HumanKind Campus Trails (formerly Presbyterian Home)

The HumanKind property lies in northern Lynchburg in the Boonsboro neighborhood. Habitats are variable and include streamside forests, successional fields, ag fields, and a large white pine stand. One edge of the property is bordered by Westminster Canterbury, a retirement community that attracts winter finches that may also be found at HumanKind due to proximity.

Through the mosaic of fields that makeup HumanKind, winter can be a tad slow. Perhaps the best winter birds on the property are Horned Lark and Merlin that are uncommon, but show with more frequency then other areas of the city. In spring the activity picks up as the martins and Tree Swallows return to their nesting colonies. In February, Blue-headed Vireos and Pine Warblers return to the pine forest and in March woodcocks display on a couple of the overgrown fields. In April and May the riparian corridor that splits the property rolls a continuous stream of warblers, tanagers, vireos, and thrushes down a creek from a small farm pond. The fields become home to transient meadowlarks, Savannah Sparrows, and the occasional Grasshopper Sparrow. The property tends to be one of the best areas of the city for White-eyed Vireo, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Blue Grosbeak during the summer doldrums. Fall may be HumanKinds’ most productive season. At this time of the year the overgrown fields become a stopover spot for transient boreal breeders and up to 11 species of sparrow at any given time. The prominent position of the property with its open skies allows a great vantage point to watch for migrating raptors and passerines.

HumanKind is a fairly recently discovered spot and has yet to produce many rarities. It is notable that in fall Vesper Sparrows have been found here, and there is one record of Marsh Wren from the small farm pond. Though the location is new, it has a ton of potential to bring in a rare passerine.

Accessibility: Though this property is own by a private non-profit organization, the outdoor amenities (including the trails) are open to the public.

eBird Hotspot: HumanKind Campus Trails (formerly Presbyterian Home)

Owner/Manager: HumanKind

—Logan Anderson

Riverside Park

Riverside Park, like Peaks View Park, is a pretty standard city park with pretty standard park birds. Also, like Peaks View, fall is the best time of the year to go birding here due to the abundance of fruiting trees. Tanagers and orioles are quite common in fall if you’re willing to sift through a tidal wave of catbirds. Where this park differs from Peaks View is that it lies a couple of hundred feet up a cliff from the James River. The park has a handful of trails with one leading to a platform overlooking the river. Here you may hear distant Yellow-throated Warblers and Northern Parulas singing downhill.

Accessibility: This park has ample public parking available in three lots. In addition to trails, it offers a host of amenities including public restrooms, picnic shelters, athletic courts, and a playground. For birders with an interest in history, it also has a transportation exhibit featuring railroad cars and the hull of a packet boat.

eBird Hotspot: Riverside Park

Owner/Manager: City of Lynchburg

—Logan Anderson

Ivy Creek Park

This small park, located on the edge of the city limits, has some pretty decent birding for its size. The park contains a large patch of overgrown brush and grasses, a small pond, open spaces, and wooded edges.

In the summer, Great Crested Flycatchers call from the oak woods surrounding the park and Green Herons hunt along the edges of the pond. The overgrown patch of brush is a sparrow’s heaven in the fall and winter. Nine species of sparrow have been recorded here; it is the city’s best spot for White-crowned Sparrow, and it is likely a good spot for even more uncommon species such as Fox and Clay-colored Sparrow.

Accessibility: This park has public parking and offers multi-use, ADA compliant trails. Clemmons Lake in the center of the park is also open to canoeing and kayaking, with rentals available on-site.

eBird Hotspot: Ivy Creek Park

Owner/Manager: City of Lynchburg

—Logan Anderson

James River Heritage Trail at Percival's Island Natural Area (City of Lynchburg)

The trail is short but the views are amazing. The section of trail within Lynchburg's city limits runs from the city-famous ‘LOVE’ sign to a wooden bridge that crosses to Percival’s Island in Amherst.

