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Virginia Outdoor Adventures: Hiking, Camping, Kayaking, Local Travel and more!
Birding in Virginia: A Guide to Virginia State Parks with Ranger Evan Spears (Ep 87, Part 1)
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A flash of color across a meadow. A flute-like melody sung from a nearby branch. A raptor soaring high above a mountain ridge. These small moments of discovery are what make birding one of the fastest-growing outdoor activities today.
Few places can match our incredible diversity of birdlife. From the tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbird to the majestic Tundra Swan, Virginia is home to hundreds of bird species across a remarkable range of habitats.
I’m joined by Virginia State Parks ranger and avid birder, Evan Spears. We talk about why birding is helping so many people slow down, look closer, and connect with the outdoors in a whole new way. We’ll explore some of the best birding destinations across Virginia State Parks, share tips for getting started, and learn why spotting even a tiny bird can become a lifelong passion.
So grab your binoculars or just your curiosity - there's an entire world of wildlife waiting to be discovered. Let’s Go!
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Brian,
Jessica Bowser:from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is a mecca for outdoor travel and adventure. Virginia Outdoor Adventures podcast is your local guide for hiking, camping, kayaking, travel, and so much more. Get the information and the inspiration to plan your own adventure right here in Virginia. I'm your host, Jessica Bowser. A flash of color across a meadow, a flute-like melody sung from a nearby branch, a raptor soaring high above a mountain ridge. These small moments of discovery are what make birding one of the fastest growing outdoor activities today. Few places can match our incredible diversity of bird life, from the tiny ruby-throated hummingbird to the majestic tundra swan. Virginia is home to hundreds of bird species across a remarkable range of habitats. I'm joined by Virginia State Parks ranger and avid birder Evan Spears. We talk about why birding is helping so many people slow down, look closer, and connect with the outdoors in a whole new way. We'll explore some of the best birding destinations across Virginia State Parks, share tips for getting started, and learn why spotting even a tiny bird can become a lifelong passion. So, grab your binoculars or adjust your curiosity. There is an entire world of wildlife waiting to be discovered. Let's go, Ranger Evan. Welcome to Virginia Outdoor Adventures.
Even Spears:Thanks for having me. I'm excited.
Jessica Bowser:I'm excited too, because, as you know, birding is one of my favorite topics. So, can you tell us, what is birding, and what makes Virginia such a great state for birding?
Even Spears:A lot of people, they hear the term birding or bird watching. In my experience, bird watching is usually more of a passive activity, where people usually watch from their house, or you're watching from somewhere else, and the birds come to you, whereas birding, most of the activities we'll be talking about today are more active activities, so actually getting outside, going to the habitats where these birds live, and Virginia is a great state for birding, because we have such a wide variety of habitats, from the coast to the mountains, we get tons of different birds, and so any time of year in Virginia is a great time to bird,
Jessica Bowser:the way somebody once described it to me was that birding was much more than just watching the birds, it's listening for the birds, it's observing their behavior, and it's even data collecting at times. So, I think it's like you said, really active, but also there's a lot more to it than a lot of people realize.
Even Spears:Birding, you know, uses sometimes all of your senses, but getting outside and looking and listening is kind of the best way to go burning.
Jessica Bowser:Virginia has an incredible variety of habitats. We have mountains, forests, lakes, marshes, beaches. There's just so many ecosystems here, and in those ecosystems you find different species all around the state.
Even Spears:I live in the Piedmont, so sometimes I'll take a trip to the coast, keep an eye out, you know, for herons and pelicans, eagles, and ospreys. Other times we go up to the mountains looking more for warblers and woodpeckers. I love birding in Virginia, because it's so diverse.
