The eagles find themselves in a sort of environmental updraft since the early 2000’s when the federal government took the thriving birds off its endangered species list, with more states following suit, and culturally, too, they’re soaring.
As I waited at the entrance to the Claytor Nature Center on Saturday morning, I looked across the field to see two Canada geese herding five fuzzy goslings, while a wild turkey poked around nearby.
A grasshopper sparrow, which sounds like an insect, buzzed in the field, while a blue grosbeak sang from a perch above my head.
We couldn’t have asked for a better day for a bird count. I joined one of 16 groups that were looking and listening for birds on either side of the Peaks of Otter in a tradition that goes back 54 years.
In 1971, the Lynchburg Bird Club and the Roanoke Valley Bird Club started a …
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