UVA Wise

Elevation: 2464 ft., The 400-acre campus of UVA Wise offers a variety of habitats that serve as home to a diversity of wildlife. In addition to manicured lawns typical of most college campuses, this site offers large fields, dense brush thickets, young and old-growth woodland forests, reclaimed strip-mines, ponds, and creeks. An interpretive trail educating viewers on the historical legacy of coal mining in the area runs alongside a series of wetlands at the campus’s center. Six ponds of varying sizes are located in the more remote areas of campus and produce an assortment of migrant shorebirds and waterfowl as well as nesting birds such as green heron. Woodland forests are home to a large number of nesting birds including wood warblers, vireos, and other typical woodland songbirds. Red-shouldered hawk often nests in these woods, as well. Throughout the campus, you will find an abundance of open land songbirds like song sparrow and American robin. In spring and/or fall, look for migrant warblers, thrushes, tanagers, vireos, grosbeaks, and sparrows.