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Cotton Hill Mountain
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. And there is no place like Cotton Hill to observe the Cerulean Warbler!
We added this territory as part of our 10th anniversary in 2012 and guests came back with memories of mating Ceruleans, with new-found confidence in identifying their song, and an understanding of the need for habitat preservation. But the Cerulean Warbler is not the only target bird here. Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Orioles and a wide range of wood warblers are abundant as well. This trip will be offered twice during Festival week, but is limited to 10 guests each day.
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 began offering a digital field photography day since the Festival of 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 only, Birding by Butt is yet another unique part of the New River Birding & Nature Festival. An opportunity to meet other festival participants, spend quality time with our well-known and respected trip leaders, 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 while 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 & 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 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.
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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 probing 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 spots for Red-headed, Pileated, Downey, Hairy and Northern Flicker Woodpeckers.
Finish with lunch at Burnwood where the day began.
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.
On this field trip you'll be treated to a special Appalachian home cookin' experience - a Ramp Feast prepared and presented by locals. Be prepared for hearty eating and lots of smiling.
After lunch, 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 past species counts for this trip have been more than 90.
Plan on an initial bus ride of at least 45 minutes.
On this field trip you'll be treated to a special Appalachian home cookin' experience - a Ramp Feast prepared and presented by locals. Be prepared for hearty eating and lots of smiling.
*Trip note: Tuesday April 30, this trip will stay in the field all day, have a restaurant dinner, and return at 8 pm; we will visit several local hotspots not traditionally included on this route. Selecting the Tuesday trip adds $50 per person to the base price of your package.
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Muddelty Strips
Described by American Birding Association executive director 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 West Virginia. 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.
Lunch is served in the field with no modern conveniences until we are in route back to Burnwood for our 3pm ('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 and Black-throated Green Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Northern Waterthrush, Veery, Wood Thrush, Cerulean Warbler and Red Crossbill – a species not normally encountered elsewhere in the state.
*Trip note: Due to the long drive, Cranberry Glades is only 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. Along the way, we will visit several local hotspots not traditionally included on a route. Selecting this trip adds $50 per person to the base price of your package.
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 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 get the Swainson’s for all to see (so far we have a 100% success rate over the five years we have been offering the trip), only then will we go in search of other species guests on this 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. The bus will drop the group at the top of the trail and meet you with lunch at the bottom. The terrain can be steep at times and is not suited for those not in decent physical shape.
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Buerry Mountain
New to the itinerary in 2012, 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 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, Magnolia Warbler and Red-headed Woodpecker are often seen in this territory.
On this field trip you'll be treated to a special Appalachian home cookin' experience - a Ramp Feast prepared and presented by locals. Be prepared for hearty eating and lots of smiling.
Wolf Creek Walk
Caravan 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.
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. But Guide's Choice is somewhat of a misnomer as it is at least as much "Guest's Choice." At breakfast guides will canvass each guest on the trip asking them what bird they want to see and they will then plan the stops in such a way as to provide each of the participants with their best opportunity to see the nemesis bird that has eluded them (just don't ask for an Auk, Western Tanager or some other out-of-range species).
Grandview
In 2012 we went to Grandview on the worst day of Festival weather. Despite the cool temperatures and the day-long rain, guests rated this as one of the finest trips of the week. At the very first stop Grasshopper Sparrow, Horned Lark, Golden-winged Warbler, Killdeer chicks, and Pectoral Sandpiper all provided guests with spectacular views. From here it is on to the grand view that can only be seen at this National Park Service treasure along New River. The day will finish at an eagle's nest as long as our resident Bald Eagle pair makes use of the same nest that it has for the past two years.
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