New River Birding and Nature Festival

All Things Cerulean

Cutting and fragmenting of the hardwood forests on the nesting grounds as well as on the migration and wintering grounds in Central and South America have endangered the Cerulean Warbler, one of our most beloved and spectacular Neotropical migrants. Despite such gloomy news, southern West Virginia remains a stronghold for Ceruleans, something New River Birding & Nature Festival guests get to observe every year.

To spotlight the importance of habitat preservation, we offer a special trip for the Festival’s 10th Anniversary in 2012. West Virginia native Katie Fallon, author of the recently published “Cerulean Blues,” will share her quest and knowledge on an “All Things Cerulean” trip limited to 10 guests. Those selecting this trip will travel with Katie and a local guide to one of our Cerulean hotspots for an in-depth study: Learning the song; examining Cerulean behavior during the breeding season; focusing on habitat needs and what must be done to protect the species; and—most of all—getting quality looks at these birds that have become a hallmark of New River Birding & Nature Festival trips.

Nature Photography

Okay, we HAVE noticed. The number of people on our trips carrying camera gear is fast approaching parity with those who tote traditional optics. For that very reason, we offer a digital field photography day on Thursday of Festival 2012. The plan is for some early birding to catch the morning chorus, because that is what we do. After breakfast begins a workshop focusing on technique, skills, and latest technological advances. Before and after lunch we'll be in the field for hands-on instruction and photography and we will showcase your best in a slide show at dinner.

Exploring Light and Life Along the New River: Keys to Landscape and Wildlife Photography - Sigma Pro photographer David FitzSimmons shares his secrets for creating stunning landscapes photographs and unique wildlife images. After a classroom session, we will head out into the field, photographing scenics along with birds, herps, and other fauna. Try out a variety of Sigma loaner lenses. Plus, over $500 in door prizes!

You will need a camera (digital recommended); and if you have them, a tripod and spotting scope and mount. If you don’t own such equipment we will share in the field and make some available through our guides and our partnerships with Sigma and Eagle Optics.

This trip is limited to 10 guests.

Birding by Butt

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. In addition to the bird-rich grounds at Opossum Creek Retreat, Bill Hilton Jr. will demonstrate the “how and why” of banding and using field marks for identification.

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.

Known for our great food, New River Birding and Nature Festival table fair is at its absolute best on Birding by Butt days as Cathedral Café’s own Wendy Bayes provides a breakfast buffet that includes salmon quiche, homemade flap jacks and more. It's hard to save room but Wendy cooks lunch for us today too.

Sugar Creek

This trip was added to the New River Birding Festival itinerary in 2005 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 - at a shelter on Gauley River.

Long Point Walk

This four-mile out and back trail hike puts participants in the midst of New River Gorge National River, a sprawling 47,000-acre unit of the National Park Service. Utilizing the Long Point Trail, we take participants out to one of the most breath-taking views in the park as we peer down some 650-feet to the river below. Along the way we work our way through nesting grounds for a wide range of species, including Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Among the many interesting facets of this trip will be the opportunity to view nesting and courtship behaviors. When presented with the opportunity, guides will spend extra time talking about and pointing out how different calls are used by birds in setting up territorial boundaries.

While not a rigorous hike in terms of topography, the surface is rocky and uneven on portions of the trail. Modern facilities are not available once we depart from breakfast until we return in mid-afternoon. Each participant will be provided with a zip-lock containing their lunch.

Kanawha Falls to Burnwood

Following a hot breakfast at Burnwood, a 45 minute drive takes you to Kanawha Falls, the area's best site for waterfowl. After probng the river for the like of Hooded Merganser, Pied-billed Grebe, Ring-necked Duck, and Cliff Swallows, 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, Pileated, Downey, Hairy and Eastern Flicker Woodpeckers.

Finish with lunch at Burnwood where the day began.

Mountaintop Adventure

Utilizing the 1,500-acre ACE Adventure Resort property, this trip descends from ridge to river, dropping some 900-feet in elevation along the way. Starting at the ACE base we will immediately go on the lookout for cerulean warbler, bay-breasted warbler and blackpoll warbler while eventually winding up at river level searching for Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-throated Warbler and Louisiana Waterthrush.

The ACE property is the site of one of our most memorable Festival moments – when a long-time guest ended her lifelong search for cerulean warbler as we called the bird in to just a few feet away. The tears of joy hang with us today and are a constant reminder of what we love about hosting this event.

Featured on the Travel Channel, ACE combines high-density usage of the property with conservation of large wooded tracts, making this territory a reminder of how development can be done without destroying important habitat.

