ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605210003
SECTION: DISCOVER PAGE: 24 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
Sometimes, the group that trails after Phyllis Spiegel Crooke is just this much quieter than a herd of elephants.
But other times, a few yards from a laurel thicket or a pond, the members shift their weight about quietly, creeping forward on light feet, like the birds.
And indeed, it is birds they often seek on these early morning treks - Crooke likes to be out around 6:30 or 7 a.m., before other hikers can scare off the critters that inhabit the trees, fields and birdhouses of the New River Valley.
Crooke is a birdwatcher, and the folks that follow her on her morning expeditions are learning the art of birding. They're on the hunt for a scarlet tanager. Or a wild turkey with her young.
At the very least, they'll see a blue bird or a sparrow.
"Don't go out looking for a specific thing you'll be devestated if don't find," Crooke warns. "You may see four other really cool things instead."
Birding doesn't require many tools - a good field guide, a notebook, a pair of walking shoes and a decent pair of binoculars.
But it has its rewards, its pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or even the rainbow itself.
You may, for instance, see a wood duck floating along the New River in Parrot.
"That's always an 'ooh-ah bird,'" Crooke says. "They get three ooh-ahs from me. The colors would look gaudy on a person, but the duck seems to carry it off quite well."
It's best to go out with an experienced birder the first time, says Crooke, a member of the New River Valley Bird Club and owner of For the Birds, a Blacksburg shop.
Experienced birders can teach you the right way to focus your binoculars, for example, or the art of "pishing."
Crooke demonstrates. "Pss pss pss pss." It's the scolding note of a song bird.
"It sounds fussy," Crooke says, and it usually gets other birds crying out, too, so they're easier to spot. The "pss" sound is one some birds use when they're chasing their predators away. Humans have to be careful when they employ it.
You can't use it near the birds' young, for example - it causes them too much unneeded stress. And you can't do it in plain sight of the birds. "Otherwise, they'll come down and see it's you and leave."
Crooke teaches beginning birding several times a year through either the Department of Parks and Recreation or the YMCA's Open University.
She recommends a few spots for beginners.
The New River Valley Bird Club has a walking trail set up around the Corporate Research Center. Bird boxes along the way attract bluebirds, tree swallows and others by the mid summer.
The walking trails around Pandapas Pond are also sure bets, though the parking area is under construction, which could chase some birds away.
"It's especially nice if you walk in the off times, before the fishermen," Crooke said.
It is along those walking trails that you might see the scarlet tanagers, with their church-carpet red feathers and black velvety wings. Or you might spot the warblers near the beaver pond.
Some of the best spotters are children, Crooke says, if they're quiet and interested in birds.
"When we have young children, 9 or 10, they spot the most birds. They're at a good height and they see a lot of the nesting birds."
At nights during the summer, if you listen, you can hear the birds singing or screeching - even the owls at Virginia Tech's Duck Pond.
Tech's Jerry Via usually does a "Songs of the Night" program through the Museum of Natural History. At the end of the program, he calls to the owls and they call back. For more details, call the museum.
For more information on the bird club, call Crooke at 953-3452.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. A rose-breasted grosbeak - member ofby CNBan endangered species - perches among cherry blossoms in Floyd
County. color.