Shared by Monica Hoel, as Guest Blogger.

Three Days of Birding Activities at Hungry Mother State Park's Birding Adventure 

You are invited to enjoy three days of fully-fledged birding activities and exciting programs for all skill levels. This includes hikes, kayak tours, children's activities, and presentations from local birding and nature enthusiasts.

A Tree Swallow enjoying Virginia State Parks

During the Hungry Mother State Park Birding Adventure you can prowl the dark woods for owls, learn to be better listeners of songs and calls, find out how to attract a range of birds to your own backyard, and you can even find out how to properly use those binoculars gathering dust up on a shelf.

Bring the whole family out to Hungry Mother State Park for a weekend of birding adventures on May 1 - 3, 2015. The early bird gets the worm, so plan to arrive early to enjoy a full day of activities - discover the schedule here.

Around my house in the summertime there are a couple of Eastern Towhees that never seem to stop calling to each other. The birding experts (ornithologists) say their song sounds like “Drink yourrr teeeeea!” but I hear it as “WEEE HOOO, chickachickachickachicka!” It gets to be crazy monotonous.

Last summer I went out of town for a long weekend with friends, and when I got home I stepped out of the car the first thing I heard was “WEEE HOOO!” After being so tired of that call, I found I was so happy to hear it that I almost cried. When I tried to explain this odd phenomenon to a friend she grinned wryly and said, “That’s your husband!”

Hearing that call over and over seemed to solidify my need to identify the birds I see and hear.

The table in front of my window always has a Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds, my phone has a Sibley’s E-Guide to Birds app with bird song recordings, and my computer is bookmarked to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. It’s not really an obsession, it just that resources are important because it’s not that easy to identify birds. A friend who teaches earth science always argues that rocks are better than birds, she says:

Rocks will lie there and let you look at them – birds fly away 

Birds may seem a little frustrating like that until you get to know them, and then they can change everything about your day.

A White-throated Sparrow at Virginia State Parks

Friends of Hungry Mother State Park won a Public Lands Day Every Day Grant (funded by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, and the National Environmental Education Foundation) for the birding adventure – and this seems especially perfect for Hungry Mother. These grants are intended to build better engagement between the community and public lands, and seek to “keep the promise of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the ‘tree army’ that worked from 1933-1942 to preserve and protect America’s natural heritage.” Since Hungry Mother State Park was built by the CCC and opened in 1936, it is on the National Registry of Historic Places, and remains very relevant by energetically providing a great place for recreation and interactive environmental education programs.

If you wish for the activity outside your window to transform into something less vague than flaps and chirps, consider spending some time getting to know your birds by name and sight and sound. The Hungry Mother State Park Bird Adventure just might change everything about your day.

The schedule for the day can be found online here, and directions to Hungry Mother State Park can be found online here.