Eurasian Collared-Dove - this guy was in Downtown Wilmington on the stop light at the busiest intersection in town (Market and Front). This is from Friday night, we went to Yosake for dinner and when I saw him I just had to have a pic so I brought my camera with me.
Saturday I woke at 4 am and headed to my first stop at Sandy Creek to try for Blue-winged Warbler. When I got there there was a cacophony of bird song. Too bad I am still horrible with song ID skills, especially most warblers. However, I was able to recognize an Orchard Oriole and Blue Grosbeak by song and subsequently track them down.
The birding was good but my quarry was Blue-winged so I spent most of my time over in the back where the high tulip poplars are. Finally after about two hours I spotted one way up at the top of an oak. The photos are absolute trash but I think are identifiable, just barely. They are extremely cropped.
Can you see the head and breast in center of frame? If you zoom in you can just barely see the black eye-line. I did get fairly good looks with my binocs. he did not want to come down closer and I lost him quickly in the leaves. Normally I would trash this pic and not count it for my photo blog but I dipped on a photo Blue-winged last year and I did not want a repeat of that.
Another shot showing the yellow body and whitish vent.
Eastern Towhee
Next stop was Bur Mil Park in Greensboro. I had never been there and was really surprised at how nice it was. Tons of different habitat like fields, ponds, deep woods and a large lake. I had come to get some pics of a Greater White-fronted Goose which has been chilling here.
Plenty of Baltimore Orioles.
Unfortunately the geese were not in the usual spot on the lawn next to the pond (I asked the lady at the wildlife center) but all of the other birds including several warbler species were keeping my attention. Finally I heard some geese honking and finally Mr. GWFG came in for a landing.
Greater White-fronted Goose - I already had one for the year but I could not pass this opportunity to see one up close. Besides, the park was pretty much on the way to the mountains.
Note the black barring on the belly which helps to tell it apart from domestic geese.
What a beauty! I was tempted to pack him into my truck and bring him home but my wife would probably be pissed.
Back in the truck by lunch time and headed up to the next stop, Meat Camp ESA. I had been to this "hotspot" last year to get Ross's Goose, and although I was hoping for a repeat, I was really coming because I just loved this little birding patch. I think Curtis Smalling bought this land and set it aside for conservation. It is a wetland site in a beautiful valley setting just outside Boone. The only bad thing is there is a gun range right next door and if you come at the wrong time you will hear tons of guns.
Yellow Warblers breed here.
Unfortunately it was kind of slow birding so I packed it up and headed to my final stop for the night - Elk Knob State Park. Here is where things started to get interesting.
Field Sparrow - common at the field just when you turn into the park.
I was about to drive in to the park proper when I got a call from Shun E. Apparently he was just here earlier in the day and was now headed down to Meat Camp ESA! What a coincidence. Anyhow, as I was chatting with him, I spotted this next bird sitting just outside my truck window.
Vesper Sparrow - check out that eye-ring!
White outer tail feathers are diagnostic for Vesper.
The all seeing eye of the Vesper Sparrow has been known to penetrate into a man's very inner soul. After a couple minutes I had to look away or I might have broke into tears.
Once he was convinced I was no threat he went back the business of munching on dandelions.
I paid my fee for camping only to find out the camp spots are a 1 mile hike down a ravine and I would be one of only two people camping on the mountain. As I got my gear together at the trail head I quickly realized I had forgotten the second most important piece of equipment - my sleeping bag! Decision time, do I leave and go find a hotel or suck it up and sleep in a tent without a sleeping bag. I knew it could get cold up here, but it was hard to think about cold because it was so nice out when I made the decision. So thats what I decided, I would tough it out. I shouldered my bag and headed down the trail. Once I got to the bottom of the ravine and started crossing a relatively flat area I lucked into a very birdy spot.
Blue-headed Vireo
Hairy Woodpecker - bill is much bigger than a Downy.
Wood Thrush - there was several thrushes including Veeries and what I think was a Swainson's but I did not get decent pics of the Swainson's.
Veery - All thrashed have wonderful songs and sounds, but you have to love a Veery.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - I saw many but none would come very close for a pic.
Ovenbirds were the most plentiful bird.
The evening light was ethereal, although this picture does not do it justice. Note the trail markers. They became a life saver later that night. I set up my tent in my designated camp site and although I heard a couple down the hill I never saw another soul the whole time. At dusk the owl chorus started and I counted three different Barred Owls with some young owls making some otherworldly barking noises. In the distance I could also hear a bunch of cows lowing.
