Virginia Birding & Wildlife Trail

Boxerwood has been chosen as a site for the Western Phase of the VA Birding & Wildlife Trail. The trail is designed to link and publicize outstanding birding and wildlife viewing sites throughout the state. VA's Watchable Wildlife Program, under the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, is developing the project in an effort to promote ecotourism in Virginia. The Program has produced and distributed a map of the Western Phase of the Trail with descriptions of each site as well as directions. The birds, squirrels, turtles, humans and all other wildlife here are very excited to have been chosen and eagerly await the visitors the trail will attract, with the hope that the more people who realize the importance of our home here, the more protected it will be!

Come by Munger Lodge, our Welcome Center, to get a birding list and other information on our birds, their habitats, and what you can feed them.

“The garden’s current bird list contains over forty species. Common species such as mourning dove, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, blue jay, and northern cardinal are more easily seen than the skulking but vocal gray catbird, brown thrasher and eastern towhee. The many towering trees of the area are home to downy, red-bellied and pileated woodpeckers as well as yellow-bellied sapsuckers during the winter months.

“The garden’s two ponds host eastern painted turtle and the occasional snapping turtle, while their banks buzz with dragonflies such as common whitetail, common green darner and eastern pond hawk. The abundant blooming flowers attract a variety of swallowtails with the vibrant eastern tiger swallowtail being an almost constant companion.”

Discover Our Wild Side: Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries - Robert Tizard

Bird Count, Winter 2010:  Birders identified a total of 71 species and 6,320 individual birds that day, as well as five additional species recorded during “count week,” which is three days immediately prior to and after count day.  Areas around Boxerwood were included in the bird count.  The following birds were counted: Great blue heron, 8; black vulture, 91; turkey vulture, 221; Canada goose, 338; American black duck, 6; mallard, 146; northern pintail, 1, gadwall, 36; redhead, 2; hooded merganser, 9; ruddy duck, 1 (count week); bald eagle, 3; northern harrier, 2; sharp-shinned hawk, 5; Cooper’s hawk, 4; red-shouldered hawk, 8; red-tailed hawk, 21; kestrel, 6; wild turkey, 17; American coot, 2: killdeer, 4; common snipe, 1; rock pigeon, 310; mourning dove, 378; eastern screech-owl, 8; great horned owl, 1 (count week); belted kingfisher, 6;Also, red-bellied woodpecker, 42; yellow-bellied sapsucker, 23; downy woodpecker, 35; hairy woodpecker, 7; northern flicker, 8; pileated woodpecker, 11; eastern phoebe, 5; blue jay, 276; American crow, 899; fish crow, 5; common raven, 14; black-capped chickadee, 162; Carolina chickadee, 49; tufted titmouse, 96; red-breasted nuthatch, 7: white-breasted nuthatch, 30; brown creeper, 8; Carolina wren, 43; winter wren, 4; golden-crowned kinglet, 52; rubycrowned kinglet, 8;Also, eastern bluebird, 121; hermit thrush, 36; American robin, 94; northern mockingbird, 39; European starling, 690; American pipit, 18; cedar waxwing, 1 (count week); yellow-rumped warbler, 34; eastern towhee, 12; American tree sparrow, 1; field sparrow, 23; fox sparrow, 11; song sparrow, 81; swamp sparrow, 3; white-throated sparrow, 623; white-crowned sparrow, 52; dark-eyed junco, 542; northern cardinal, 234; red-winged blackbird, 28; eastern meadowlark, 43; rusty blackbird, 2; common grackle, 2 (count week); purple finch, 64; house finch, 54; pine siskin, 5 (count week); American goldfinch, 102; and house sparrow, 2. This is part of the January 5, 2011 online edition of The News-Gazette

Take a look at the research done on Birds of Rockbridge County by Richard Rowe, Professor at Lexington's Virginia Military Institute: Birds of Rockbridge County Webpage and the Photo Gallery