Jessica Bowser:This is spring, which means that it is the peak of bird migration season. What's the Atlantic Flyway? Can you describe that migration route,
Even Spears:sure. Yeah, along the East Coast here, hundreds of different bird species pass through Virginia on their way north and south every year. So, right now it's spring, and millions of birds are heading north to their summer breeding grounds. Some of these birds are going to stop here in Virginia, and they'll sing and make nests have young here in Virginia throughout the summer, and then head back in the fall, where others are just kind of passing through. They need some food, they need some water, need to rest for a little bit, but they're heading up north somewhere northern US or up into Canada. But traveling along the coast is a great way for them to kind of keep going north,
Jessica Bowser:I love watching the maps where they show the different species migrating either north or south, depending on the time of the year, and you can actually see how many are moving up and down the East Coast. It's like they're following the coastline. So, I think we're really lucky here in Virginia, because we have so many birds that are passing through here, and because it's spring, I feel like my social media is just popping with people who are like super stoked about migration, but it's not just spring that's a good time to bird, right? Like, birding is exciting all year round.
Even Spears:Yeah, definitely, you can bird any time of year here in Virginia. The only only factors are when it gets too cold or too hot sometimes. The birds in the wintertime are hunkered down when we get those really cold winters, and sometimes in the summer, when it's really warm, the birds aren't very active. They're just kind of waiting for the day to pass before they become active again in the evening. Outside of that, you can really bird any time of year and any time of day in Virginia,
Jessica Bowser:even in the winter. Bird, we've got migratory species that are here for the winter that you don't see any other time, so we're going to talk about a few of those soon. But first, I want to know what got you, Evan, interested in birding.
Even Spears:My parents, my mom and dad really loved to show me the outdoors, and we'd actually go with some other family friends down to Ferry Stone State park every summer we would rent out a cabin for a few days, and we would go canoeing and fishing, and I remember one of my, my earliest memories is actually going on an owl prow walk with a ranger at Ferry Stone, and we walked into the woods at dusk, and first we didn't hear very much, but after the ranger imitated a barred owl, just a few moments later I heard a barred owl respond back, and I think even at an early age, like six or seven, I think that's really what captivated my interest with birds, is getting outside and seeing and hearing them up close.
Jessica Bowser:Oh, wow, owl prowls are really cool experiences. Would you say that the owl was your spark bird?
Even Spears:Definitely. Yeah, I've had tons of birds over the year that, over the years, that kind of get me more interested and engaged in birding, but that's definitely my most memorable bird going that far back.
Jessica Bowser:Oh, that's cool. Yeah, my spark bird was a little bit different, though. I just got into bird.. well, didn't just get into birding, I got into birding maybe 15 years ago, and I was already into photography, and so I just decided to take a walk through my own neighborhood one day, and it was December, and so the ground was frozen, and I was walking through the forest with my camera that had a long lens on it, and I came across this like patch of ice on the ground, and there was this really tiny bird that was hopping around on the ice, and I couldn't get a good look at it because it was small and it was kind of far away, but I did manage to get some pictures of it, so when I got home I uploaded these pictures to my computer and I enlarged it on the screen, and here was this like really tiny gray bird with a bright orange stripe across the middle of its head, and I was like, what is that? It was like something I had never seen before, and I had to look it up, and it turned out it was a golden crown kinglet, and that was when I had this realization that there were all these birds out here that I had never seen before, because you know, when you look it up, you realize that it's also here year round, and I'm thinking, wait, this bird has been here this whole time, and I've never seen this before, and then that just like kicked it off, right? It was all downhill from that point on, I was like, what else is out here that I've never seen before, and that just really got me hooked. It was the fascination with what might be out there that I've never noticed.
Even Spears:They're such cute birds, too.
Jessica Bowser:It was really cute. Yeah, and now every time I see one, I sort of relive that spark experience, right? I'm like, oh, I remember the very first time I saw this bird, and then I was just hooked. It was over after that. That's awesome. So, why do you think birding has become so popular recently? Because it has just exploded.
Even Spears:Getting outside, getting outdoors, definitely over the past several years, has become really popular, but you really don't need too much to go birding, as long as you are outside looking and listening, you'll see some birds. It is almost impossible to go a single day in Virginia to not experience some birds while you're outside.
