Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, IAD, August 2014

A ribbon of mist followed the serpentine course of the Shenandoah River in the valley below the ridge of mountains that make up the Shenandoah National Park. It was a beautiful start to the day. The sun had risen to the east, but was still low enough to cast the shadow of the mountains across the valley. The many pull-outs allow motorists to stop and enjoy the tremendous views as farmland rolls away to the west and hills disappear into the distance on the other side.

My main focus for this drive was to find Black Bears. I had started early from Tyson’s Corner and arrived at the park gate just before six (this was the northern gate at Front Royal, Google Earth ref; 38 54 10.800N 78 11 33.20W ). 

White-tailed Deer are common around the entrance and were seen for much of the morning close to the road. I stopped at Dickey Ridge Visitor Center to take a look around the area and found Eastern Towhee, American Goldfinch and Chipping Sparrow.

The pull-outs gave good opportunity to find birds and brought Dark-eyed Junco, Cedar Waxwing, Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Red-headed Vireo. But mainly, I stopped hoping that a bear might be feeding in a meadow cut into the hillside below the pull-out.

The sound track for the day was provided by the Eastern Towhees and Eastern Wood-Peewees. There seemed to be one or both singing every time I stopped.

An Indigo Bunting stopped me with a flash of blue and I pulled in to a trailhead parking lot. A Hooded Warbler popped up and gave me my first look at a fully hooded bird. Short walks onto the Appalachian Trail brought Blackpoll Warbler, American Redstart and Worm-eating Warbler.

My plan was to stop at Elk Wallow and count up my tally of bears over a breakfast burrito, but Elk Wallow came and went with no sightings yet (and the breakfast burrito did nothing to enhance my bear-spotting capabilities).

I stopped in at the next picnic spot (Pinnacles) and took a walk down the trail for a short way and found myself in a bird storm. This was a feeding party that had picked up a full head of steam and was ploughing through the forest. Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Nuthatch, White-bellied Nuthatch and Black-and-white Warbler made up the bark pickers, while American Redstart, Red-eyed Vireo and Carolina Chickadee flicked about in the leaves.

Blue-headed Vireo kept low in the undergrowth with Northern Cardinal while Scarlet Tanager and Tufted Titmouse held the high points. All the time, American Robin and Grey Catbird kept  a-squeaking and a-mewing. It was hard to keep up.

At last, as I approached Skyland, I found my first bear. Even for one who was beginning to wonder if he would find a bear today, it was an unsatisfactory sighting. A small cub looking frightened had been separated from its mother and dashed anxiously through the roadside bushes and disappeared. I am sure his mother must have been close by and that they were reunited shortly afterwards, but it was not the wild experience that I had hoped for.

The bear in Big Meadow was far more interesting. It was a long way off across a very large meadow, but as a result, it was completely unconcerned and fed happily, head down. A family was walking in the meadow and didn’t appear to have seen the bear. Watching from a distance of over quarter of a mile, I was able to see the bear’s reaction as the family came closer. It was aware of their approach and looked up occasionally, but seemed unmoved until they came within about 70-80m. At this point the bear began to move away from them, continuing to feed as it went, but looking up more regularly to check that its flight distance was being maintained. The family took a left turn and moved away from the bear which settled down again to feeding in earnest.

This experience allowed me to judge what the bear would tolerate and I walked out onto the meadow to get a bit closer. At about 100m or so, the bear looked up to check on my progress and I decided that I was close enough to allow him to continue feeding without disturbing him.

It was now well into the afternoon and I decided to start for home. I had about 60 miles to cover along Skyline Drive to get back to the gate and I wanted to do it while there was still some light in the sky.

The verges that run along the roadsides were all filled with an array of wild flowers and these attracted the butterflies. I couldn’t resist a few moments spent on my backside watching them.

A third and then a fourth bear were seen on the way out, but I had changed my exposure settings for the bright, well-lit butterflies and forgot to change them for dark bears in the shade.

An exciting moment came as the sun dropped below the ridge and a large owl flew across the road in the half light. I pulled up and checked the roadside trees, but the owl saw me first and flew again. I saw just enough of it to say that it was a Barred Owl.

Bird list for Shenandoah NP; 37

Turkey Vulture 2, Mourning Dove 1, Barred Owl 1, Chimney Swift 6, Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1, Downy Woodpecker 6, Hairy Woodpecker 1, Pileated Woodpecker 2, Eastern Wood-Peewee 15, Blue-headed Vireo 1, Red-headed Vireo 10, American Crow 4, Common Raven 2, Tree Swallow 6, Barn Swallow 20, Carolina Chickadee 2, Tufted Titmouse 2, Red-breasted Nuthatch 1, White-breasted Nuthatch 1, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher 1, American Robin 8, Grey Catbird 2, European Starling 8, Cedar Waxwing 40, Worm-eating Warbler 12, Black-and-white Warbler 2, Hooded Warbler 1, American Redstart 3, Blackpoll Warbler 1, Eastern Towhee 8, Chipping Sparrow 18, Field Sparrow 4, Dark-eyed Junco 1, Scarlet Tanager 5, Northern Cardinal 5, Indigo Bunting 2, American Goldfinch 20.

Mammals seen;

Black Bear 4, Chipmunk 8, Gray Squirrel 10, White-tailed Deer 30.

Shenandoah NP is a little over an hour from Washington DC. It can be accessed at the north end through Front Royal on Route 66.
There are plenty of picnic sites, rest rooms and lay-bys. There are a few stops with food available at various points along the 105 mile Skyline Drive that passes through the park.
Park regulations require that you pull completely off the road if stopped. Maps, details of facilities and charges can be found at the National Parks Service website for Shenandoah.
If the weather has been bad, the park authorities may close the road. Check the website above before you travel.
The road is open as a public route so you may pass at any time provided that the gates are open. A $15 fee applies and is valid for 7 days.

