Click to listen to episode (4:14). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Extra Information Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-15-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 18, 2019. SOUNDS – ~4 sec This week, that raspy call opens an episode about several species of small frogs that share a common group name but differ in sound and distribution.  Have a listen for about 10 seconds to two species recorded simultaneously, and see if you know the name of this frog group.  And here’s a hint: to get the key word, gather a lot of harmonious singers, or skip over a song’s verses. SOUNDS - ~11 sec If you guessed chorus frogs, you’re right!  You heard the creaky call of Mountain Chorus Frogs along with the single notes of Spring Peepers, two of seven chorus frog species in Virginia.  The other five are the Little Grass Frog and four more species with “chorus frog” in their name: Brimley’s, New Jersey, Southern, and Upland chorus frogs.  As a group, they’re noted for their choruses of calling males advertising for mates in breeding season.  Those calls vary among the species in pitch, tone, and how quickly sounds are repeated.  The species also differ in their distribution in Virginia: Spring Peepers occur statewide, and Upland Chorus Frogs are found in much of the state, but the other five occupy narrower ranges in the Commonwealth. The Mountain Chorus Frog, which in Virginia is found primarily in the southwestern corner, is getting special scientific attention in 2019.  Scientists Kevin Hamed, at Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon, and Wally Smith, at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, are leading a project this year to learn more about that species’ distribution.  Collaborating with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and funded by the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia, they’re inviting other Virginians, especially K-12 students, to look and listen for this species and to submit information on any encounters.  To learn more about the project, or to submit Mountain Chorus Frog observations, go online to vhcc.edu/mtchorusfrog. Thanks to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from A Guide to the Frogs and Toads of Virginia.  We close with a medley of calls from the seven chorus frogs found in Virginia, in alphabetical order. Have a listen for about 20 seconds, and see if you can recall their names. SOUNDS - ~ 22 sec – Short call segments of Brimley’s Chorus Frog, Little Grass Frog, Mountain Chorus Frog, New Jersey Chorus Frog, Southern Chorus Frog, Spring Peeper, and Upland Chorus Frog. SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The frog sound in this episode were from “The Calls of Virginia Frogs and Toads” CD, copyright 2008 by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Lang Elliott/NatureSound Studio, used with permission.  For more information, see http://www.shopdgif.com/product.cfm?uid=1928838&context=&showInactive=N, or contact the Department at P.O. Box 90778, Henrico, VA 23228-0778; phone: (804) 367-1000 (VTDD); e-mail: [email protected].  Lang Elliott’s work is available

Click to listen to episode (5:00). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Extra Information Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-8-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 11, 2019. SOUNDS – ~ 6 sec This week we feature a severe-weather mystery sound.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds, and see if you can guess what this sound might mean on a warm, stormy day or night, any time of year. SOUNDS - ~ 20 sec If you guessed a tornado warning, you’re right!  You heard Virginia Tech’s warning siren, first during Virginia’s 2011 statewide tornado drill, and then—along with rain and thunder—during a real tornado-warning for the Blacksburg area in the early morning of April 28, 2011. As the state of Alabama and the nation grieve over 23 people killed in a tornado on March 3, 2019, in Lee County, Alabama, Virginia’s statewide tornado drill for 2019 will be on March 19 at 9:45 a.m.  During the drill, the National Weather Service will send a test warning over NOAA Weather Radios, simulating what people would receive during an actual tornado warning.  Local media will also broadcast the test message over the Emergency Alert System.  The drill is a chance for schools, agencies, businesses, and families to learn about tornadoes and to practice tornado-emergency plans and warning signals.  Information about the drill, including how to register a local event, is available from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, online at vaemergency.gov/tornadodrill. Whether by siren, broadcast, phone, or some other way, if you receive an actual tornado warning for your location, here are some recommendations from the National Weather Service. *Take shelter in the nearest substantial building, in the basement or on the lowest floor in a windowless, interior room.  