I must have finally fell asleep and woke up at about 11pm absolutely frozen. I gathered all the clothes I had and wrapped myself as best I could but after another hour I began shivering uncontrollably and really regretting my decision. Camping without a sleeping bag in these temps was stupid and irresponsible. Annoyed with myself I decided I would need to change my situation or things would go very badly. Luckily the trees were still not totally leafed out and the moon was full and as I packed up my tent I was able to see quite well. If it were any darker I would been in big trouble. I set back out on the trail at midnight and finally made it back to my truck at 1:30 after stumbling through the woods. The orange trail markers were definitely a huge bonus. If I had wandered off the trail in the dark I truly would have frozen to death or at least been super cold until the sun came up. In my truck I fired up the heat and after 15 minutes turned off the engine and fell asleep. An hour later I work frozen again and repeated this process 3-4 times until Dawn the rosy fingered (Ever read Homer?) poked her head above the horizon. I had another hour before the park ranger would open the gate (yes I was locked in) so naturally I birded.
Least Flycatchers were Chebeking like crazy. I named this one Alex Chebek.
Alex says "Chebek...Chebek....Chebek" Translation - "You idiot, we all had bets on whether you would make it through the night and I lost. Veery made a tidy sum betting you would make it."
I knew Veery would have my back.
Blue-headed Vireo
The ranger let me out and I pretended I had a wonderful night. Heading down the mountain to my next destination I had to keep stopping with all the birds flitting about.
Indigo Bunting
About 8 am I pulled into Shady Grove Gardens in Creston and was greeted by Shun E. "You just missed it, I had a Golden-winged Warbler just now". Of course, and we would not see another for about an hour. However I was on a mission and the garden was so pretty we stayed 4-5 hours birding every nook of the very large grounds.
Ovenbird
Chestnut-sided Warbler - these were everywhere and singing like mad.
Likewise for Hooded Warblers
Red-eyed Vireo - "Here I am, way up here, in the tree"
Yellow-throated Vireo
Chestnut-sided
Common Yellowthroat - an underrated Warbler. A stunner and smooth crooner.
Bingo! Golden-winged Warbler
We ran into 4-5 of them.
At the time we thought this was a hybrid but turns out it was a female Golden-winged. However Shun swears he heard a Blue-winged song coming from this bird.
Crippler
Lunch was spent in Valle Crucis, NC. I love this town. A high meadow West of Boone with a nice small town feel and a very nice community park with high willows, sycamores and a nice stream. Shun was nice enough to buy me lunch, a delicious Pimento Cheese sandwich.
Tree Swallows at Valle Crucis are totally tame.
Broad-winged Hawk
Chipping Sparrow
First year male Orchard Oriole
Tree Swallow
We met a nice man that had birded earlier that morning at Lewis Fork on the Blue Ridge Parkway and gave us some nice tips for some good birds so I made a last minute decision to head up. The really bonus thing was that the BRP was closed just South of Lewis Fork so parking at Lewis Fork and walking South I was able to walk on the parkway with very little traffic. However, the birding was very slow until about an hour and a mile later when Shun joined me and we hit the jackpot in a mini fallout (I know this word is overused but what else should I call it)?
Kentucky Warbler on territory
Redstart Speedblur
Cerulean Warbler!!!
WTF, this Cerulean came down to eye level!! His coloring was amazing. Cerulean is a great name.
Black-throated Greens were everywhere.
This Phoebe was living on the edge...
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Another Cerulean or same one seen half an hour later.
Black-throated Green female.
Just then I told Shun I hated to go but I had a long drive home and did not want to do the whole thing in the dark. I told him the trip was everything I wanted minus one target... A scarlet Tanager. Maybe this was my sub-conscious at work because just then I heard a tanager song and we quickly located the culprit and a female too.
Scarlet Tanager - he never came close and the sky was backlit so this was the best I could do.
I was truly birded out after this, just totally exhausted physically but also mentally I was completely drained. I remember back when I used to surf when I was a teenager getting this same feeling after a particularly good surf session. It is almost like thinking you just had something so good that why bother continuing with life as what could be better? Ok a bit dramatic, but hopefully you get the point.
On the way home I stopped at a really tasty BBQ place and got a huge Beef Brisket sandwich. OMG! Now back to my vegetarian home life.
Cheers.
You packed a lot in: near death, Homer, a ton of great birds and photos. Time for a bit of cozy family!
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