Friends, you have only two days left to register for the New River Birding & Nature Festival! I’ve given presentations and helped guide birding trips at the festival for the last three years, and I will be there again this year (although only for a day or two — someday, when I’m not pregnant or nursing, I hope to spend the entire week!)
The festival is held in the beautiful New River Gorge area of southern West Virginia, in the heart of the cerulean warbler’s breeding range. This year I’m helping guide a trip to Cotton Hill, which is THE place to see ceruleans–in fact, it’s one of the most cerulean-dense places that I’ve birded. On previous trips to Cotton Hill we saw ceruleans copulating (yes, making love), had great looks at female ceruleans, and of course observed males singing their buzzy songs from the ends of oak branches. It’s a great place to practice finding ceruleans. Of course, we see other birds on this trip, too, including blue-winged warblers, rose-breasted grosbeak, yellow-throated vireos, lots of American redstarts, worm-eating warblers, ovenbirds, etc. etc. We may even get a turkey vulture or two floating overhead (my favorite bird, of course, along with ceruleans).
Now that I’ve sold you on Cotton Hill, I must tell you that this year’s Tuesday trip (the one I’ll be on) is full. But the trip goes out again on Friday, and there may still be space on that one. You can see ceruleans on other trips at the New River Birding & Nature Festival, too — especially trips to Sugar Creek, where you also may get to see a Swainson’s warbler. Actually, you can get ceruleans and Swainson’s on several trips — check here for detailed trip descriptions.
The guides at this festival are great, too, and I feel honored to be among them. Well, honored, but I also feel inferior! These guides really know their stuff — I can talk about ceruleans all day, but when it comes to small brown birds or wildflowers or butterflies…well, let’s just say I defer to the experts.
Even if you don’t make it out to the festival this year, think about it for the future. You will have a great time!
(Note: The cerulean pic with this posting was taken by my friend Mike Brown in Kentucky — I hope to get him out to the NRBNF one day!)