Stay off elevators, because you could be trapped in them if the power is lost. *Be ready to crouch down and protect your body, especially your head, from flying debris with a mattress, pillows, or other material. *Don’t stay in a mobile home; instead, quickly seek a more substantial building. *If you caught outdoors and can’t get to a substantial building, lie flat and face down in a ditch or some other low spot, away from trees, and cover your head with your hands.  In such a place, be alert for rising water.  Don’t seek shelter under bridges because doing so provides little protection and can actually increase risks. *Don’t stay in a vehicle if you can get to a substantial building or to another safer spot.  But if you are caught in a vehicle by extreme winds or flying debris, park the car as quickly and safely as possible, out of traffic lanes; stay in the car with the seat belt on; put your head down below the windows; and cover your head with your hands and whatever protective material is available. *And finally, monitor conditions on a mobile device, weather radio, or other information source, and stay in your safe location until the danger has passed. Between 1951 and 2017, Virginia experienced over 700 reported tornadoes, occurring in all regions of the state and in every month of the year.  Two recent examples are the February 24, 2016, set of at least eight twisters that killed four people in Appomattox and Sussex counties; and the September 17, 2018, storm that killed one person in Chesterfield County.  So please, do what you can to be ready for tornadoes, by becoming informed, making a plan, and having a way to get the message when a tornado watch or warning is issued. SOUND - ~3 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virg

Click to listen to episode (3:52). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Extra Information Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-1-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 4, 2019. SOUND – ~9 sec Those were sounds from a streamside park in Blacksburg, Va., on the evening of March 24, 2017.  Amidst the loud Spring Peeper frog calls, could you hear a short, buzz-like sound?  That’s this week’s mating-bird mystery sound.  Have a listen for about 10 seconds to a clearer recoding of that sound, this time provided by Lang Elliott from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs, and see if you know what makes the sound.  And here’s a hint: anyone who could guess this really would rock. SOUNDS - ~ 7 sec If you guessed an American Woodcock, you’re right!  The buzzing sound, called a peent, is part of the species’ male courtship display, a springtime evening and night ritual occurring in moist woods and fields across the eastern United States, including all of Virginia.  The male birds make the peent sound on the ground, then make a spiraling upward flight for about 200 to 300 feet, chirping and using their wings to make a twittering sound, before descending to the ground to start the pattern over again. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, at its “All About Birds” Web site, has described the American Woodcock as a “plump little shorebird [that] lives in young forests and shrubby old fields across eastern North America.”   This bird is an inland species in the bird family of sandpipers, whose members more typically are coastal shorebirds.  The woodcock uses it long beak—a characteristic sandpiper feature—to probe the soil for water and for the earthworms and other invertebrates it eats.  Its preference for evening and night activity, its habitat, and its behaviors have generated a number of nicknames for this species, including night partridge, bog borer, mudbat, whistler, and hokumpoke. Referring to the American Woodcock’s mating ritual, the Cornell Lab has said, “The male woodcock’s evening display flights are one of the magical natural sights of springtime in the East.”  If you’re fortunate and attentive, those sights and sounds might greet you on a moist meadow walk some springtime evening or night. Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, and we close with the wing-twittering and chirping sounds from an American Woodcock’s courtship flight. SOUND - ~ 7 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The first American Woodcock sound in this episode was recorded by Virginia Water Radio at Heritage Park in Blacksburg, Va., on March 24, 2017, about 7:45 p.m. The second and third American Woodcock sounds were from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.

