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Birds at Gorges State Park, NC



From May 31 - June 2, John Finnegan, Brian Strong, and I conducted a
number of point counts at Gorges State Park in Transylvania County, as
part of a 3-year project (plants, animals, and vegetation) funded by the
Natural Heritage Trust Fund. We found 50 species. Staff from the State
Museum (John Gerwin et al.) will be there this week, I believe, to
conduct additional work, mainly on the Wildlife Resources Commission
Game Land portion of the gorges (State Parks owns roughly 7000 acres and
WRC roughly 3000 acres).

We did find a handful of Swainson's Warblers, a few each day.
Worm-eating Warblers were quite common, and I had an upset family group
as I walked past a bob-tailed juvenile in the process of being fed by
its parents. We had 14 species of warblers, including one each of
Blackburnian, Canada, and BT Blue. As the park lies mainly below 3200
feet, it was expected that such species would be rare or absent.

Other notable species were a few calling Red Crossbills flying overhead,
and one calling Common Raven, which likely nest to the north of the park
(no large cliffs in the park  for nesting, I don't think).

The most common birds, in descending order, are: Red-eyed Vireo,
Black-throated Green Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Scarlet Tanager,
Blue-headed Vireo, and Worm-eating Warbler.

We did not see or hear Ruffed Grouse, but they are likely to be present
(grouse don't boom at this time of year and are hard to locate now). We
did see one Wild Turkey.

Access to the park is through gated roads only, but the public can walk
in past the gates. The park office is located on US 64 in the town of
Sapphire, next to the post office. You are strongly urged (by me) to
stop there first and get a park map and information about where to park
and hike, rather than visiting on your own without more input.

The park's phone is: 828-966-9099. E-mail is: <gorg@citcom.net>. You can
read more about this and all parks at the State Parks website:
<www.ncsparks.net>.
--
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
1615 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1615
(919) 715-8687 (work)
FAX: 919-715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net