THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610060081
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KIPTOPEKE LENGTH: 60 lines
Low purplish clouds rumpled the sky to the horizon early Saturday morning. 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, Penn., to enjoy the fourth annual Eastern Shore Birding Festival. They joined about 700 others who came from places like Washington, D.C., and Roanoke 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 morning canoe trip and False Cape State Park's chief ranger. He said 6,000 migrating hawks had been counted at Kiptopeke State Park in two days.
During Williamson's brief canoe tour of Racoon Creek, he identified a kingfisher and peregrine, sharp shinned hawks, coopers' 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 are 16 different tours - mostly short hikes through protected wildlife habitats - plus workshops and guest speakers.
On Saturday, bird watchers started arriving at the Sunset Beach Inn, center of the festival, at the break of dawn. Most carried binoculars. Some were weighted down with cameras and a variety of birdwatching gear. .
Event organizers had a line of school buses waiting behind the motel to take participants to their hike sites. Tents, filled with wares and exhibits, stretched behind the Inn to its bayside beach.
On Saturday morning, the 7:20 canoe trip was booked. Fourteen people piled out of the school bus at the refuge and into red and blue canoes waiting for them beside Racoon Creek. As they paddled quietly through the marshes, Williamson gave a running commentary on the wildlife and vegetation they passed.
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. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
TO PARTICIPATE
If you would like to participate in today's events, go early to
the Sunset Beach Inn near the north landing of the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge-Tunnel, and see which tours still have open slots. Many do.
Fee for the festival, which includes speakers and workshops, is $10
for adults and $5 for children. by CNB