Jessica Bowser:Yeah, I think COVID really kicked it off too. When I was talking to some of the other staff at Virginia State Parks, they said that the demand for bird programming is so high that they're having a hard time keeping up with it, which just like makes my heart sing, because I love that so many people are getting into it. I don't know about you, but like I remember when I started in birding 15 years ago, I would go to these local bird clubs and I'd go on birding walks and I participate in Christmas bird counts, and I was the youngest person by 20 or 30 years, like everybody around me was a retiree, and now that's not even close to true. There's people my age, there's people much younger, really young bird groups in the area with like 20 and 30 somethings. I've seen college groups that go birding together, high school kids come out. Now it's just.. it's amazing to me, like, there's no longer this idea that birding is for retirees.
Even Spears:Some modern apps have kind of gamified birding as well, but once people, and especially the younger generations, kind of saw that birding is kind of like a scavenger hunt, like every day you go out is a new experience where you're looking and listening for new species you haven't seen before, or new species for a certain area, and it really, it really does feel like a game. It feels like you're, you're on an adventure, looking for some really incredible animals.
Jessica Bowser:Yes, you're on an adventure, and you're really connecting with nature, two wonderful things. So, what's. Prizes, first time birders, the most you think,
Even Spears:probably the diversity of birds again, like getting outside and looking and listening. You realize that even sometimes just in your backyard there are dozens of species that are just there waiting for you to free to look at them and hear them, and some of them are really big birds, you know, hawks and vultures, some of them are really small birds, hummingbirds, warblers, but pretty much the more you start to notice, the more you start to notice. Watching birds can be really rewarding too, just seeing how they move, how they get their food can be really exciting. And then also, for a lot of birds, finding something that they didn't expect in an area, so going to a park, going to a nearby forest or lake, and then finding something that you didn't think would be there is also a really rewarding experience.
Jessica Bowser:It really is. And sometimes when I'm walking through a state park and I come across an area where I had an experience where something happened that I didn't expect, I sort of remember it, and I'm kind of like reliving the joy of seeing something completely wild. So, Mason Neck is my home park, and there was one time I was walking across the boardwalk, and there was a great blue heron that was waiting really close to the boardwalk, and you know how herons, like, they stand really still because they're hunting and they're looking in the water, and so it was like just standing there, like very stoic, and then all of a sudden it shot its neck out and launched into the water and came out with an eel, and the eel wrapped itself around the herons really long bill and was trying not to get eaten, and the heron was just smacking it down on a rock over and over and over again, and the eel just kept wrapping itself around the bill again and again, and I'm standing there going, oh my gosh, you know, I've never seen anything like this, and I also didn't even know we had eels in Virginia. So, once I zoomed in on the pictures and realized it was an eel and not a snake, because that's originally what I thought it was, I was even more surprised. So, like, the coolest things happen sometimes. It blows you away when it does.
Even Spears:Anytime I'm at a place where I birded before, we're always like, you know, this is the spot where we saw, you know, this bird, and this is the spot where we heard this for the first time, and it's a lot of fun reliving those moments.
Jessica Bowser:You and I recently went on a bird walk at Lake Anna State Park, and do you remember we were walking around the lake, and I said that one night I had been walking back, and like, there was this incredible sunset that sent the whole sky ablaze, and there was a common loon on the lake that started calling, and how do you even describe the call of a common loon? Like, we need to describe it, but I don't know how to.
Even Spears:It's like an ethereal flute coming off of the water, it sounds otherworldly. It's a beautiful song to experience.
Jessica Bowser:Yeah, it almost gives you goosebumps. And so, like, between that and the sunset, I was like, this is the most amazing thing ever. So, yeah, so you get these really cool, unexpected experiences. Spring adventures are calling, and the latest Virginia Outdoor Adventures merch is ready to come along with a fresh, bold, seasonal design. These ultra comfy hoodies and tees are perfect for life on the trail, around the campfire, or wherever you roam. Whether you're heading out for a hike, planning a weekend trip, or showing your love for Virginia's outdoors, this gear was made for you. Grab yours now, and join the community behind the podcast. Every purchase helps keep new episodes coming, so you can keep exploring. Find it by clicking on Shop the Virginia Outdoor Adventures merch store in your show notes. So, let's talk a little bit about equipment. I know that some people probably have questions about what they need to get started. Do you need much to start with birding?
