The Rivanna Rambler

July 3, 2008

This show originally aired in April 25, 2007 and then again on July 3, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net

 

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On a sunny Sunday in April, we finally cast the lines off the boat and leave for a trial run to the Potomac after a long marina-bound winter. With a sweet 12 knot breeze out of the east, we are soon under sail skipping across the Potomac from Virginia to Maryland. The river is mostly empty of boats, a few April adventurers and other folks who know that this can be one of the best times on the Chesapeake and her rivers. And we have other company, too.
In the distance, the dive and plunge of birds, repeated again and again, catches my attention. Instinct suggests, and my binoculars confirm, that I am seeing Northern Gannets flocking and fishing. I know these birds from my time working on the ocean,

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This show originally aired on May 3, 2007 and then again on May 22, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

May 22, 2008

They call it The Dragon, headwaters to the Piankatank, a sinuous flow of water through marsh and wetland that bisects the Middle Peninsula of Virginia.  You should not attempt to paddle this river without local knowledge, everyone says, before they add ominously, “or you will get lost.”

But we won’t get lost because today we’re with the Friends of Dragon Run,

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April 10, 2008

 

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This show originally aired on April 10, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

Photo of shadbush by Dudley Rochester.

This is one of those weeks that you can literally watch the hourly changes as spring bursts forth. It’s hard to know where to put your attention, amidst all the flowering trees – the dogwoods blooming on cue for the Festival, the audacious magenta flowering crabapple, redbud blossoms lining dark branches in perfect counterpoint, like tiny purple Christmas lights.

In this area, if spring seems to be moving too fast, you can always travel to a higher elevation and catch it again. If I were headed to the hills, the one tree I’d still be looking for is the serviceberry, whose white showy flowers have always been a reliable marker of spring, but pass so quickly that you may have only a few days before the wind snatches them from the bud and soft green leaves unfurl in their place.

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March 21, 2008

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Photo by Dudley Rochester

Most landscapes are filled with textures, the complex interweaving of habitat edges, vegetative cover, seasonal changes, all illuminated and made unique by the time of day and season, the weather, the degree of human disturbance or succession into its next natural phase.

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Bird-watching, like other outdoor pastimes that have a specific focus, provides another lens through which to see and understand a watershed. This week, the Rambler joins the Monticello Bird Club for a morning tour of sites in northern Albemarle County.

 

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This show originally aired on January 31, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

Recently, I have been thinking about the variety of ways one can get to know the watershed. You can take to the water, by canoe or kayak, by jon boat, or propelled by oars. If you don’t have a boat, you can observe from water’s edge, along public trails and at parks that snug the banks of rivers and streams. From bridges, you can see a whole lot, too – so by foot, by bike, by car, even, you can start to know the waterways and the vistas, a sense of the terrain. And there’s also the manner of seeing, focusing on habitat, or geology, or plants. Last week, I joined some folks from the Monticello Bird Club and exercised my vision in yet another way.

Now, I am not what you might think of as a birder.

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