeny 300 million years ago, Africa collided with us to form the supercontinent Pangea. This event thrust billion-year-old basement rocks and 750 million-year-old volcanic rocks of Mount Rogers above the layered rocks of the Valley & Ridge. It is these ancient, metamorphosed rocks that we encountered on our trip.
Matrix-supported diamictite with hammer for scale.
The trip began with a visit to a road cut of 750 Ma diamictite (pictured) within the Konnarock Formation. This sedimentary rock consists of clasts (pieces of rock or minerals that range from pebbles to cobbles and boulders) supported by a matrix of sand and clay and tells us that this area was once a glacial environment.
Our next stop within the Konnarock Formation provided an opportunity to spot dropstones. During glacial melt, granite stones that had been carried in the ice dropped into the soft sediment (rhythmite and laminite) of the lake beds.
Next, we ventured north on Whitetop Rd. to view elements of the Unicoi Formation within the Chilhowie Group, where a 540 Ma basalt flow is easily visible within a road cut on Iron Mountain. From north to south it is possible to see the basalt flow with conglomerate, arkose, and shale below, and quartzite above. During metamorphism, vesicles - former gas bubbles within the volcanic rock (basalt) - were filled with other minerals such as potassium feldspar and calcite. These filled vesicles are referred to as amygdules (pictured).
In this chunk of basalt with potassium feldspar amgydules, Dr. Arthur Merschat tests for calcite using hydrochloric acid.
Black slate in the Hampton Formation.
Our next stop was the Hampton Formation at Skulls Gap on Whitetop Rd. Here, an underwater landslide occurred while the black shale (formed in an anoxic environment) and sandstones were deposited, which were later metamorphosed into slate and quartzite (pictured).
Heading across Whitetop Mountain and along the Stone Mountain Fault, several stops allowed us to view rocks within the Mount Rogers volcanic center, including flow-banded lava, arkose, and volcanic breccia, as well as greenstone featuring phenocrysts of plagioclase (large, conspicuous crystals of plagioclase feldspar), and more amygdules, this time filled by epidote and quartz. Next, we encountered the Buzzard Rock member, the lowest and oldest rhyolite in the Mount Rogers volcanic center at over 755 million years old.
Geologist Dr. Arthur Merschat describes the greenstone at Elk Garden.
Phenocrysts of plagioclase embedded in greenstone.
Potassium feldspar and plagioclase phenocrysts in the Buzzard Rock rhyolite.
Once we crossed over the Catface Fault into the Pond Mountain volcanic center, we encountered mylonite, a fine-grained fault rock containing muscovite which had been lineated due to shearing and flattening.
Mylonite with lineated muscovite along the Catface Fault.
Farther up the road, we glimpsed a peek at the 1.1 billion-year-old basement rocks within the Stone Mountain thrust sheet. These coarse, whitish-gray and pink granite rocks contain minerals that were crystalized deep in the earth’s crust before the formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Our final stop at a road cut afforded us a wide view of the large clasts of rhyolite, granite, and arkose that comprise this boulder conglomerate. Beautiful!
Participants admiring a road cut of boulder conglomerate.
The Geology Expedition was a full-day adventure of traveling through and unraveling millions of years of the Blue Ridge’s history. And although we only encountered a fraction of what there is to see, we ultimately acquired a deeper understanding of the geologic events that created this montane region*, the very foundation of our Center.
*If you are interested in learning more about the natural history of this unique region, join us for the Spring Mt. Rogers Naturalist Rally May 10-12, 2019.
Members FREE, Non-members $10
Trip Photo Gallery
Partnering for Natural Plant Communities
We are excited to be collaborating with Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ (DGIF) Habitat Partners© Program to develop natural plant communities on our property at the Center. Through this partnership we will not only be laying the groundwork for Blue Ridge Discovery Center’s interpretative landscape, but also expanding the capacity in southwest Virginia to propagate local genotypes of native plants species for restoration and habitat projects.
To effectively propagate the plants, we are partnering with Wood Thrush Natives near Floyd, Virginia. The expertise of Wood Thrush Natives, a native plant nursery which specializes in propagation of local plants, will be critical for our goals to be met quickly. This collaborative project will enable BRDC to have plants available for developing natural plant communities at the Center and for use in our restoration and community habitat projects.