The best time to bird this trail system is from late spring through late summer. This is not a spot to look for waterfowl in the winter, although the occasional Mallard is seen here. In late spring species such as Yellow-throated Warblers, Prothonotary Warblers, orioles, and Warbling Vireos show up to breed and although most of them breed on the Amherst side, there is the odd bird that sings from the Lynchburg section of the trail. Great Egrets are sometimes seen foraging along the banks of the river and a pair of Bald Eagles that nest on the island are often seen soaring above the trail. In late summer the sky fills with the chatter and wingbeats of Chimney Swifts coming south in migration accompanied by a handful of swallows and nighthawks, grabbing a bite to eat over the river in the last few moments of daylight.

Accessibility: The trail to Percival’s Island is part of the Lynchburg Riverwalk, which in turn links with other trails in the city. There is a public parking area directly adjacent to Percival’s Island.

eBird Hotspot: James River Heritage Trail at Percival’s Island Natural Area (City of Lynchburg)

Owner/Manager: City of Lynchburg

—Logan Anderson

Peaks View Park

Peaks View Park is the stereotypical city park with extensive athletic fields, wooded trails, and a frisbee golf course. The only difference between this and your standard city park is that this park, Lynchburg’s second largest, is absolutely massive and seemingly unending!

In winter, I recommend hitting the frisbee golf course. The course navigates a juniper forest that provides food and shelter for mixed sparrow flocks, sapsuckers, and thrushes. Massive flocks of waxwings will congregate in the mixed juniper and dogwood forest surrounding the frisbee golf course.

In spring the best places to bird are the creekside and wooded trails. Migrant warblers, tanagers, orioles, and other songbirds are pretty common here. 

As with most places, summer birding here can be pretty boring. Peaks View Park may seem like yet another location where birders cannot escape the monotonous singing of Red-eyed Vireos and Indigo Buntings but there are a few over summering species that may be worth the stop for passing listers. The park boasts a good list of breeding flycatchers and is bountiful with Orchard Orioles.

Fall is where things get interesting. The park is chock full of berrying plants that fruit from August through November. Mixed foraging flocks can be easily viewed in many of the juniper, black gum, and dogwood trees that surround the frisbee golf course. It’s at this time of the year when Chipping Sparrows start to group up and its always worth a check of these flocks to see if a Savannah Sparrow has joined in.

Accessibility: The park has three entrances, located at Ardmore Drive, Tenbury Drive, and Ivy Creek Lane off of Wiggington Road. It also serves as an access point for the Ivy Creek Greenway, which is a paved, ADA compliant trail.

eBird Hotspot: Peaks View Park

Owner/Manager: City of Lynchburg

—Logan Anderson

Blackwater Creek Natural Area

The Blackwater Creek Natural Area contains an extensive system of creekside trails that wind their way through the city’s heart. Blackwater Creek Natural Area also incorporates other hotspots such as College Lake, Ruskin Freer Nature Preserve, Hollin’s Mill Park, and Percival’s Island within its network of trails. These trails are surrounded by a fairly monotypic forest made up of standard Piedmont oak-hickory woodlands with good numbers of tulip-poplar and sycamore.

The species here are pretty standard for a wooded creek in the southern Piedmont. I recommend birding Blackwater Creek by bike in the spring. This park delivers a double whammy in spring with its diversity in flowering plants and in spring migrants. With luck, you may even be able to pull a Cerulean Warbler out of the many migrants you can encounter along these trails in the spring. This spot is the only known location for breeding Kentucky Warblers in the city as well and they can be accessed via the Randolph Place entrance. 

The creek does hold a couple of records of Mourning Warbler and according to archived records in Lynchburg Bird Club collection, there is a record of Bachman’s Sparrow from here.