Click to listen to episode (4:13). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 2-22-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of February 25, 2019. MUSIC – ~ 7 sec This week, that excerpt of “Winter’s Fall,” by the Blacksburg- and Roanoke, Va.-based group No Strings Attached, opens an episode on the differences among three kinds of winter fall—that is, three kinds of frozen precipitation.  We set the stage with some winter-storm mystery sounds.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds see if you can guess what kind of falling frozen water you’re hearing. SOUNDS - ~18 sec If you guessed sleet, you’re right! You heard sleet falling in Blacksburg on February 17, along with a NOAA Weather Radio winter storm forecast for Southside Virginia on February 19.  As the Weather Radio forecast shows, winter storms in Virginia can bring a hard-to-predict mix—some might say, mess—of snow, sleet, and freezing rain.  What’s alike and what’s different among these three precipitation types? All typically start as snow high up in in the atmosphere, where collections of ice crystals combine into snowflakes.  If those flakes encounter only sub-freezing air as they fall, they’ll reach the ground as snow.  If, however, snowflakes encounter a warmer air mass on their way down, sleet or freezing rain can result.   If that warm air mass is relatively narrow and more cold air is encountered below it, the melted flakes can refreeze and fall to the ground as pellets of sleet.   On the other hand, if that warm air mass is wide and reaches relatively close to ground, cold, liquid raindrops can fall and, upon contact with surfaces at sub-freezing temperature, turn into coatings of ice—that’s freezing rain. Predicting whether a storm will result in snow, sleet, freezing rain, or just rain is complicated for forecasters, as shown by the Weather Radio forecast you heard earlier.  And, of course, it’s crucial for public safety.   Sleet may have relatively minor impacts, but we all know the challenges of snow, and significant accumulations of freezing rain—also called ice storms—can be especially hazardous from slick roads and downed trees and powerlines. Thanks to No Strings Attached for permission to use this week’s opening music.  We close with some other music that sounds something like sleet, as its composer said, although the selection’s name isn’t what most people associate with sleet or freezing rain.  Here’s a short part of “Pure Joy,” by Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg, Va. MUSIC – ~ 15 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The sleet sound was recorded by Virginia Water Radio on February 17, 2019, in Blacksburg, Va. “Winter’s Fall,” from the 1999 album “In the Vinyl Tradition, Vol. II,” is copyright by No Strings Attached and Enessay Music, used with permission.  This selection was featured previously in Virginia Water Radio Episode 258, 3-23-15.  More information about No Strings Attached is available from their Web site, http://enessay.com. “Pure Joy,” from the 2004 album “Profound Joy,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission.  More information about Timothy Seaman i

Click to listen to episode (5:24). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Extra Information Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 2-15-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of February 18, 2019. MUSIC – ~16 sec That’s an excerpt of “The Race,” by the Harrisonburg, Va.-based group, The Steel Wheels.  During the third week of February 2019, the Virginia General Assembly was racing to finish work on the Commonwealth’s budget and on over 2700 other bills and resolutions—doing work that, to paraphrase The Steel Wheels’ lyrics, may make many “ripples” in the Commonwealth’s “sea of time.”  About 130 of this year’s measures concern water resources, either directly or indirectly through impacts on water from energy production, transportation, or other land uses. This week is Virginia Water Radio’s annual episode giving you a chance to imagine being an Assembly member, and to consider how you’d vote on five of those water-related bills.  I’ll give you brief descriptions of the bills, followed by a couple of seconds to decide if you would vote for or against the idea.  Then I’ll use these two sounds [SOUNDS – ~3 sec – bell and buzzer] to indicate the bills’ status as of February 15; the bell means the bill passed or was still alive, and the buzzer means it had failed.  Ready? No. 1: Senate Bill 1355 would require the closure of ponds storing coal combustion residuals, or coal ash, at four power stations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, with the ash either recycled or deposited in permitted and lined landfills.  [SOUND – ~4 sec - bell]  The bill had passed the Senate and the House. No. 2: Senate Bill 1573 would prohibit state leases or permits for oil or gas exploration or drilling in the beds of any Virginia waters in the Atlantic Ocean, and repeal the Commonwealth’s support for federal exploration or permitting efforts more than 50 miles offshore.  [SOUND – ~4 sec - buzzer]  The bill failed in a Senate committee. No. 3: House Bill 2358 would create an advisory board and a laboratory to monitor the effects of the Sustainable Water Infrastructure for Tomorrow, or SWIFT, Project being undertaken by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, in which the district is studying using treated wastewater to recharge of the Potomac Groundwater Aquifer.  [SOUND – ~4 sec - bell]  The bill had passed the House and Senate. No. 4: House Bill 2761 would change the existing Cave Protection Act to the Karst Protection Act, adding sinking streams and other features to caves and sinkholes as the karst resources subject to state anti-pollution law and Department of Conservation and Recreation efforts in education, data-collection, and protection.  [SOUND – ~4 sec - buzzer]  The bill failed in a House committee. And No. 5: House Bill 2008 would require the Department of Education, in consultation with representatives from renewable and conventional energy industries, to establish an energy career cluster as its 17th approved career cluster for technical education.  [SOUND – ~4 sec - bell]  The bill had passed the House. This short game obviously can’t capture the scope of the General Assembly’s potential impacts on a subject as complicated and important as water.  Any bill involves more information and details than you heard here.  The General Assembly’s Web site, virginiageneralassembly.gov, has tools to help you get the details and to express opinions to Assembly members. Thanks to Soundbible.com for making the ticking clock sound available for public use.  Thanks also to The Steel Wheels for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more second of “The Race.” MUSIC - ~18 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio i

Click to listen to episode (4:27). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 2-8-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of February 11, 2019.  This week, in honor of Presidents Day [on February 18], we present a revised 2014 episode about Abraham Lincoln and the James River. SOUND – ~7 sec That sound of the James River at Richmond sets the stage for hearing the story of Abraham Lincoln’s trip to Richmond in the final weeks of the Civil War.  We start with music composed in the 1860s about the hard road of conflict in Virginia in the years before the President’s visit.  Have a listen for about 40 seconds. MUSIC - ~42 sec You’ve been listening to part of “Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel,” performed by Bobby Horton on the 1988 album “Homespun Songs of the C.S.A., Vol. 4.”  First published in 1863, the lyrics recall the series of unsuccessful attempts by the Union Army to capture Richmond in the first two years of the Civil War.  In 1861, Richmond had replaced Montgomery, Alabama, as the capital of the Confederacy, which of course made Richmond a prime objective of the Union.  As our musical excerpt notes, that was a hard objective to accomplish. The James River played a large role both in Union advances toward the city and Confederate defenses of it.  By the spring of 1865, Union successes allowed President Lincoln to travel to General Ulysses Grant’s headquarters at City Point, now the city of Hopewell, where the Appomattox River flows into the James.  During the president’s stay from March 24 to April 8, the Union took Petersburg, leading the Confederates to evacuate Richmond, accompanied by fires and explosions set to keep materials out of Union hands. On April 4, Lincoln traveled up the James to visit the evacuated Richmond.  As Lincoln came ashore at Rocketts Landing, he encountered several former slaves who gathered around to thank him.  According to the Lehrman Institute of American History, after Lincoln assured the group that he would not allow their return to slavery, one man used the following water metaphor to explain their enthusiastic reaction to the president, saying that “after being so many years in the desert without water,” it was “mighty pleasant to be looking at last on [their] spring of life.” Thanks to Bobby Horton for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more seconds of “Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel.” MUSIC - ~17 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This episode replaces Episode 201, 2-17-14, which has been archived. The sound of the James River was recorded February 17, 2014, at Brown’s Island in Richmond.  The island was the site of a Confederate ammunition factory during the Civil War.  Thanks to Michael Martz for providing this recording. “Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel,” from the 1988 album “Homespun Songs of the C.S.A., Vol. 4,” is copyright by Bobby Horton, used with permission.  Part of that piece was also featured in Virginia Water Radio Episode 164, 6-3-13, a Memorial Day episode.  More information about Mr. Horton is available online at https://bobbyhorton.bandcamp.com/. Click here if you’d like to hear

Click to listen to episode (5:01). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 2-2-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of February 4, 2019. MUSIC – ~5 sec This week, that music opens an episode about an early colonial Virginia riverside settlement with an unparalleled name and a capital legacy.  Have listen for about 30 more seconds. MUSIC - ~31 sec You’ve been listening to part of “Nonesuch,” an English dance tune first published in 1651, and performed here by Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg, Va.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines “nonesuch” as “something which is unparalleled, incomparable, or unrivalled.”  For historical significance, Virginia’s Nonesuch might just fit that bill. In 1609, two years after English colonists founded Jamestown, Captain John Smith established a settlement called Nonesuch on land acquired from the Powhatan Confederacy.  The spot was near the falls of what colonists called the James River and the native tribes’ confederacy called Powhatan—both names honoring each group's respective king.  Smith described the location as “No place we knew so strong, so pleasant and delightful in Virginia, for which we called it Non-such.”   With fertile land and riverfront access, Nonesuch was a successful inland port for colonial Virginia.  