The Maple Flat ponds comprise a special sinkhole pond ecology in the Big Levels area of the George Washington/Jefferson National Forest near Stuarts Draft, VA. Home to a variety of frogs and salamanders as well as rare and endangered plants and animals, these Shenandoah Valley sinkhole ponds are shallow depressions in the ground that contain standing water for all or, usually, part of the year. These ponds are unique to the western base of the Blue Ridge and formed when limestone dissolved locally beneath a mantle of colluvial soils which washed off the mountains. A layer of clay then formed several feet below the surface of this area and created a perched surface water table that reaches up into the sinkholes during the wet season. Most popular among birders during spring or fall migration, these ponds can hold Wood Duck, Wild Turkey, Barred Owl, kinglets, Hermit Thrush, Pine Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Northern Parula, Louisiana and Northern Waterthrush, and Canada Warbler. The ponds are accessed on foot from Forest Road 42 (Coal Road). Park in a semi-circular parking area marked with big boulders. If that’s full, go ¼ mile further to the next parking pullout.
eBird Hotspot: Maple Flat Ponds
—Vic Laubach