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Henderson County Fall NAMC



Six intrepid birders in three teams stuck it out on a very soggy Fall 
Migration Count in Henderson County (southern mountains) last Saturday.  
Amazingly, despite the weather and the lowest number of participants in the 
three years we have been doing this count, we ended up with  the most species 
we have ever had with 101.  Total bird numbers were lower than usual, 
especially for the songbirds.  The higher elevations were totally socked in 
with fog as well as rain.  Some nice birds for the day were 3 Philadelphia 
Vireos, 2 Ruffed Grouse, a Sora, and a great look at a Great Horned Owl 
sitting out in the open in a dead tree and being harassed by crows.  Wild 
Turkeys were out and about with a total of 25, but Northern Bobwhite seemed to 
all be in hiding, probably because the dove hunters were out in great numbers 
and blasting away all day.  They don't seem to be making much of a dent in the 
dove (241) population, though.

We did manage to get 18 species of warbler even though the total numbers were 
way down.  In order of abundance they were (no surprises here):  Magnolia 
(38), Chestnut-sided (26), American Redstart (26), Tennessee (21), Palm (20), 
Common Yellowthroat (16), Northern Waterthrush (8), 2 each of Yellow, 
Bay-breasted, and Black and White, and one each of Blue-winged, Golden-winged, 
N. Parula, BT Green, Blackburnian, Prairie, Worm-eating, and Canada.  Many of 
the local yokels seem to have moved on or were hiding in the foggy forest.  
Most of the warblers seen were northern transients.

The rain was a boon for shorebirds, though, and that boosted our total species 
count.  Shorebirds included:  Am. golden Plover (2), Killdeer (123), Solitary 
(2), Least (2), Pectoral (5), Stilt (2), Buff-breasted (1), and Common Snipe 
(2).  We also almost swept the swallow field with Barn, Bank, Cliff, and Tree 
and only missed Rough-winged which seems to depart fairly early.

So now we await the sparrow migrants expected to arrive in October.  Complete 
results of this count will eventually be posted on the Elisha Mitchell Audubon 
Society web site where, by the way, the spring migration count results for 
Buncombe and Henderson Counties are currently posted.  Thanks to Wayne 
Forsythe, Charlotte Goedsche, Bob Olthoff, Les Saucier, and Ron Selvey for 
participating.  
Marilyn Westphal
Hendersonville, NC
mjwestphal@unca.edu