Friday, May 7, 2010

A Day at the Meadow with Experts

The more time you spend with nature, the deeper and richer your experience becomes.  That's the quality of accumulating experience.  Put yourself out there and your mind and body will absorb it.  But add an expert to that experience and your world of discovery will enlarge in leaps.        
Above:  Common Blue Violet, one of many violet species enjoyed during the festival.

This is one of the fun parts of attending a nature festival and a good description of my experience at The Meadows at Opossum Creek Retreat during the New River Birding and Nature Festival. I couldn't possibly remember everything I saw and heard on that day, but familiarity is the first step and I did store away a few  enriching experiences to share with you.

My first delight of the day was learning a new bird song, the Ovenbird's "teacher, teacher, teacher".  As many as three of these birds were singing in the area as we walked.  Even though one of our hosts, Keith Richardson (right), had his scope handy, we did not see Ovenbirds on this day.  As the days of the festival went by, I had more opportunity to practice recognition of this song.  More about this bird later.  

A blue-green lichen picked up from the ground, now has a name and an interesting function.


Lichen is actually formed by a symbiotic relationship between an alga and a fungus.  This particular blue-green lichen is called Green Shield Lichen. The expert who called our attention to it was Jim McCormack (right), who rolled the scientific name off his tongue like it was an everyday expression, Flavoparmelia caperata.  This is also the name of the fungus that partners to create the lichen.

Even more fascinating, Jim informed us that hummingbirds favor this type lichen for nest building material because of its characteristic ruffled edges.  These variable edges make the lichen easier to pry loose and more pliable for molding into the rounded shape of a tiny hummingbird nest.    
                                

Bill Hilton, Jr.(left) talked about birds while demonstrating banding.  

Below, he examines a female Red-bellied Woodpecker's  feathers to age her for the record and explained that the emerging red feathers on her crown were an indicator of older age, possibly caused by hormonal changes.
Once the banding and recording were complete, he carefully pulled out the woodpecker's tongue to show us the tiny little barbs that enable this woodpecker to capture insects hiding in tiny cracks and crevices.  This of course gets your thoughts churning.  Every species in nature is especially equipped for its habitat, its food, its lifestyle and its relationship with the other species that share that habitat.  And that is part of the intrigue that keeps my curiosity so engaged and coming back for more.

(Click the image to enlarge)

Birds were only part of what we enjoyed on our nature walks.  Keith Richardson pointed out the leaves of the Dwarf Rattlesnake Plantain growing along an adjacent wooded trail.
Colorful violets (top image) and Golden Ragwort were plentiful all around us.
And a short postscript on birds.  The most surprising bird of the day was a calling Peregrine Falcon, the first ever recorded at The Meadows.

Next:  WV's Waterfalls and Warblers

Related Links and resources:
WV's New River Birding and Nature Festival
National Park Service, New River Gorge Website
Bill Hilton Jr--Hilton Pond
Jim McCormack--Ohio Bird and Biodiversity and Hummers, gnatcatchers and lichen
What are Lichens?
Susan Kailholz-Williams--Susan Gets Native
Debbie Barnes-DJB Photo Adventures
And on this blog, you may be interested in:
Impressed with a Red-bellied Woodpecker's Tongue and Who's Boss?

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful stuff, Vickie! I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better at New River, but we'll meet again someday. I look forward to hearing your beautiful accent again.

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  2. That peregrine nearly made me wet my pants.
    And you remembered all the plant names! Good job!

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  3. I love the amount of talent that festival can bring in. The Big Guns!

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  4. Thanks for sharing all of this. I live in New Zealand so your bird and plant life is so different to what I have seen, this just makes it all the more interesting.

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  5. Thank you for your blog! My kids and I have gotten into nature journaling this spring, with all the fun wildflowers and birds popping up in our backyard. While browsing for other random stuff, I came across your blog ... and discovered that the happy cardinal family I got to watch this Mother's Day morning was actually a happy cardinal family with an adopted cowbird baby. I was sure the juveniles were supposed to look more like their mamas, and it had me totally baffled! But it was still so cute to watch them encourag him to fly.

    I am defnitely going to have to go back and read more of your past entries, and your blog is now bookmarked in my Favorites. I have a feeling it'll be more useful than some of the other ID guides I've been using!

    Thank you for your lovely photography and great anecdotes.

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  6. Excellent text and photos, Vickie! I wish that I could get pics like that!

    If you are interested, following is a link to a post that goes into more detail about the interesting relationship between gnatcatchers, hummingbirds, and lichens: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/2010/02/hummers-gnatcatchers-and-lichens.html

    Jim

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  7. Great post Vickie..
    I have heard so much about this festival and hope to go some year.

    Great trip leaders..I have read Jim McCormacks blog for a while now and am always wowed by his knowledge and the way he presents what he knows with a great sense of humor.

    I am sure you were an awesome addition to the flock.

    ReplyDelete

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