Even Spears:No, you really don't need anything at all. Again, just getting outside is the first step. The more you get out, and the more you're listening and looking at birds, the more you may realize, hey, maybe a pair of binoculars is going to help, or a telescope. I recommend, for a lot of birders starting out, eight by 42 binoculars are a good place to start, whether the bird is large or small, can help you see them up close a little better. Almost everyone has a smartphone nowadays, so the Merlin Bird ID app has been revolutionary in getting people excited about birding. It helps you identify birds, and you can do that through asking it a few questions about a bird that you may have seen and didn't know what it was, and it can help you identify it that way, but in the past several years they've been developing the sound identification, and so you just hit the record button on your Merlin app, and the app starts listening, and if there's a red eyed Vireo singing nearby, or Carolina Wren, or Pileated Woodpecker, the Merlin app picks it up. It shows you when it's singing, and whole new way to find birds outside.
Jessica Bowser:Can you talk a little bit about field guides too? Because when I started birding, we were all carrying around these huge books, but now they are apps for field guides, so. What do you recommend?
Even Spears:Yeah, pretty much every hard copy field guide that you can find. There's an app version for it too. The value of the hard copy field guides is still very real, and so I love to carry around multiple field guides in my car. Sometimes, you know, your phone dies, and other times you just want to have that physical copy in your hand, so I have a few bird guides here at home that I read and study, and then again a few that I carry around that a little lighter that you can maybe throw in your backpack if you wanted to, or just keep in your car help you with bird studying birds, identifying birds.
Jessica Bowser:Evan, if somebody wanted to try birding today, what should they do
Even Spears:being a park ranger? I'm definitely a little biased, so I would definitely recommend, since we have, you know, over 40 state parks across the state. I recommend going to a state park in my area around Farmville. We've got several parks to choose from, so I'd recommend going to a park, pretty much just find a quiet trail or a quiet area of the park, and then walk around there, walk slowly, stop, you know, occasionally look and listen, and you're going to see some birds. Check low down in the on the forest floor, down along the shoreline, check up high too, in the trees, you're going to see some stuff. The more you notice, the more you're going to see birds out and about.
Jessica Bowser:Is there a best time of day for birding,
Even Spears:definitely early in the morning is best. That's when a lot of our daytime birds start getting really active, right? They've been sleeping or resting all evening, and so right at sunrise a ton of birds really start to get active, and then that activity kind of tapers off through mid morning and into the afternoon, and especially in the summer, there are sometimes where there's almost no birds singing or moving around on those on those warm summer days, but then in the evening again, I'd say an hour or two before sunset, you also get a little burst of activity. So I love evening birding when maybe some owls are starting to call, a lot of the daytime birds are winding down for the day, and then in the wintertime too, in the late winter, it's a great time to listen for American woodcocks. It's this little forest bird that's actually a shore bird, and they do these amazing displays over usually kind of shrubby wooded areas, fields, but right at dusk they kind of rise up from the ground, and they start to do this little dance in the sky. It's kind of hard to see because they're up so high, but you can hear them, and as they start to descend and kind of fly down towards the ground, making a spiral, the wind over their wings makes this kind of whistling noise, and it gets louder and louder and louder until they reach the ground, they're quiet for a second, and then they start to vocalize doing this little sound, and it's incredible. So, evening birding can be really exciting too, but I'd say the best time of day to get out birding is the crack of dawn. Those first three hours after sunrise are really good for birding.
Jessica Bowser:Yeah, you're a really good painter. I wasn't expecting that. Oh yeah, I mean, woodcocks are a crowd favorite because they do the paint, but also because they do that funny walk where they're like wobbling, aren't they feeling in the ground? I think that's what I read, that they rock their bodies back and forth to get to feel what's underneath them, is that accurate?
