By Daniel White

Before releasing a string of now-classic songs — “Fire and Rain,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” “How Sweet It Is,” to name a few — James Taylor joined the fledgling band Flying Machine. The short-lived group broke up in 1967, but Taylor’s career soared in the 1970s as he helped define the singer-songwriter sound. 

Still going strong after four decades as a performer, James Taylor recently kicked off his summer 2008 tour in Virginia Beach with a benefit concert for the original flying machines: migratory songbirds.

“It’s an amazing epic voyage that they take — just these little guys who weigh less than the change in your pockets,” Taylor says at a news conference. The concert would raise some $200,000 to help the Southern Tip Partnership conserve essential habitat for songbirds to rest and feed on Virginia’s lower Eastern Shore.

Taylor has been helping protect the tip for two years, without actually having seen it. Until the day before the show.

Gone to Carolina in His Mind

I’d just jotted down notes about the odors of mud and fish when James Taylor strides down to the kayaks at water’s edge, twin sons bounding at his heels. Taylor’s wife, Kim, joins the family, and they’re all smiles as they gaze out over the marsh at Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge.

“It’s beautiful,” James says, then inhales deeply and adds, “Smells so nice.” In an instant, he’s “gone to Carolina,” describing how the “sweet smell” of this Virginia marsh carries him back to summer days in Charleston and Pawleys Island.

Meanwhile, the Taylor twins, Rufus and Henry, are excited about their discovery of a fiddler crab. Our guide, Dave Burden, hunkers down to examine the boys’ find. “The one big claw says it’s a boy,” Dave explains. “They wave it at girl crabs like they’re playing the fiddle.”

“Walking Man” Goes Paddling

Dave soon has everyone outfitted and, following a brief kayaking lesson, launches the boats. Sue Rice, who manages the refuge, sees us off from the landing. Our group also includes Jeff Nesmith, my colleague from The Nature Conservancy, and Laura McKay, director of Virginia’s Coastal Zone Management Program.

A former classmate of Kim Taylor, Laura has chatted often with the couple about — and helped inspire their interest in — the Eastern Shore. Besides offering the Taylors a break from rehearsals, she organized this paddle trip to afford them the opportunity to meet some of their conservation partners and to experience the lands and waters they’re helping to protect.

Our route winds through a section of marsh at Wise Point, which the Conservancy acquired and then conveyed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2002. Riding a falling tide, we scoop mud whenever our paddle blades dip too deep. Dave stops and wades to an exposed crab pot, holding it up for the twins to see the blue crabs inside.

As we near the Virginia Inside Passage, the channel widens. We can see across Raccoon Island and Magothy Bay to Smith Island, where the Cape Charles Lighthouse stands on the horizon. Smith is the southernmost link in the chain of barrier islands forming the Conservancy’s Virginia Coast Reserve. 

“Ain’t It Good to Know That You’ve Got a Friend?”

A signed agreement in late 2006 formalized the Southern Tip Partnership and its mission. One catalyst was the Conservancy’s acquisition of nearly 500 acres adjoining the southern border of the state’s Mockhorn Wildlife Management Area. With a $6 million price tag on the highly desirable Picador tract, the partners rallied to secure its protection.

And when the calls went out, the Taylors were there. James and Kim contributed to the state’s purchase of 286 acres to establish Magothy Bay Natural Area Preserve, while FWS acquired the remaining 210 acres to expand the wildlife refuge. The Taylors have since also supported southern tip habitat restoration projects. 

“It would be a real tragedy if we quietly and unconsciously let this area disappear,” says James. “Acquiring this land at this time and protecting it forever will ensure that we still have songbirds, really.”

As our parade of kayaks turns back toward the landing, Dave asks James and Kim if they’ve heard the clapper rails, then mimics the call. Right on cue, we hear them — a series of increasingly loud smacks. 

Rising from the reeds, it sounds almost exactly like applause.
 

Daniel White is a senior conservation writer for The Nature Conservancy in Virginia.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Daniel White/TNC (Guide Dave Burden and the Taylor family kayak the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge); Photo © Daniel White/TNC (Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge); © Rob Fortunato (James Taylor concert).