After Robert Rocketts established a ferry there in 1730, the location came to be known as Rocketts Landing.  In 1733, the surrounding area was established as the town that would eventually become Virginia's capital: Richmond. As Richmond grew, so did the role of Rocketts Landing as a transportation center, connecting Richmond and points beyond to Atlantic Ocean trade.  Before the Civil War, a tragic and terrible part of that role was as the arrival and departure point for tens of thousands of slaves sold in markets in Richmond.  When the Union captured the Richmond in April 1865, Rocketts Landing was the arrival site for the Union general who took control of the Confederate capital, and for Abraham Lincoln, who visited the city the next day.  Through the rest of the 1800s and into the early 1900s, the area was home to various enterprises, including a cedar woodworking factory, a power plant that supplied Richmond trolley cars, a beer brewery with riverside beer-storing caves, and possibly a steel mill.  By the end of World War II, in the face of railroad competition and other factors, the area had lost its residents and industries, while retaining a burden of environmental contamination.  Twenty-first Century environmental remediation started a new chapter for Rocketts Landing, and today the Village of Rocketts Landing is a residential and commercial redevelopment. Has any other single riverside location in Virginia had such a history and evolution?  Perhaps, none such. Thanks to Timothy Seaman for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more seconds of “Nonesuch.” MUSIC - ~10 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The “Nonesuch” version heard in this episode is from the 2006 album “Jamestown: On the Edge of a Vast Continent,” copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission.  Mor

Click to listen to episode (4:25). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 1-25-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of January 28, 2019. MUSIC – ~16 sec This week, that excerpt of “Ferry Song,” by Bob Gramann of Fredericksburg, Va., opens an episode about the widespread and diverse use of ferry boats.   To bring the topic home, from the Canadian setting of Mr. Gramann’s song to the Commonwealth of Virginia, have a listen for about 30 seconds to the following ferry sounds, and see if you know what Maryland-owned river bordering northern Virginia has one remaining commercial ferry operation. SOUNDS - ~30 sec If you guessed the Potomac River, you’re right!  You heard sounds from a January 11, 2019, Potomac crossing on White’s Ferry, which travels between Montgomery County, Maryland and Loudoun County, Virginia, about four miles north of Leesburg.  A public ferry has been in operation at that location since at least 1817, and it’s the one remaining of some 100 ferries that operated historically on the Potomac. While ferries are no longer a widespread feature on that river, they remain vital means of water transport elsewhere in Virginia, in many other parts of the United States, and around the world.  Two other Virginia examples include the privately operated ferry to Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay, and the state-operated Jamestown-Scotland ferry across the James River between Jamestown and Surry County.  Some other states with significant ferry systems are Alaska, California, Maine, New York, North Carolina, and Washington. Worldwide, the Web site ferrylines.com currently includes 7,700 ferry routes in 140 coastal countries.  As that Web states, throughout history people have been using ferries “to cross borders, transport goods, and connect with other people.” Back at White's Ferry on the Potomac River, cars, bikes, and pedestrians can spend about three to five minutes—one-way—participating in that long transportation tradition. Thanks to Bob Gramann for permission to use this week’s music.  We close with one more ferry sound, which is rather musical in its own right.  Here are about 15 seconds of a foghorn from a ferry in Washington State, crossing Puget Sound between Seattle and Bainbridge, in a recording from about 1996.  Thanks to Freesound.org contributor Gray Gaffer for providing this sound for public use. SOUND - ~15 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Ferry Song,” from the 2000 album “That Squirrel Song,” is copyright by Bob Gramann, used with permission.  Bob Gramann’s Web site is http://www.bobgramann.com/. The ferry foghorn sound was recorded on the ferry M.V. Spokane by user Gray Gaffer, posted 1/17/10, and made available for public use by Freesound.org, online at https://freesound.org/people/GrayGaffer/sounds/87785/, under the Creative Commons 0 (Universal - Public Domain) License.  For more information on Creative Commons licenses, please see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/; information on the public domain license specifically is online at https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11

Click to listen to episode (3:52). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 1-18-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of January 21, 2019.   The week we revisit a January 2012 episode about a bird known as a symbol of coastal areas.  Have a listen for about 10 seconds to the following mystery sounds, and see if you can guess what’s making the clucking, croaking, and squeaking.  And here’s a hint: You might find this throaty creature in a dive. SOUND - ~9 sec If you guessed pelican chicks, you’re right!   Out of seven or eight pelican species worldwide, two occur in North America, and both are known from Virginia’s coast, at least occasionally.  The American White Pelican is considered an uncommon visitor in Virginia.  The Brown Pelican, on the other hand, is found year-round in the Commonwealth and has been occurring in increasing numbers in Virginia coastal waters since the 1980s.  Brown Pelicans were listed as a federally endangered species in 1970, after their populations had significantly decreased over several decades.  In fact, protection of Brown Pelicans was a significant reason for establishment in 1903 of the first U.S. National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s Pelican Island.  A 1972 ban on the pesticide DDT, habitat restoration, and other conservation efforts have helped Brown Pelicans make a remarkable recovery.  The species’ populations from Alabama northward along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts were removed from the federally endangered list in1985, and other populations were removed from the list in 2009. Pelicans are fish eaters, and Brown Pelicans are known for their feeding behavior of plunging from flight into water to trap fish in their large, expandable throat pouch.  Surfacing after an underwater catch, the birds point their bill down to drain out large amounts of water, then raise the bill up to swallow the fish.  Some other Brown Pelican peculiarities include being largely silent as adults; having excellent eyesight to spot fish from high above; suffering from seagulls that will try to take fish from a pelican’s pouch; and standing over their eggs to incubate them with heat from the skin of the adult pelican’s feet. With their fortunes much improved since the first days of Florida’s Pelican Island Refuge in the early 1900s, Brown Pelicans are now a familiar flying and fishing feature along many coastlines, including Virginia’s. Thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for making the pelican chicks sounds available for public use. SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This Virginia Water Radio episode revises and replaces Episode 95, 1-16-12, and the “Water Sounds and Music” segment of Episode 37, 10-11-10. The sounds of pelican chicks were taken from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “Video Productions and Broadcasts,” online at http://www.fws.gov/video/sound.htm, accessed 1/18/19.  For more Fish and Wildlife Service sounds, as well as video and images, see the National Digital Library, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that o

Click to listen to episode (4:20). Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 1-11-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of January 14, 2019. This week, we feature a sound-and-music medley for a weather-and-water mystery.   Have a listen for about 25 seconds, and see if you know what kind of weather record was broken in 2018 in several locations in Virginia. SOUNDS and MUSIC - ~18 sec If you guessed precipitation or rainfall, you’re right!  You heard a Blacksburg, Va., thunderstorm, along with part of “Rain in the Valley” by The Steel Wheels, from Rockingham County, Va.   In 2018, annual local records for total precipitation—that is, rainfall plus the water equivalent of frozen precipitation—were broken in five National Weather Service observation locations in Virginia: Danville, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Reagan National Airport in Arlington County, and Dulles Airport in Loudoun County.  And Richmond’s Weather Service observation location experienced the second-highest annual precipitation on record.  Records at those locations go back to the early 1900s or late 1800s, except for the Dulles Airport location, where records go back to 1960.  Those six locations had over 60 inches of precipitation in 2018, compared to normal annual values of around 40 to 45 inches for most locations in Virginia. At six other Weather Service observation locations covering parts of the Commonwealth, precipitation in 2018 didn’t break records but still ranged from about seven inches above normal at Wallops Island in Accomack County to nearly 20 inches above normal at the Charlottesville-Albemarle County Airport.  Beyond Virginia, across the eastern and Midwestern United States, annual precipitation records were broken in nearly 200 locations in 2018, according to Ian Livingston of The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang. Besides official National Weather Service observation locations, Virginia has over 1000 weather-observation stations participating in the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network of volunteer weather observers.  If you live in the Commonwealth, a station near you may also have seen record precipitation in rainy 2018. Thanks to The Steel Wheels for permission to use this week’s music.  We close about a bit more music for precipitation; here’s part of “Rain Refrain,” composed and performed for Virginia Water Radio by Torrin Hallett, a 2018 graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio. MUSIC - ~29 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.   For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Rain in the Valley,” from the 2012 album, “Lay Down, Lay Low,” is copyright by The Steel Wheels, used with permission.  More information about The Steel Wheels is available online at http://www.thesteelwheels.com/.  This music was also featured in Virginia Water Radio Episode 328, 8-8-16, on flash flooding. “Rain Refrain,” composed in 2016, is copyright by Torrin Hallett, used with permission. Torrin is a 2018 graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio. Click here if you’d like to hear the full piece (43 seconds). More information about Torrin is available at his Web site, http://www.torrinjhallett.com/, and on Face