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last week's trip



Two Hoosiers visited the Carolinas last week from Monday-Friday in search of
your wonderful birds. We tallied 90 species for the trip and found most of
our targeted species, despite the rain. Maybe it discouraged some of the
tourists. ; - ). A few highlights for those planning trips: 

Rest area on Hwy 40 west of Asheville, we heard black-throated green
warblers and saw cedar waxwings

Carolina Sandhills NWR, we heard several singing bachman's sparrows. missed
the red-cockaded woodpeckers.

Santee Delta, Hwy 17 south of Georgetown, just a glimpse of a swallow-tailed
kite between the foliage on the dike at the wildlife observation area
(exciting walk across the south bridge and killer mosquitoes!) Love those
little crabs in the puddles.

Endless crawl north through Myrtle Beach

Huntington Beach State Park- what a gem. Enjoyed the white and glossy
ibises, assorted herons, and alligator in the lagoon and saw  a beautiful
pair of painted buntings at the feeders at the visitor center. (Guess we
missed the wood storks that have been posted.)

Carteret Wildlife Club - Fussell's book says you can drive there. It doesn't
look like anyone has in years. The nice neighbors let us park and we walked
in, observing an impressive array of old appliances. The platform and view
of the marsh are great, very peaceful and quiet. We saw seaside sparrows,
green herons, heard Virginia rail, but no black rails.

Bogue Loop Road in Croatan NF, we finally saw and heard red-cockaded
woodpeckers and heard another bachman's sparrow. At Great Lake we saw a
swainson's warbler foraging, after trying several spots along the road..

Cedar Island, some willets and peeps. 

Ocracoke ferry- royal, least, sandwich, common terns, great black-backed
gulls, and a common loon near Ocracoke. (Plenty of room on the ferry. We
called that morning at 10 AM and got on the 6 PM ferry, which was half
empty.)

Outer Banks up to Nag's Head - tri-colored heron, forster's tern, black
terns, more willets, short-billed dowitchers, more peeps, lesser yellowlegs,
black-necked stilt. There was a pool near the road by South Pond at Pea
Island that attracted a great variety of birds and they kept changing.

We had a great trip and plan to come back some day for a pelagic trip.

Cathy Meyer
Indiana