Fairies, stones, and Jesus Christ

I'm visiting my girlfriend this weekend at her farm outside Mt. Airy, NC and we decided to take a short trip up the road this morning to Fairy Stone State Park in southwestern Virginia. Neither of us had been there before and it sounded intriguing. My first question was "what the heck is a fairy stone"? Well, it turns out that the park is home to a unique type of stone crystal that is shaped like a crucifix or other cross-like shape and are otherwise known as staurolite, comprised of iron, silicate, and aluminum. According to the VA State Parks brochure,  they were formed through a specific combination of heat and pressure due to the crumpling and folding of the Earth's crust  during the formation of the Appalachian Mountains. So why call them "fairy stones"? According to legend, "fairies" roamed freely in this certain area of the Blue Ridge foothills and took joy in the enchantedness of the area. It is said that an elfin messenger arrived one day bringing the news of Jesus Christ's death, to which the fairies wept immensely when they heard the details of the crucifixion. Their tears crystallized into stone crosses upon hitting the ground, and although the fairies are now long gone these "Fairy Stones" remain.

 Top: Entrance sign to Fairy Stone State Park

Bottom: Trail through mixed pine/hardwoods along lakeshore

We hiked about five miles through the park this morning, meandering through mixed upland forest, along a lakeshore, and even visiting a defunct iron mine by the historic town of Fayerdale, Virginia- which was flooded in 1930 during the creation of Fairy Stone Lake. The park was the largest of Virginia's original six state parks, largely created and built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Top: Looking out at Fairy Stone Lake from the dam

Bottom: an entrance to a shaft of the historic iron mine in the park.

Birdwise, we saw nothing out of the ordinary this morning. However, I had never birded Patrick County, VA before so everything we saw/heard over the course of out excursion was a county bird for me (all ~30 species). Fairy Stone Lake held nary a single waterfowl of any sort, and the interior deciduous/mixed forest held only the expected winter residents such as chickadees, titmice, and kinglets. A single Red-headed Woodpecker and a handful of hyper Pine Siskins were the best birds of the day.  The 45-minute drive from Lauren's farm to the park, however was a scenic one. Winding through foothills valleys of rural southwestern Virginia, small family farms with modest, early-century farmhouses were not an uncommon sight. American Kestrels occasionally dotted the powerpoles, and Eastern Bluebirds were a constant fixture along powerlines. Tomorrow we will likely spend the morning birding around Winston-Salem, NC before I depart tomorrow afternoon to head back to Georgia.