ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KIPTOPEKE
SOURCE: KAREN JOLLY DAVIS LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Low purplish clouds rumpled the sky. Occasionally, the sun would break through in the distance, sending streamers of yellow light down to the Atlantic.
Five canoes paddled quietly through the narrow seaside creeks of the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. Before them, thousands of migrating tree swallows, their white bellies shining like fireflies, rose from the salt marsh.
``This is so neat,'' gasped Bob Vauer. ``It was worth the whole trip.''
Vauer and his wife, Jane, traveled from Palmyra, Pa., to enjoy the fourth annual Eastern Shore Birding Festival earlier this month. They joined about 700 others who came to ogle the amazing number and variety of migrating birds that collect at the tip of Northampton County this time of year.
The bird watchers have not been disappointed.
``The hawk flight has been impressive,'' said Gary Williamson, tour guide for the canoe trip and False Cape State Park's chief ranger. He said 6,000 migrating hawks were counted at Kiptopeke State Park in two days.
During Williamson's brief canoe tour of Raccoon Creek, he identified a kingfisher and peregrine, sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper's hawks, cormorants, two types of herons, osprey, egrets, red-beaked oystercatchers, pied-billed grebes, mallards and even a merlin falcon.
``We're so fortunate in Virginia to have a place like the Eastern Shore,'' Williamson said to his tour group.
The Birding Festival, sponsored by the local chamber of commerce, was created to showcase the Eastern Shore's natural resources and stimulate the local economy.
This year, there were 16 different tours - mostly short hikes through protected wildlife habitats - plus workshops and guest speakers. The canoe trip was booked solid. Some participants asked questions. But most, like Bob Vauer, were awed into silence by the beauty of the marsh.
``This is almost a spiritual or religious experience, to come out here at this time of day,'' Vauer said.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB