Venture to Townville, SC

March 8, 2006

The Townville area is always a great early spring birding destination. As many of us are still deep in winter weather up here in the NC Mountains, a quick trip into South Carolina reminds us that spring is indeed on the way. Also, bird populations do change and one species that in fast colonizing the Carolinas is the Eurasian Collared-Dove. Last year we had a brief view of one individual, while this year they were common and easy to see in the small, attractive village of Townville. As usual, the ponds at Dobbins Farm were crowded with ducks and this spring has seen a good influx of Redhead throughout the Carolina Mountains and Foothills. Several pairs of Northern Shoveler were feeding and Green-winged Teal seemed to be coming through in good numbers.

So how about those signs of spring? The Purple Martin colony had about 10 individuals calling loudly and investigating the gourds; 2 Barn Swallows gave us a fly-over and a single Northern Rough-winged Swallow was feeding over the river. Aside from these early vanguards of warmer weather, the young male Common Yellowthroat could have been an over-wintering bird and the Horned Larks gave us great views along the roadside as they proclaimed territories and sang their jingling songs overhead. To be honest, signs of winter were more apparent than signs of spring, with the large numbers of ducks present, very few wildflowers and a nice flock of Brewer's Blackbirds.

Probably one of the biggest surprises of the day was the number of early butterflies, including a crisp Tiger Swallowtail, Pearl Crescent and the typically early sulphurs.

Simon Thompson