Accessibility: This spot features a paved trail that is open to both foot and bike traffic. There are two access points: Ed Page, located at 1720 Langhorne Road; and East Randolph Place, located at 340 East Randolph Place. Both access points have public parking, and the Ed Page access has restroom facilities.

eBird Hotspot: Blackwater Creek Natural Area

Owner/Manager: City of Lynchburg

—Logan Anderson

University of Lynchburg--College Lake

College Lake is a property owned by the University of Lynchburg that hosts trail access linking up with both the Blackwater Creek trail systems and the University’s own network of trails that follows one half of the lake’s bank. The trails may be accessed by a small parking lot next to the University’s baseball field and tennis courts. Birding at College Lake can be hit or miss and this is true year-round.

In winter, Brown Creeper and Winter Wren are often seen more easily here than in most locations in Lynchburg. The cattail marshes are loaded with wintering Swamp Sparrows and the edges of the wetland can hide snipe and waterfowl.

The best time of the year to bird College Lake is spring. These woods are incredibly diverse in plant species and forested habitats, offering food resources for many species of migrating songbirds. The muddy banks of the two feeder streams that flow into the lake are good spots for finding species such as Solitary Sandpipers, Green Herons, and both waterthrushes.

Summer can be a bit slower but Baltimore Orioles have been recorded late into the season indicating possible breeding attempts. Historically the lake has recorded waders such as Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, and Tricolored Heron. The lake has been shrinking in recent years due to silt buildup. This may deter wading birds from using this location in the future but the silt buildup has created ample habitat for shorebirds. Shorebirding here can be iffy but on days with shorebird fallout, this is a must-hit within the city.

This site holds the city’s only records of Tricolored Heron, White Ibis, Purple Gallinule, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Limpkin! Other notable records include White-winged Scoter, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Virginia Rail, Forster’s Tern, Semipalmated Plover, Marsh Wren, and Sedge Wren.

eBird Hotspot: University of Lynchburg--College Lake

Owner/Manager: University of Lynchburg

—Logan Anderson

Reusen's Dam

For the uninitiated, Reusen’s reservoir can seem to be a bland spot offering fleeting glimpses of birds on a small section of the James River. VDGIF allows public access up the tracks to a small train bridge. This quarter-mile walk can offer some of the most productive habitats in the city.

On especially cold winter days, when most of the local ponds have frozen over, Reusen’s is a must-hit. This spot has been known to produce decent waterfowl counts as well as hard city birds such as Common Loon and Horned Grebe. The small marsh up the tracks is a great spot for species such as Winter Wren and Swamp Sparrow, and it may even harbor the occasional flock of Rusty Blackbirds.

Spring migration is decent along the tracks. Good swallow flocks can be seen above the railroad tracks and warbler flocks flit their way down the treeline along the river. 

This spot hosts breeding Baltimore Orioles, Warbling Vireos, Yellow-throated Warblers, and Yellow Warblers. A local pair of Bald Eagles patrols this stretch and Ospreys are not uncommon either. Reusen’s is perhaps Lynchburg’s best spot for wading birds. In late summer Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Green Heron are all expected. This stretch of river has also seen Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, and Little Blue Heron. 

In recent years, a mudflat has been growing and has overtaken much of the far side of the marsh. With it, there has been an increase in shorebird diversity and abundance. Killdeer and Spotted Sandpipers have been year-round for the past few years, with more notable records such as Dunlin as well. Migrant songbird flocks may also be seen along the edge of the woods.

Locally notable records from this site include Tundra Swan, Eared Grebe, Dunlin, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, and Marsh Wren.

Below Reusens Dam, half the river is Amherst and half the river is Lynchburg. Above the dam the whole river is Lynchburg to Judith Creek where Bedford starts and shares the river half and half with Amherst. Judith Creek is entirely within Bedford county making any foraging waders and shorebirds in the creek safely within Bedford.

Accessibility: Though the dam is private, access is permitted along the quarter-mile section of train tracks to the rail bridge.

eBird Hotspot: Reusen’s Dam

—Logan Anderson