Even Spears:I haven't heard, heard about that, but most of the time, when you see a woodcock moving or doing that little dance, it's usually they're out in the open, they're used to being in kind of more concealed areas, you can imagine that kind of model brown color that they have really helps them blend in with the forest floor, so they're usually just kind of moving like that as a precautionary method. That kind of swaying movement is very likely tied to them not wanting to make fast movements running across the forest floor, because it's going to make them more easily seen by these ground predators.
Jessica Bowser:Woodcocks are so adorable, and between the dancing and the flying displays and the painting, I mean, if you need something fun to do right now, like grab your phone and just Google Woodcocks and watch, watch what comes up, because not only is it funny to watch the videos of them doing the dancing and their flights, but people get really creative and do the funniest things with these videos and the painting sounds, and it'll keep you entertained for hours. Few activities bring you closer to nature and your family, like camping. It's the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Imagine waking up in a Virginia state park, surrounded by towering trees, breathing in fresh air, and spending your days swimming, hiking, canoeing, or tubing. At night, you'll gaze at a sky filled with countless stars you'd never see in the city. And after all that adventure, you're sure to work up an appetite. Cook delicious meals over the campfire, and don't forget the s'mores fixings for a sweet ending to your day. 20-nine state parks throughout Virginia offer camping with a total of more than 1800 campsites. Reservations are recommended, and it's best to reserve a site as early as possible. Or maybe a cozy cabin is more your vibe. Virginia state parks provide comfortable and economical overnight accommodations. There are nearly 300 furnished climate control cabins of various sizes throughout the state. Many cabins are available year round. If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern day life, you can't beat a Virginia state park. Reserve your cabin or campsite by clicking on Virginia State Parks in your show notes. So, what should beginners pay attention to? I think a lot of people think that when they're trying to ID a bird, they should just be looking at color, but there's a lot more to it than that.
Even Spears:The bird size is a really good indicator, kind of where you should start to look for identification. So the smaller birds are usually what we call the song birds, so it's gonna be like warblers and kinglets, like you mentioned earlier, vireos. These are the smaller birds, and they're usually generally in the bird guides, they're kind of towards the back of the back of the book, where this is the larger birds, you know, the water fowls, hawks, they're in the front of the book, and you can usually divide birds up by size and get a good, a good place to start their shape is also really important. How long is their neck? How big is their body in relation to their head? How long is their bill? These are all really key features that you need to be kind of honing in on. Another thing to look for is what is the bird doing. This can be, are they diving from high in the sky, and then you know, stopping abruptly. Are they diving underwater? Are they dabbling instead of diving? Are they staying on the forest floor? Are they up high in the canopy? And again, and that's that's also tied in with habitat. You're probably never going to see a warbler swimming underwater in a lake, and you'll probably never see, you know, a common loon up in a tree, so those, those can really help you out. And then finally, the bird songs and calls are going to be some of the best ways to identify them. So learning some of the common birds in your area can really help you to start learning some of the more uncommon birds that are around.
Jessica Bowser:And I think the Merlin app helps with this a lot, because if you use it for ID, you have to answer the questions about size and shape and behavior and habitat, and you start to pay more attention to it, because you realize that those are the key things that you need to know for the app to help you identify it.
Even Spears:Birding is pretty much a matching game, so you've got a list of known birds that are in an area during a given time of year, and it's up to you to try to match what you saw with what you can find in the field guides, and that's also what makes birding exciting, because again, it's it's a game every time you go outside.
Jessica Bowser:All right, Evan, we are going to cover some popular places to go birding all across Virginia, and I think the easiest thing to do is to divide this up by regions. So, let's start with the coastal part of Virginia. Can you tell us some parks that people might want to visit for birding in coastal Virginia?
