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Birder Buzz
“You did it again. Thank you, thank
you, thank you! We had the best time. I know how much work it takes behind the
scenes to put something like this together. Everyone was great – from the guides
to the locals. Can’t wait for next year!”
Teri Shiels
– Michigan
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Registration Instructions |
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Choose a Trip and lodging package from the left column. You can select a full or half week package with or without lodging. You can also select a field trip by individual days with no lodging.
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Birding Festival Itinerary |
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The weeklong itinerary includes the following trips: Birding
by Butt, Cranberry Glades Wilderness, Sugar Creek/Gauley River National
Recreation Area, Muddlety Strips, and High Country – with a choice of
Swainson’s Warbler, Birding by Boat, or New River Circuit.
The Sunday through Wednesday itinerary is: Birding by Butt,
High Country Trip, and Sugar Creek/Gauley River National Recreation Area.
Wednesday through Saturday itinerary is: Birding by Butt,
Muddlety Strips, and Cranberry Glades.
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Birding Festival Trip Options and Prices |
Before you register for your birding festival trip here is a list of trip options and prices:
Weeklong Birding Festival with deluxe lodging includes: a deluxe lodging option,
three meals a day, daily field trips and evening presentations.
Single Occupancy - $1,299
Double Occupancy - $1,499
Weeklong Birding Festival with standard lodging includes: lodging, three
meals a day, daily field trips and evening presentations.
Single Occupancy - $1,099
Double Occupancy - $1,299
Weeklong Birding Festival with no lodging: includes three meals a day and
daily field trips.
Single Occupancy - $599
Double Occupancy - $999
Half week festival Sunday through Wednesday with deluxe lodging includes: a
deluxe lodging option Sunday through Wednesday, three meals a day, daily field
trips and evening presentations.
Single Occupancy - $799
Double Occupancy - $999
Half week festival Sunday through Wednesday with standard lodging includes:
lodging Sunday through Wednesday, three meals a day, daily field trips, and
evening presentations.
Single Occupancy - $599
Double Occupancy - $799
Half week festival Wednesday through Saturday with deluxe lodging includes: a
deluxe lodging option Wednesday through Saturday, three meals a day, daily
field trips, and evening presentations.
Single Occupancy - $859
Double Occupancy - $1059
Half week festival Wednesday through Saturday with standard lodging includes:
lodging, Wednesday through Saturday, three meals a day, daily field trips, and
evening presentations.
Single Occupancy - $659
Double Occupancy - $859
Half week festival Wednesday through Saturday with no lodging.
Single Occupancy - $359
Double Occupancy - $659
Single day registration includes: dinner and presentation the night before
your trip, three meals the day of your trip, and a field trip.
Tuesday Single Day Birding - $150
Wednesday Single Day Birding - $150
Friday Single Day Birding - $150
Saturday Single Day Birding - $175
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Golden Winged Warbler
The High Country has
been a staple of the New River Birding Festival program since the event’s
inception. Due to altitude and topography the High Country is not only a
migrant trap but it also the area’s last territory to come into full foliage leaving
participants excellent views of warblers and other resident and migrant
species.
The trip traditionally starts with a stop at the county’s
only breeding ground for Bobolink, a gated field which the owner allows the Festival
guests to access. As we explore along the Glade Creek Road, birds normally
encountered include Golden-Winged Warbler, Canada warbler, Black-Throated Green,
American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut Sided Warbler, Indigo Bunting and
more. In fact, some species counts for this trip in the past have been in the
low 90s.
Breakfast is at Burnwood 6 AM.
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Sugar Creek/Gauley River National Recreation Area |
Scarlet Tanager
This trip
was added to the New River Birding Festival itinerary three years ago and continues to receive rave
reviews. It is a short drive and a very birdie route. Descending from a high
ridge separating the New and Gauley rivers, Sugar Creek provides the unique
experience of exploring high, mid-level and river level territories all in the
same trip.
While recent and on-going timbering has fragmented the
habitat, edge species have thrived while deciduous nesters have still managed
to stake out enough territory so as to remain in abundance. Birds commonly seen
on this trip include Cerulean Warbler (in fact, the highest concentrations we
have yet seen of Cerulean in our region turned up here in 2007), Yellow and Black-Billed
Cuckoo, Scarlet Tanager, Black-Throated Green Warbler, Ovenbird, Worm-Eating Warbler,
Baltimore Oriole and Orchard Oriole.
Breakfast is at Burnwood 6 AM.
Lunch - overlook at Hawks Nest.
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Cranberry Glades, West Virginia
This trip features a scenic, 90-minute drive each
way, “Well worth the drive” was the report from guests and guides alike, The trip is
offered just twice during the week, so book it early. A remnant of the glacial age, Cranberry
Glades is among West Virginia’s
most unique eco-systems. A boardwalk through a botanical area is ripe with
flora seen nowhere else in West
Virginia. Also often seen on this trip are Black Bear.
