Down East Critter Pix

NEW RIVER STATE PARK-NC

8/11/2019

Last week, Glyn and I spent several days visiting West Jefferson, NC in Ashe County. This is an area northwest of Boone which I had never visited and I was excited to be able to explore the birding in nearby New River State Park. This is an area in the mountains where birding can be very different than in the flat, coastal plains area of eastern NC where we live. I was hoping to see a few warblers that hang out here all summer and only visit the coastal plain briefly in spring and fall migration. Because of rainy weather, and foggy conditions, I was only able to explore the trails in the park for about 2 hours on one morning. This was on the River Run trail which runs along the New River for about a mile and a half. Here, I saw many Indigo Buntings and Common Yellow throats, but no other warblers. This is a very beautiful area and I will return under better circumstances. If you are in the area, I highly recommend a visit to the park! See pictures below.

While in West Jefferson, our favorite dining spot was Boondocks. It is a brewery and fine restaurant with inside and outdoor seating. Great food!! Interesting to see in the area were the two area Episcopal churches, St. Marys in West Jefferson and Holy Trinity in Glendale Springs. Each of these are home to art frescoes painted by Ben Long after being trained in Italy in this technique. These two churches are a must see!! We also visited and observed cheese making in West Jefferson at the Ashe County Cheese Factory. See pictures below.

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THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER

8/2/2019

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..One of the most beautiful birds that we have in my opinion is the Red-headed Woodpecker. The stark, solid red head and black and white back and wing are striking and have gained the bird the nickname of "the checkerboard bird". The young birds do not get the red head until the first spring of their life. These birds have been around since the Pleistocene era of 2 million years ago. For a full description of these birds, their range, behavior, and cool facts about them, visit this Cornell University site.

This summer I have been following a family of these guys in The Field. The nest is located at the top of a dead pine which has been cut off about 30 feet up by electric power line workers trimming back the edges of the line clearance. I found the nest only after the chicks had just begun to fly, so missed the early nest building, etc. See the pictures below of parents and fledglings. These were taken between July 12-30, 2019.

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FORT MACON SUMMER BIRDS 2019

7/16/2019

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This visit to this old favorite birding site was last week with early morning temps in the high 80s with 90s by lunch!! The site was torn up quite badly by hurricane Florence last year, with much of the red cedar around the area being destroyed. There is not as much cover for the songbirds who residence here. Mostly what I saw were herons and egrets that were roosting around the freshwater ponds. I was glad to see the Black Crowned Night Herons, Great Egrets, and especially the Little Blue Herons. There are not as many herons roosting here as several years ago since the cutting of a new trail and the storm has limited the roosting cover. I saw a few regular resident songbirds and a butterfly or two. This is still a favorite spot!! See pictures below.

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THE BIRDS AT BOONE NC

6/26/2019

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Glyn and I try to visit the NC mountains in the summer in part to escape the heat of the flatlands of the eastern part of the state! Last week we had the chance to visit Boone and surrounding area for a few days. The temperatures were great with 50s at night and 70s each day. Birding in the area is good and the Boone Greenway which runs along the South Fork of the New River from east to west through Boone offers a good sampling of birds in the area. There are many access points, but my favorite is off east hwy 421 onto New River Hills rd and to the trail entry. This is an easy access and well kept trail that offers great birding. I spent about 3 hours on one morning capturing photos of the birds I saw along the trail. There were many Goldfinch in the open areas and seeing around 15 other species made for a good day. See pictures below.

We spent several days exploring the scenery in the area, visiting Valle Crusis where Glyn bought a nice pottery serving tray. We also visited St. Johns Episcopal Church nearby. The church was founded in 1862 and is a must see if you are in the area. We spent a few hours in Blowing Rock where a mandatory visit to the shops occurred with some urging from Glyn. A few miles from Blowing Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway we visited the Julian Price Park and the Moses Cone Memorial Park, both of which are adjacent along the Parkway and offer thousands of acres of trails for hiking and birding. I plan to visit these trails on my next trip to the area!!

There are many great restaurants in the area. We ate dinner one night at our favorite in Blowing Rock, the Bistro Roca, which is a little off the main street, but well worth finding for really good food! We also had dinner one evening at the Timberlake Restaurant located at the beautiful Chetola Resort at Blowing Rock. We highly recommend this very pleasant dining experience. This was our first time here and will be one of our favorites! The entrance to the Resort offers a trip around Bass Lake which the Lodge and dining room overlooks . There were a pair of White Swans with 3 chicks swimming in the lake. See pics below. Other dining spots included the Savannah Oyster Bar in Blowing Rock which we rated as fair to good, and the Storie Street Grill on Main street in BR, which is excellent for lunch or dinner. A great trip to a cool summer escape!! See photos below!

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2019 EAGLE UPDATE

6/17/2019

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During the past winter I wrote a Journal article about Bald Eagles nesting in the area. Please review that entry before reading this new update on the progress of that nesting effort. There were two eggs produced by this pair of eagles who have been breeding at the site for at least 10 years. The nest location is in a huge old Cyprus in the backwater swamp off the Tar River in eastern North Carolina. Both eggs hatched around mid April and the two chicks appeared active and healthy until around May 1. Only one of them was seen after that date. It is not known what happened to the missing chick, but baby eaglets are known to show the aggressive nature of this species even early in the nest by competitive pushing for food which sometimes results in one being pushed out of the nest. Or the chick may have died from natural causes. At any rate, only one of them survived. The pictures below attempt to show the progression of development of this new addition to the population.

