When Archives Take Flight

CE Opportunity! “When Archives Take Flight: The Bridgewater College Birding Journal, 1918 and 1947- 1950” with Stephanie Gardner The program for the Rockingham Bird Club‘s December meeting will be presented by HMN Stephanie Gardner. The public is invited. While inventorying treasures of the library vault, Bridgewater College Special Collections Librarian Stephanie Gardner rediscovered a historic birding notebook.…

Stargazing

HMN-Led Presentation and Possible Future CE Opportunity for HMNs I led a small and informal stargazing session on Thursday, October 27, at Starry Meadows, a farm near Linville owned by Sharon and Jay Landis, participants in the most recent Headwaters class. They have been hosting numerous bird walks there, but had expressed an interest in…

Black Bear Tour 2022

HMNs Host Their Annual Tour of a Local Large Scale Composting Operation Under a recent late afternoon, cloud-streaked, vivid blue sky, some 15 folks from around the Valley gathered at the compost facility in Crimora, run by Black Bear Composting, to learn how microbes are managed to turn waste into a valuable product. Owner/ operator…

Salamander Hunt

On the evening of Saturday, October 15th, a group of about 12 master naturalists and friendsmet in Harrisonburg to carpool up to Shenandoah Mountain in search of salamanders andpossibly other amphibians. Billy Flint, a James Madison University herpetologist who has devoted his life to studying salamanders and preserving their habitats, led us along the trail…

Mushrooms and More at the Arboretum

On September 17, a beautiful Saturday afternoon, seven Headwaters Chapter members plus one guest were led on a mushroom hunt by our own Peggy Plass at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at James Madison University. Fortunately, she did not cancel under threat of uncooperative weather, i.e., being too dry. First Peggy taught us three important…