As an opportunity to take full advantage of this unique flora and fauna, we
staff this trip with our best naturalists.
Birds normally encountered on this trip include Black-Throated
Blue Warbler, Black-Throated Green, Chestnut-Sided Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush,
Northern Waterthrush, Veery, Wood Thrush, Cerulean Warbler and Red Crossbill – a
species not normally encountered elsewhere in the state.
Breakfast will be at Burnwood at 6 AM.
Following a Picnic Lunch at the U.S. Forest Service Visitor Center
we will depart for the drive back to Burnwood arriving about 3 PM.
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Cranberry Glades, West Virginia
After years of tying this into our High Country trip, we have split this remarkable territory off into its own stand-alone outing.
Babcock is teaming with warblers vireos and offers some of the best opportunities for Black throated swainson's and Blue headed vireos. And due to the trail along the Man's Creek Canyon, most of these birds are seen at or near eye level.
After lunch at Babcock , return to burnwood around 2pm.
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Kanawha Falls to Burnwood |
Cranberry Glades, West Virginia
Following a hot breakfast at Burnwood, a 45 minute drive takes you to Kanawha Falls, the cliff swallow area's best site for waterfowl. After probng the river for the like of hooded merganser, pied-billed grebe ring necked duck, start back up the mountain to seek out mid-level passerines.
A stop at Fayette County Park takes you to one of the county's best spot, for red headed woodpecker, pileated, downey, hairy and eastern flicker.
Last year, this imprompt trip settled in excess of 80 species.
Finish with lunch at Burnwood where the day began.
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Blue Winged Warbler
Described by Leica field representative Jeff Gordon as “the
birdiest habitat in the Appalachians”, the old Muddlety strip mines offer the
areas very best opportunity to see Blue-Winged Warbler, and maybe someday, the
hybridized Brewster’s Warbler (a Blue-Winged and Golden-Winged mix).
In 2007, visitors who made this trip and the Sugar Creek
trip staples of their Festival itinerary saw more Cerulean Warblers than – as
one experienced guest put it – “I’d seen in my 40 years of birding combined.”
The trip entails traveling up an old logging road as far as
the van will go with stops along the way, then a short hiking to the Largest
Poplar Tree in the state. This grassy overgrown strip area is favored by Blue-Winged
Warblers. However, this should not be construed as a specialty trip. In year's past,
participants averaged 70-plus species per trip.
Breakfast is at Burnwood 6 AM Lunch is served in the field
with no modern conveniences until we are in route back to Burnwood for our 3 PM (ish) finish.
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Birding by Boat on Hawks Nest Lake
Unique to the New River Birding and Nature Festival, the Birding
by Boat option is offered only on Tuesday. Starting out just below the famed
whitewater section of New River, the trip is a
three-mile float through placid Hawks
Nest Lake.
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Indigo
Bunting, Pileated Woodpecker and as many as seven species of birds of prey are
potential sightings on this trip. Spotted Sandpiper, Louisiana Waterthrush, Wood
Duck and Green Heron are also common on this float.
Breakfast at 6 AM at Songer Whitewater
Lunch is served when we get off the water at the base of Hawks Nest
State Park
Please note that it is important to have shoes you do not
mind getting wet, sun screen and rain gear available for this trip.
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Ovenbird in The New River Gorge
This trip is offered to show off some of our local’s
favorite quick and easy spots to bird.
We visit some of the local hotspots such
as Birds Eye View, Thurmond, Bridge View and Concho. This trip offers the
opportunity to explore every habitat level along the spectacular New River
Gorge.
Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Blue-Winged Teal, Louisiana Waterthrush,
Pileated Woodpecker, Broad-Winged Hawk, Ovenbird, Worm-Eating Warbler, Cerulean
Warbler, Bay-Breasted Warbler, Red-Eyed Vireo and Hooded Warbler are birds
often encountered on this trip.
Breakfast at Burnwood 6 AM Lunch in the field. Easy access to Modern conveniences.
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Casual Birdwatching in West Virginia
Offered Monday of Festival
week for our week-long guests and those here for the first half of the week,
and Thursday for those coming in at week’s end, Birding by Butt is yet another
unique part of the New River Birding and Nature Festival. An opportunity to
meet other festival participants, spend quality time with our well-known and
respected field guides, the setting is best described as laid back while the
birding is most often described as spectacular.
Imagine sipping a hot cup of coffee on the porch at Opossum Creek Retreat
and being treated to the song and fiery looks of a Blackburnian Warbler – not
an occurrence that happens every year, but certainly one that has happened more
than once. Hooded Warbler, Black-and-White, and Northern Parula are in
abundance here and with plenty of spotting scopes and well-trained eyes on
hand, many of our guests find themselves seeing the birds often enough that
they turn from identification to watching for behaviors.
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