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Re: Big Day in Mountains



Folks,
  In the morning hours of my wedding day (Sat. 3 May), Nate Bacheler and
I went birding at Beaver Lake in Asheville and along the parkway north
of Craven Gap. Thanks to Marilyn Westphal for sending us detailed
instructions on where to go and what to expect. The weather was great
and we had a terrific time. I personally added 11 species to my "life
list" and was in awe at the diversity of warblers!

At Beaver Lake, we saw of note:

Gray Catbirds (lots)
Northern Parula
House Wren
Ruby-throated hummingbird (perched in a tree)
Yellow warblers
American redstart
Northern waterthrush
Tree swallows
N. rough-winged swallows
Orchard orioles
Baltimore orioles
Brown-headed nuthatches (mother defending fledgling on ground)
Warbling vireos (2 together)
Yellow-rumped warbler

Along the parkway, we added:

Hooded warbler
Scarlet tanagers
Black-throated blue warblers
Blackburnian warblers
Chestnut-sided warbler
Indigo bunting
Wood thrush (heard)
Black-and-white warblers (heard)

Good birding!

Dave Hewitt
Raleigh, NC

mjwestphal wrote:
> 
> On Sunday, 5/4 Bob Olthoff, Wayne Forsythe, Jonathan Mays, and I went out for
> our annual Big Day count that covers Henderson and Buncombe Counties in the
> southern NC mountains.  It was a great day, we had a great team, and we
> smashed the previous record of 115 for a new total of 120.  As is typical in
> the mountains, the vast majority of species were songbirds, but we did manage
> to pull out several shorebirds as well.  The variations between the kinds of
> species you get in Henderson County with its broad, flat flood plains and the
> variety of elevations and habitats along the parkway in Buncombe County make
> this count great fun.  Running the count at this time also means that we still
> can get a lot of the winter sparrows as well as the breeding and further
> migrating warblers.  We didn't find any really unusual birds except the
> Henslow's Sparrow which is still here and a rather uncommon for spring
> migration Bay-breasted Warbler. Some of the highlights were:
> 
> Shorebirds (8) including SemiP Plover, Killdeer, Greater and Lesser
> Yellowlegs, Solitary, Spotted, Least, W. Snipe
> 
> Red-breasted, White-breasted, and Brown-headed Nuthatch, Brown Creeper,
> Carolina, House, Winter, and Marsh Wren, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned
> Kinglet, Veery, Wood Thrush
> 
> Vireos (5) including White-eyed, Blue-headed, Yellow-throated, Warbling, and
> Red-eyed Vireo
> 
> Warblers (23) including N. Parula, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Cape May, BT Blue,
> Yellow-rumped, BT Green, Blackburnian, Yellow-throated, Pine, Bay-breasted,
> Blackpoll, Cerulean, Black & White, American Redstart, Worm-eating, Ovenbird,
> N. Waterthrush, Kentucky, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded, Canada, YB Chat
> 
> Sparrows (11) including Eastern Towhee, Chipping, Field, Grasshopper,
> Henslow's, Song, Swamp, Savannah, White-throated, White-crowned, Dark-eyed
> Junco
> 
> Raven, Orchard and Baltimore Oriole, and a nice bubbly flock of about 35
> Bobolink
> 
> Most Notable Misses:
> Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Hairy Woodpecker, Willow Flycatcher (most of them
> will be coming in this week), and Cedar Waxwing
> 
> Next year 125??
> Marilyn
> 
> Marilyn Westphal
> Environmental Quality Institute
> University of North Carolina-Asheville
> One University Heights
> Asheville, NC  28804
> 828/251-6823
> mjwestphal@unca.edu

-- 
-------------------------------
Dave Hewitt
North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Zoology Department
Campus Box 7617
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC  27695
email: dave_hewitt@ncsu.edu
office:(919)513-2471
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~dahewitt
-------------------------------