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Lumber River migrants!



Folks,

A small group of us went down the Lumber River yesterday. The plan was 
originally to do the Waccamaw river, but the weather forecast talked us out 
of a 2 day paddle in the swamp.  Sorry Ginger that you couldn`t make it as 
the  birds were singing all but 5 mins of the day while we were out there 
(noon till 6pm).

We paddled the Lumber 9.5 miles down river from hwy 74 to Princess Ann 
(Lumber River State Park)  the Northern Parulas sang in numbers of 2-3 and 
6-7 at a time all the way down river nearly, I`d estimate there was 300 of 
them at the least! It was just about the same for Blue-gray Gnatcatchers as 
well, I`m sure there must have been no less than 250 of them as well. Was 
hoping to see some large waders on the river but with high water levels 
they were absent, we did see at Princess Ann 4 fly over Great Egrets.

Here`s a list of migrants and estimates on what we saw and heard.

Tree Swallows 80 (3 places with them soaring over huge cypress trees!)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 250+ (saw many, heard all day nearly)
White-eyed Vireo 3 (heard) (a bit rusty on this call but felt it was correct)
Yellow-throated Vireo 1 (heard)
Northern Parula 300+ (saw 6 heard the rest)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 250+ (everywhere, not migrants :-)
Yellow-throated Warbler 80+ (saw 4 heard most of the day)
L. Waterthrush 1 Glaeshia saw it from MY canoe, I missed it)
Brown-headed Cowbird 4 (heard)

We also saw a Barred Owl and heard Fish Crows a lot. Dragonflies were very 
busy on the river and at a sand ridge we explored.  Butterflies provided a 
short list, nothing to exciting was found.
Also saw several 2 1/2 - 3 inch Yellow-bellied Sliders, they stayed on logs 
I suspected alligator activity kept them on the logs. The Lumber River Cane 
Club put on just before we did and I heard afterward that all but one gal 
saw an alligator about 2 miles from the take out we missed it.

If you get a chance check out the Lumber River State Park at Princess Ann 
it was beautiful yesterday. Picture this paddling in soft late day light. 
And seeing the banks of the river covered in native wisteria, wild azalea, 
sweetleaf and a few flowering dogwoods. The aroma of the wisteria was 
breath taking, so was the  red, orange and pink seeds of maples hanging 
everywhere along the river, great time to be there no question in my mind. 
The park has a nice board walk, so if you don`t have a canoe you can still 
see a good deal of the beauty there!


Randy Emmitt
Rougemont, NC

Randy Emmitt Photography
http://www.rlephoto.com
Carolina Butterfly Society webmaster
http://www.carolinabutterflysociety.org/