Beyond the restoration aspect, our Center landscaping and future projects will be great opportunities for regional educational programs about the value and importance of native plants for wildlife diversity. With BRDC programming and the vision of the Center’s future, interpretive and Watchable Wildlife opportunities will be readily available to the public. With a mission to inspire curiosity, discovery, and stewardship through the wonders of the Blue Ridge, BRDC is ideally suited to provide native botanical education through the development of interpretive plant communities on the property. With these partnerships, BRDC, DGIF and Wood Thrush Nursery will be able to increase public education on the importance of native plants for wildlife and habitat conservation while promoting restoration of natural plant communities.
New River Expedition 2018!
Being in the thick of winter we thought it might be a good time to compile the footage from our New River Expedition last summer, when the days were hot, long, and filled with all sorts of fun!
Being in the thick of winter we thought it might be a good time to compile the footage from our New River Expedition last summer, when the days were hot, long, and filled with all sorts of fun! Going through video clips from summer camps always cracks me up. You never fully hear all of the conversations taking place in the field but the microphone captures all, so I had to put some captions in here just for clarification! As much as our camps are about exploration and experiential learning, the greatest thing about camp is ALWAYS the personalities of the kids. It never fails that we have one or two comedians on the trip to keep us highly entertained! (wait till you hear the Russian/Trump impersonation on the Fly Fishing Camp)
The New River Expedition is one of those adventures that will stick with you for a lifetime, embedded in your identity. With all the gear packed into canoes and kayaks, we start down the river on a 4day/3night trip, pitching camp in three different locations. Along the way we snorkel, fly fish, go on an owl prowl, portage a dam, look at birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and aquatic insects, we talk about geology and riparian ecology, and we do LOTS of swimming. We keep them well fed with snacks and camp meals to fuel their 72 hour adventure. In the end, when we arrive at the boat ramp, we are all cooked! No doubt these kids crash into sleep in the backseat of their parent’s cars, and maybe hit up Arby’s right away, hehehe, but I imagine that their reflection on the trip begins immediately as they recite stories to family. I also imagine that, like us, they are dreaming of their adventure during the cold winter days of January!
Looking forward to 2019!
Experience 2019 with Blue Ridge Discovery Center
In the quiet of the winter woods you may see a blanket of fallen leaves or a dusting of snow and think of the life resting beneath it, awaiting the rains and warmer temperatures of spring before emerging to bloom or forage. But not all life is waiting out the winter.
In the quiet of the winter woods you may see a blanket of fallen leaves or a dusting of snow and think of the life resting beneath it, awaiting the rains and warmer temperatures of spring before emerging to bloom or forage. But not all life is waiting out the winter.
Much like the northern flicker (pictured), Blue Ridge Discovery Center is quite active year-round in this region. We have a full calendar of events planned throughout 2019, and we invite you to join us!
We will begin with a geologist-led Geology Expedition this Saturday, January 26th, to learn about the geology of the highlands area.
In February we’ll head to Burke’s Garden for a birding trip, where we have the potential to see over 50 species of birds, including two rare wintering birds from the far north: the golden eagle and rough-legged hawk.
In March we will be hosting a Native Plant Landscaping and Non-native Plant Abatement Workshop at the Center. Join us to discuss native plant gardening, non-native plant identification, and appropriate abatement strategies for a variety of species.
April showers bring . . . wildflowers! Details coming soon for a Wildflower Walk on Buffalo Mountain on Sunday, April 28th.
And what would May be without the Spring Mt. Rogers Naturalist Rally? This is the spring version of our biggest annual, signature event and is an opportunity for naturalists of all ages and experience levels to access all that the Blue Ridge Mountains have to offer with the help of expert guides in a variety of subject areas.
June through August will be filled with non-stop action as we host a line-up of overnight and day camps throughout the region for youth aged 6-15.
August 16-18 will be the weekend of our Summer Mt. Rogers Naturalist Rally, with registration opening after the conclusion of the Spring MRNR. We will also be hosting a Nighthawk Watch in August to witness the migration of these nocturnal birds.
Likewise, September offers an opportunity to witness migrating raptors during the Hawk Watch.
Interested in photography? Join us in October for a Fall Photography Workshop while capturing all the natural beauty October has to offer.
In November we will take advantage of longer nights with an Astronomy event where you will have the opportunity to view and potentially photograph the night sky.
Rounding out the year, we will participate in the annual Christmas Bird Count as well as host our 2nd annual Nature’s Little Elf Workshop.
We hope to see you at many of our events! And if there is an event or experience you would like to see us host, please let us know by emailing outreach@blueridgediscoverycenter.org. Remember, all BRDC Community Events are FREE to members!