Venture to Blue Ridge
Parkway & Beaver Lake Sanctuary, NC
Venture to Blue Ridge
Parkway
& Beaver Lake Sanctuary, NC
Saturday, April 18, 2009
We all met at a somewhat chilly Folk Art Center that morning before heading up into the Blue Ridge. As with all birding trips at this time of the year, we gravitated towards the areas of warmth and sunshine. The birding was slow to start with and there were several rather quiet stretches of woodland. A very bright male Prairie Warbler was a good find as he fed in the honeysuckle thickets along the side of the road and a male Hooded Warbler showed himself very nicely singing over the Parkway. It's always good to get good uninterrupted views of the bird for everyone in the group. An Ovenbird played "hide-and-seek " with us near Craven Gap, but we all eventually had very good views of 2 male Blackburnian Warblers in the bare trees. One was exceptionally bright in the spring sunshine. After a nice lunch at Craggy Gardens we decided to finish the day at Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary. Being the heat of the day there was not a great deal going on, but we did have nice views of Rusty Blackbird, Belted Kingfisher and a local specialty, the Brown-headed Nuthatch. Despite many of the migrants seemingly a little late this year, we still had a very nice start to the spring birding season.
| Birds | |
| Mallard (BL) | Carolina Wren |
| Turkey Vulture | Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Cooper’s Hawk (1) | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
| Broad-winged Hawk (2) | Eastern Bluebird (BL) |
| Red-tailed Hawk (3) | American Robin |
| Wild Turkey (3) | Cedar Waxwing |
| Mourning Dove | Blue-headed Vireo |
| Chimney Swift (BL) | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | Blackburnian Warbler (2) |
| Downy Woodpecker | Prairie Warbler (1) |
| Hairy Woodpecker | Black-and-white Warbler |
| Northern Flicker | Worm-eating Warbler (heard) |
| Pileated Woodpecker (Heard) | Black-throated Green Warbler (1) |
| Eastern Phoebe | Ovenbird |
| Eastern Kingbird (BL) | Hooded Warbler (1) |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow (BL) | Northern Cardinal |
| Barn Swallow (BL) | Eastern Towhee |
| Tree Swallow (BL) | Song Sparrow (Heard) |
| Blue Jay | Dark-eyed Junco |
| American Crow | Red-winged Blackbird (BL) |
| Carolina Chickadee | Rusty Blackbird (BL) |
| Tufted Titmouse | Common Grackle (BL) |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | Brown-headed Cowbird |
| Brown-headed Nuthatch (BL) | American Goldfinch |
| Other Critters | |
| Gray Squirrel | Eastern Chipmunk |
| Red Squirrel | |
| Butterflies | |
| Tiger Swallowtail | |