Please also bring plenty of insect repellent if you visit during the summer months.

For a previous post from Shenandoah NP, see the link below;

http://redgannet.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/shenandoah-national-park-virginia-iad.html

Visit the dedicated USA and Canadapage for more posts.

Birding, Birdwatching, Shenandoah NP, Virginia.

Boys' day out Pt. 2

The sun rose by 07.30 to find us (us being Mike, Dave and me) well on our way along Route 66 towards Shenandoah National Park. The snow and sleet front had passed over and the scenery along the route was stunning in the early morning light. We had thought it prudent to look at the website to check that the park would be open. It had been closed during the storm of the previous day and we were hoping for a prediction on its status for today. It was such a beautiful autumn morning that we could not resist driving down, despite there being no updated info on the website.

As we drew closer to Front Royal, the northern portal town for Shenandoah National Park, the snow became thicker and lay inches deep on parked cars. The glorious sunshine and the autumn colours in the trees were spectacularly enhanced by the blanket of snow, but it gave me twinges which were borne out when we came upon the barrier blocking the entrance to the park.

It was closed of course. A couple of miles upstream along the southern fork of the Shenandoah River is a high lookout which gives out across the river to another Appalachian ridge in the distance to the west. I believe this to be the George Washington National Forest. A chap looked incredulously from the frosted window of his canoe-hire centre when we pulled into his car park. When he realised that we were not planning to go tubing on the river he turned back to his heater as we took in the fabulous scenery and found our first few birds of the day.

A Pileated Woodpecker flew across the river and a Downy Woodpecker pulled into a tree close by.  The bright red of the Northern Cardinals in the car park impressed my companions who are not birders (yet). But this was not going to fill our day, so once again we repaired to a diner (the excellent Knotty Pine in Front Royal) to consider our options.

Asking at the local gas station threw up the name Raymond J “Andy” Guest Shenandoah River State Park. It was only a few miles along the road, south from Front Royal (at Google Earth ref; 35 50 35N 78 18 04W) and it seemed like a reasonable alternative. It was even said to occasionally harbour bears. Indeed there was a bear, “Stella”, stuffed and mounted in the visitor centre just beyond the entrance control post, but no live ones were found here. The State Park is many times smaller than the National Park and can easily be covered in a day.

A platform jutting from the hillside afforded a magnificent view across the snow-frosted valley. We chose to follow a couple of paths, namely the Cottonwood Trail which led us alongside the Shenandoah River and the Wildcat Ledge.

The snow on the boardwalk of the Cottonwood Trail was frozen and crunched loudly under our boots, so we turned off onto the Wildcat Ledge trail. Tufted Titmice had formed small foraging flocks with Carolina Chickadees and we watched four Bald Eagles in the meadow to the north from the lookout point at the end of the trail. Wildcat Ledge is a dead-ending trail, so we retraced our steps and gave the crunchy boardwalk another go. We could see the eagles in the air now, circling to gain some height.

There was a nice selection of birds found as the boardwalk looped around and back on itself. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers and Yellow-rumped Warblers were seen on a few occasions with a Red-tailed Hawk sitting atop a leafless tree in the meadow. Singletons included White-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-breasted Sapsucker and Carolina Wren.

Early in the afternoon, the sun had warmed the air sufficiently for us to remove jackets and hats. Perhaps Skyline Drive had been re-opened by now. Sadly it hadn’t. Perhaps it is still early in the season for snow. The trees still had plenty of leaves and the snow would have been laying heavy on them. Though it looked as if a man with a snowplough attached to the front of his truck could have it cleared in mere moments, we had not considered that the weight of the snow could have brought down a few trees as well.

So if you find yourself in Front Royal and the Shenandoah National Park is closed, do consider the Shenandoah River State Park. It may not have the scale and the bears, but it was a very pleasant place to enjoy some stunning scenery. My thanks go to Mike and Dave for being so understanding and proactive and for being such good company on a long day out.

We arrived back at the hotel to find the only bird of the day that actually sat for a photograph. A Northern Mockingbird perched in a tree adjacent to the entrance to the hotel.

Birds seen; 32

Great Blue Heron1, Turky Vulture 8, Black Vulture 1, Bald Eagle 4, Mourning Dove 6, Red-bellied Woodpecker 2, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1, Downy Woodpecker 3, Northern Flicker 4, Pileated Woodpecker 1, Cedar Waxwing 60, Carolins Wren 3, Northern Wren 1, Northern Mockingbird 1, American Robin 15, Hermit Thrush 2, Golden-crowned Kinglet 4, Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1, Carolina Chickadee 12, Tufted Titmouse 6, White-breasted Nuthatch 2, Blue Jay 15, American Crow 35, Common Starling 60, American Goldfinch 6, Yellow-rumped Warbler 8, Chipping Sparrow 3, Song Sparrow 4, White-throated Sparrow 15, Dark-eyed Junco 12, Northern Cardinal 8, Common Grackle 8.

The Boys' day out Part 1 can be found here.

Other posts from the area can be found by following the links below;
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/09/raglans-wood-tysons-corner-fairfax-va.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/great-falls-park-virginia.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-falls-park-virginia-april.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/tysons-corner-virginia-iad.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-falls-park-july.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/07/raglans-wood-july-2011.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/07/shenandoah-national-park-virginia-iad.html

Visit the dedicated USA and Canada page for other North American posts

Shenandoah National Park, Shenandoah River State Park, IAD, Tyson's Corner, Washington.