BBC Foray 2011, Tucker County, WV

The Brooks Bird Club Foray is an annual event but this year was my first time to attend. It was a little like the Sortie the previous week but included more people and more activities. The usual morning bird walks happened along with plant identification. I focused on Lepidoptera and Odonata as my contribution, searching for, identifying and recording finds.

Early morning near the campsite in Parsons.

We stayed in Tucker County, WV near Parsons. Our travels included Canaan Valley, Blackwater Falls, Dolly Sods, Olsons Bog, Fernow Experimental Forest and well just about everywhere in the county. Below are photos of Olson's Bog near Canaan Valley.

View from Pendleton Point in Blackwater Falls State Park.  We took a side trail that lead us under the rock at the base of this photo and found the fossil pictured below.

It is a tree fossil and I believe someone said it was a Lepidodendron.  It wa about the length of my fore arm.

Antother day we drove up along one of the ridges to find invasive species.  We had just had a class on them and were competing in a invasive species scavenger hunt.  Above you can see windmils in the distant. They are very common in this part of West Virginia.

I took this photo to have a good example of the ridge and valley formation.

While we were up on the rigde we stopped at his house to pick some invasive plants. Below is the out house.

The owners of this house obviously have a good sense of humor as well as a fantastic view.

My last day on the foray I spent at Fernow Experimental Forest. It had rained the night before so this stream was full of water and there were land snails all about. I have never seen so many in one location.

There was just so much to see and experience that I decided to post flowers in another blog.

Be sure to visit other places at My World Tuesday.