Hi Ella & J.N. Howard,
Are you familiar with the area north of Rural Retreat called Crawfish
Valley?
That is a wonderful place to look for all sorts of birds. It is mostly
National Forest property but there are a few private inholdings posted no
trespassing. You can bird along a dirt road that is in quite good shape
for a few miles then is gated off, and you can walk for a really long way
if you like. Crossbills are sporadic but regular there. The pipits were
in a large closely grazed pasture. The golden eagles flew over together,
very low and very easy to i.d. (I think they had just come from a roost
tree some where on one of the hills about a half mile away).
Here are specific directions if you need them. You just take the Rural
Retreat exit from I-81 and instead of going to Rural Retreat you go north
on Black Lick Road (I believe that's the name). Then you turn onto
Crawfish Valley Road, then onto another road that I can't remember name of.
But you follow a stream upstream along a dirt road. Stay on this road.
The elevation of the valley here is about 2800 ft. It has nesting
Blackburnian, Golden-winged & Blue-winged Warblers, and also Brown
Creeper's holding territories, I presume also nesting in late spring and in
early summer. The whole area is very interesting, it is also rather
isolated but can be really crazy during deer season which is over, though
there was one hunter with his birddog Gussie searching for ruffed grouse.
If Crawfish Valley and Rural Retreat Lake were not nominated as birding
trail sites they should be. I will be glad to help any one with that (even
though nomination period is over, more sites can be added at a later date;
this assumes of course that there will be a VA birding trail system after
all the budget crashing and slashing.
Some time down the pike I will be glad to meet you and show you around the
area if you wish.
Clyde
At 04:37 PM 01/31/2002 -0500, you wrote:
Where in Wythe County did you see all these sights? We live in Wytheville
and would certainly be interested. Ella & J.N. Howard
----- Original Message -----
From: ckessler <ckessler@xxxxxx>
To: <nrvbirds@xxxxxxxxxx>; <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 3:13 PM
Subject: [va-bird] Wythe County Birds, 31 January 2002