Burnwood to Babcock

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 and vireos, and it offers some of the best opportunities for Black-throated Green Warblers, Swainson's Warblers and Blue-headed Vireos. And due to the trail along the Mann's Creek Canyon, most of these birds are seen at or near eye level.

After lunch at Babcock, return to Burnwood around 2pm.

High Country

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 90's.

Breakfast is at Burnwood 6 AM.

Plan on an initial bus ride of at least 45 minutes.

*Trip note: Tuesday May 1, this trip will stay in the field all day, have a restaurant dinner, and return at 8 pm. To extend the day, we will visit several local hotspots not traditionally included on this route. Selecting this trip adds $50 per person to the base price.

Muddelty Strips

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 hike 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.

Plan on an initial bus ride of at least 45 minutes.

Cranberry Glades

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 botanists.

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.

*Trip note: Due to the long drive, Cranberry Glades will only be offered as an All Day trip on Thursday and Friday of the Festival week. This trip will stay in the field all day, have a restaurant dinner, and return at 8 pm. To extend the day, we will visit several local hotspots not traditionally included on this route. Selecting this trip adds $50 per person to the base price.

Birding by Boat

Unique to the New River Birding and Nature Festival, the Birding by Boat option is offered only on Friday. 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 Burnwood.

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.

Swainson’s Warbler

Located in the northern-most breeding ground of the Swainson’s Warbler, our area is home to one of the most dense populations of this prized bird anywhere in North America. Be forewarned if you sign up for this trip – the guides will not listen if you cue in on another species until everyone has had a good look at a Swainson’s. Even after we have that look, we will continue to visit Swainson’s habitat, just to listen to and learn the call and to allow participants to fully understand the skulking behavior which makes them so difficult to actually see.

If and when we do get the Swainson’s for all to see (so far we have a 100% success ratio over the four years we have been offering the trip), then and only then will we go in search of other species guests on the trip would like to target.

Nuttallburg Walk

Explore the restored ruins of one of New River Gorge's most prominent mining towns - a community started by the family of renowned naturalist Thomas Nuttall. Starting from the top of the New River Gorge, we will descend a trail to near river level, taking in three different habitats. Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-throated Warbler and Swainson's Warbler are among the highlighted species.

*Trip Note - This trip is all on foot, as the bus will drop the group at the top of the trail and meet it with lunch at the bottom. The terrain can be steep at times and is not suited for those not in decent physical shape.

Buerry Mountain

New to the New River Festival itinerary, the Buerry Mountain trip explores some of the county's highest ridges and is a funnel for migrant birds. Great territory for chestnut-sided warbler and black-throated blue warbler, this trip includes a lunch stop at Babcock State Park where participants will have the opportunity to bird while looking over some of the most spectacular vistas in Fayette County. Blue-headed vireo, American redstart and magnolia warbler are often seen in this territory.

Burnwood/Bridge Walk

Come to breakfast at Burnwood and only leave to go across the road to the National Park Service Canyon Rim Visitor Center. we will bird the rich grounds near Burnwood, meandering through forest and field. Additionally, the walk will explore the grounds at Canyon Rim along with its overlooks of New River Gorge. Following lunch, those participants who wish and are not afrai of hikes can harness up for the walk of their lives - on the catwalk beneath New River Gorge Bridge some 870 feet above the river. For those who have seen our facebook page, this is the walk that produced those magnificent photos of Peregrine Falcons, and we will once again be looking for these birds and their potential nests.

*Trip Note - Those wishing to take the portion of the trip which goes across the catwalk will pay an additional $50 to cover our costs with the professional staff from Bridge Walk. Those not wanting to test their limits on heights can still participate in the trip, sans the .6 mile walk on the catwalk (and of course, will not have the additional $50 surcharge).

Wolf Creek Walk

Caravan the two miles from Burnwood to Wolf Creek Park, to the New River Birding & Nature Center Wetlands Boardwalk and set out into the 1,000-acre mixed-use development. Blue-winged Warbler, White-eyed Virio, Scarlet Tanager, Black-and-white Warbler and Hooded Warbler are among the highlighted species. An easy walk on mostly level ground you won't know you are in a planned community once you leave the hardtop an get down to the boardwalk. This trip is offered Wednesday and Saturday.

Guide's Choice

Every year prior to the Festival the local guide staff gets out in the field to scout. On most occasions, we spot some interesting birds that are not in our regular territories. This year, we have put together a trip that will enable us to see some of those species. Will the Peregrines be back on Pine Tree Perch? If so, you can count on a trip to a grand overlook with a bird's eye view of this haunt. Will there be interesting waterfowl at Plum Orchard? Has a new cut begun to produce Golden-winged Warbler habitat? The only way you can find out is to sign up for this new offering.