Howdy all,
I know a lot of people already know how to get to this magical location, but
there is also a lot of people who have never been here and would like to be
enchanted. So here is a quick set of directions.
The Kiptopeke banding station is located within the Kiptopeke State Park,
which is located on the Delmarva Peninsula. The state park is located about
five
miles north of the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel. So read into that, if you
have to come across the bridge-tunnel there is a toll. $12 to get across one
way.
If you return across the bridge-tunnel within 24 hours, it is $5 on return
only, otherwise it is $12 to get back across. So once you have gotten off the
bridge-tunnel go roughly five miles to the Kiptopeke State Park. The park is on
the left side of Route 13. Follow the park entrance road until you reach the
park's contact station. There is a small fee to enter the park but I am not
sure how much it is. Five bucks or less I think. After you leave the contact
station follow the road until you reach the second road on the left. This road
is
opposite of the road that take you into the campground. Turn left on this road
and it will take you to a small parking lot. Park here. From the parking lot,
follow the service road towards the butterfly gardens. Continue past the
butterfly gardens staying to the left and you will soon see the banding station
located on the right, in the trees. The total walk distance from the parking
lot
to the banding station is less than a quarter mile on a flat trail.
I strongly recommend trying to plan your trip for early in the morning. Just
like the best time to birdwatch is right after sunrise, so is banding. We
catch most of our birds before 10AM. We open the nets roughly 45 minutes before
sunrise and do the first netrun 45 minutes after that. So the first netrun is
roughly at sunrise. We follow the 45 minutes net runs after that for the rest
of
the banding day. The banding station is open seven days a week and the nets
are open for 6-8 hours after opening. Of course all of this is weather
dependent. If it is raining, we have to close the nets. If the station is
experiencing
strong winds, we will close nets that are being hit by the wind. If it is
extremely hot, we will also close nets. All of this is for bird safety reasons.
The best times to visit the station is the early morning right after a cold
front. The north winds that follow a cold front will bring birds down with it.
Days with strong southerly winds are the worst days to visit. Migrants do not
like to fly into a head wind. Also if you are interested in see diversity,
middle of September to the first week of October is usually the best time. If
you
want to see a lot of birds, mainly Yellow-rumped Warblers, middle of October
is the time for you.
We cannot predict what we will catch or what volume we will catch, but that's
the exciting part about it. The Kiptopeke area has been a birding hotspot for
hundreds of years and it continues to be that way today. I have seen
fantastic fallouts and super rare birds for Virginia here. Just remember, we
don't
have fallouts everyday, but being here on one of them, is a memorable
experience!
Sure hope to see everyone at the banding station this season!
Cheers,
Jethro Runco
Head songbird bander
Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory