December 2001...In December we did two Christmas bird counts. We also got away from the crowds and went North the weekend before Christmas. We stayed in a Victorian Bed & Breakfast, did some "Birding-American Style" (from the car, because the weather was awful), bought a lot of our favorite porcelain hand-thrown pottery by Bill Campbell, and learned why "Pennsylvania Wine" is not a household term. November 2001...The highlight of November was a backpacking trip to Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia. Peter showed us an area we'd never hiked through and it was Kevin's first trip into this Wilderness. Dolly Sods is spectacular with hundreds of waterfalls, alpine meadows, and occasional sweeping views. We camped on Rocky Point near the Lion's Head so we could get a good seat for the annual Leonid meteor shower. We crawled out of our warm sleeping bags around 4:00am for one of the most spectacular celestial events we'd ever seen. Our view was nearly 360 degrees of cloudless sky. We didn't get any pictures of the meteors, but below are a few more of the weekend trip.
October 2001...October was a rock climbing month. We managed to get out to our local crag (Great Falls) for several hours over a few weekends, then we spent a weekend at Stone Mountain near Elkin, NC. "Stone" is a unique place; it is a large granite dome that is nearly featureless, so most of the climbing is strictly friction (i.e. no holds to speak of). This makes for some interesting climbing since there is nothing to really grab on to; balance and smearing on the smallest little features were the keys to success.
September 2001...In September, we went backpacking in Otter Creek Wilderness Area, a place with the largest variety of mushrooms we've ever seen. Consequently, about 90% of our pictures from the trip were of fungi.
At the end of the month, Karen had some work-related training in Denver-- her first trip to Colorado. So, as soon as her training was done, we headed for the mountains. We decided to climb Mt. Massive, which is Colorado's 2nd highest mountain (14,421 ft), then finish the weekend visiting Colorado Springs where Jordan went to High School. Mt. Massive is all that! The guide book says that this mountain has more square area above 14,000 feet than any other in the lower 48 states. It is, well, massive. Anyway, check out the images taken from and around Mt. Massive in Colorado. August 2001...August was a busy month. We started the month with a pelagic birding trip out of Manteo, North Carolina. We saw a few new bird species, but in general just a whole lot of birds. It still amazes me that so many birds live on the ocean. In particular is the Wilson's Storm-Petrel. These little guys dangle their feet in the water to attract plankton and other small edibles, but occasionally attract bigger things. While trolling along the Sargassum floats (which are a nursery for many species) we saw baby pipefish, hundreds of flying fish, nearly a dozen tiny sea turtles, schools of baby squid, and small schools of Sargassum filefish. For the second weekend of the month we meet Karen's family for a reunion. Most of the pictures are on the Family Reunion Page. Here is a group shot (...and a much larger version). Then we spent 8 days on a SCUBA vacation to Bonaire in the Southern Caribbean. This small island is part of the Netherlands Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao (or ABC Islands), and is just off the Venezuela coast. We stayed at Buddy Dive resort, and were generally impressed with the accommodations and their dive staff. The diving was fantastic and we managed to get a few photos below and above water. Please check out the Bonaire 2001 page for all the images. Here's a few to entice you to the look at the rest.
July 2001...In July, we escaped to the Florida Keys for a quick weekend of SCUBA diving in John Pennekamp State Park. We saw lobsters, barred hamlet, silversides, groupers, and barracuda.
June 2001...We've enjoyed watching the hummingbirds at our window hummingbird feeders! We have at least 3 males and 4 females, but there could be more. We have also been watching baby red-bellied, downy, and hairy woodpeckers in our yard as well as immature chickadees, sparrows, cardinals, and grackles.
We took our first pelagic birding trip in June. The boat left the Delaware dock at 4:00am and we returned about 12 hours later. The trip took us about 60 miles out and we roamed around the Delaware/Maryland border part of the time. We didn't see a large number of species; however, since we had never seen any of the ocean birds before, it was all good. For bird species, we found greater, sooty, and Cory's shearwaters, Wilson's storm-petrels, a number of terns and gulls, and Delaware's third-ever South polar skua. This bird was amazing! It circled about 20 feet above the boat several times before landing on the water not too far away. We also saw common dolphins riding the bow wave of several fin whales, and a few loggerhead sea turtles.
May 2001...We celebrated our 2nd anniversary at a B&B in Chincoteague, VA.: The Year of the Horse Inn. The private deck was a perfect place to watch the sunset or wait for birds as the tides moved in and out. With our spotting scope, we watched shorebirds at low tide, such as the striking American oystercatcher. The Inn is owned and operated by Richard Hebert, and we recommend his place if you are looking for a getaway on Chincoteague Island. It is one of only three places on historic Chincoteague Island to be a nominated site on Virginia's Eastern Shore Birding & Wildlife Trail.
For Mother's Day we spent the weekend in Shenandoah with Jordan's family. Our niece, Tamara, seemed to enjoy scrambling on the rocks on some of the trails, so we'll try to talk her into some rock climbing soon. Karen attended her sister's wedding shower in Massachusetts.
We took a backpacking trip in Otter Creek, WV over Memorial Day Weekend. Otter Creek is part of the Monongahela National Forest. It is classified as wilderness area, so the trails are not maintained except in the name of safety. It was the first time we had been there together, so we enjoyed a casual hike in, then a day-hike from camp. Otter Creek is spectacular, it has alpine meadows and heavily-forested, steep-walled river canyons (steep for the east coast anyway). The habitat changes from conifer to deciduous forests, interspersed with a dense rhododendron understory. The wildlife diversity is amazing, and Karen says the mushrooms that show up in late summer are the most spectacular display she's ever seen. We only saw a few on this past trip, but it was still early.
April 2001...We volunteered time salvaging marsh plants at Jones Point Park in Washington DC. This area, which encompasses the closest bald eagle nesting site to DC, is being torn up to build the replacement for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. We spent two days pulling rare or beneficial plants form the marsh area to be used in restoration projects elsewhere in the county. It was estimated that on the first day, we helped remove over $100,000 worth of plants. Later in the month, Karen, Emily, & Nicole spent a weekend relaxing at quaint cottage in Whitestone, VA. Despite the "gnattage", they enjoyed watching the ospreys nesting on nearby docks, sipping blender drinks, and listening to the calls of migrating loons.
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