During this feeding period when the eaglet is in the nest, both parents alternate between babysitting and hunting food. The appetite of the young bird is voracious, so this is a tough task for the adults. During the first few weeks, when the chicks are small, the parents stand in the nest and feed them wall bits of fish. Later, when the babies are bigger, the food will be dropped into the nest and the chicks will eat independently while the parents sit at a distance near the nest. When the eaglets fledge and begin to fly, the parents will train the young birds to catch prey on the fly. This training will continue for six months or more. The so far successful rearing of this chick will add another Bald Eagle to the growing population in the area. The pics below are presented in order of date from mid-April until June 6, 2019. See pics below.

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VOA GAMELANDS SPRING VISIT

5/28/2019

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This article reports my first visit and photo shoot at North Carolina’s newly opened VOA Gamelands. The site is located in western Beaufort Co. at 1000 Cherry Rd. This 3000 acre old home of one of the major Voice of America broadcasting efforts is now open for birdwatching. For more information and background on this area, please go to the following links. Link one.. Link two..

The area is pretty much open field with various short and tall grasses. There are scrub Oak, Pine, and other species that are typically 10’-25’ tall. The environment is excellent for many field birds and a few warblers. The most sought after bird here is the Henslow’s Sparrow that has been recently found to breed here. My trip here was in late May, between the hours of 7AM-11AM on a warm day. I covered about 21/2 miles on several of the many great hard-surfaced trails that are easy to access. I found some concentrations of birds along the several small creeks that exist along the trails. The wildflowers here are numerous and lovely, and there are many species of dragonflies and butterflies.

The most seen birds this day were Goldfinch, Prairie Warblers, Yellow-breasted chats, Indigo Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, and Kingbirds. The site is sunny, with little shade, so use the sunscreen!! See pictures below of all birds, flowers, and insects seen this trip.

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NEW SEASON AT THE FIELD

5/20/2019

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Spring is always welcome at The Field . To see the retuning summer birds is a blessing after the winter doldrums. The turkeys have been showing their renewed energy for life with the Toms strutting all over the territory. A few Bobolinks have visited, but not like the hundreds of last Spring. Great Crested Flycatchers, Summer Tanagers, Grasshopper Sparrows,Dickcissels, Blue Grosbeaks, and Kingbirds have all been spotted teaming up for a new crop of babies. I look forward to the long warm season to see more of our resident birds, as well as the abundant wildflowers and dragonflies we are fortunate to have. Enjoy the photos below.

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SPRING 19 AT RIVER PARK NORTH

5/8/2019

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I have visited River Park North several times in the past two weeks to see what spring birds are there. During much of this time, the park was underwater, flooded by the overflowing Tar River full from heavy recent rain. Only this week have all the trails been dry and open. I believe the flooding affected the migratory birds presence this year. i did not see any warblers, but did see Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Also present were a Towhee, Tufted Titmouse eating a Crayfish(first for me), Cormorant, Prothonotary Warbler, Killdeer in the mud flats, Osprey, Pileated Wodpecker, Great Blue Heron, Great Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied WP, Goldfinch, Carolina Chickadee, duckling Canada geese, Carolina Wren, as well as a Plain bellied Water Snake and Buckeye Butterfly. The park is in good shape now and offers good birding. Go before it gets too hot and buggy!! See pictures below.

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HUNTINGTON BEACH STATE PARK -APRIL 2019

4/14/2019

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A trip to the Pawleys Island/Murrells Inlet area of South Carolina can always get my excitement up, not only for the great birding at nearby Huntington Beach State Park , but also for the superb seafood in the area!! The park is one of my most favorite birding areas on the east coast. My wife, Glyn and I were fortunate to spend a few days in the area last week. Two mornings walking the trails and the Causeway provided. as usual, great birding and a chance to talk with other folks from across the country about other birding sites.The Shorebirds were predominant with Snowy Egrets and Green Herons being the predominant species around. I was disappointed that the migrating songbirds were not present, but we may have been a little early for them.

The seafood is always great and we sampled three of our favorite spots, with lunch at The Wicked Tuna, and dinner the two nights we were there at Russels Seafood, and Lee’s Inlet Kitchen. Visit these for guaranteed good food! Enjoy the photos below from Huntington Beach.

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THE WHITE DEER

3/19/2019

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This past winter there were rumors around THE FIELD that there was a “white deer” being seen around the area.This intrigued me because I am there quite a bit and I had not seen such a critter. There are 2 kinds of white deer, true albino deer who lack any melatonin and are pure white with red eyes, and a genetic deviation demonstrated by the Seneca herd of white deer. Both types are rare, but the albino is extremely rare. So I was very excited to see this mystery “white deer”. I talked with several hunters who said they had seen the deer, but only at a great distance, and all agreed that it was indeed white, one holding up a piece of white paper, saying “white as that”. I looked several times a week for several weeks and never saw it. I had almost come to believe that the guys were gaming me, knowing that i would love to get a picture of of such a deer if it existed. One morning as I was driving along one of the trail roads at the edge of a field, a deer, the white one ran into the field from the woods, and ran in front of my car, coming to a dead stop about 30 yards from my car. I grabbed my camera off the passenger seat and started taking shots out of my window. The deer posed for a good 5 minutes and I have never seen it that close since! It is indeed white, or , at least much whiter than the average one in the area. It is not, however an albino nor is it a true genetic white as are the deer at Seneca(see link above). The pictures below show the deer as taken from my car window that day, and also show it traveling with its herd. Also are photos of other deer from the same herd with normal coloration

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NEW RIVER STATE PARK-NC

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THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER

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FORT MACON SUMMER BIRDS 2019

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THE BIRDS AT BOONE NC

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2019 EAGLE UPDATE

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VOA GAMELANDS SPRING VISIT

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NEW SEASON AT THE FIELD

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SPRING 19 AT RIVER PARK NORTH

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HUNTINGTON BEACH STATE PARK -APRIL 2019

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THE WHITE DEER

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