Even Spears:First Laning State Park really comes to mind because it's a park that's located on the kind of at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and so you've got some beach habitat on one side of the park, and some dunes for you to see some of those, you know, shore birds and birds flying across the bay, but also you've got kind of marshes and swamps on the backside of the park for some of the smaller birds, like the warblers and the vireos. Kip to Peak State Park also comes to mind. It's located on the Eastern Shore, currently our only state park on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and it's really amazing because a ton of birds, when they migrate along the Atlantic Flyway in the fall, end up kind of getting funneled down the Eastern Shore, and a lot of them have to stop over or fly over Kip to Peak State Park, so birding in the fall. If you're on the coast, you gotta, gotta stop at Kipta Peak, and then a little more towards Northern Virginia, probably have to say Mason Neck State Park. It provides really great views of some forest habitat and some water habitat too. Birding on the coast is exciting because you get kind of this really good mix of habitats, but water is really the key when you're birding on the shore.
Jessica Bowser:What bird species are people most likely to see along the coast?
Even Spears:Pelicans definitely come to mind first. They're a really big water bird that you see often, seeing on docks and flying by over the bay, ospreys and bald eagles are two birding fan favorites that you could definitely see if you're keeping your eye to the sky when you're at the coast. One of the real attractions of the coast are the shore birds, so these are the birds that you'll see kind of running along the sand. The beach, or kind of hanging out in some of these muddy marshes, and usually with them too, we get a ton of herons and egrets, usually not as active as the shore birds, but they are more methodical, slow-moving birds that kind of move through these wet habitats and are kind of stalking usually little fish with the really long pointed bills in the fall, as I mentioned earlier, at Kipta Peak Raptor migration is really a really big attraction. Ton of hawks, vultures, and falcons get kind of funneled down along the eastern shore, going over there to Kipta Peak to see them kind of move through, and a single day you just see hundreds upon hundreds of hawks and raptors. It's really amazing.
Jessica Bowser:There's a hawk watch at Kip to Peak, right?
Even Spears:Yes, there is. Yeah, there's a hawk watch platform, and the hawk watch itself, which is usually staffed by someone working for the for the Coast of Virginia Wildlife Observatory, usually from August to November. Yeah, if you're lucky and you see one of those hawk counters out there, feel free to go up and chat with them for a few moments. They do have a job to do, and you know, counting these birds that are flying overhead, but they're more than happy to point out some of these migrating hawks for you. It's a really kind of unique experience.
Jessica Bowser:I love the Hawk Watch platform, because you can just, you could spend as much time or as little time as you want up there, and because you're with an expert, you've got somebody pointing out what's flying overhead, which for a beginner, or even somebody who's been doing it for a while, like me, it can be really tough to look at a tiny dot that's moving over you and know what it is, but when you've got an expert with you, they can tell by the shape of the bird, by the way the wings are being held, or how often they're flapping their wings, what they're seeing, and they're keeping track of all of that for scientific data. So, when you're with somebody who's an expert, you learn a lot.
Even Spears:It's a really amazing experience to actually get to hear from some of these hawk watchers and to see how they can identify a bird from, you know, half a mile away, just from the profile of how it flies, is truly a cool experience.
Jessica Bowser:We've only scratched the surface of Virginia's birding opportunities. In part two, Ranger Evan takes us beyond the coast to some of the most rewarding birding destinations, from eagle-filled wetlands and migration hotspots to mountain overlooks where ravens soar and warblers fill the forest with song. We'll also share practical tips to help you get started, no matter your experience level. That's all ahead next week in part two. Virginia Outdoor Adventures is inspired by and supported by listeners like you, which is why your messages and feedback means so much to me. You can text me directly by clicking on send Jessica a text message in your show notes. I answer questions, respond to comments, and share your feedback on the show. Never miss a new episode. Sign up for my email newsletter and receive my listener resource guide with the top podcast episodes, a Virginia Outdoor Bucket List, and exclusive brand discounts for my listeners. Click on newsletter sign up in your show notes, or visit Virginia Outdoor adventures.com Thanks for listening. Until next time, Adventure On,
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