Mondays with Mike #7, Sparrow Season Begins, October 22, 2025

With Fall warbler season nearing an end, this week’s Mondays with Mike Walk was focused on sparrows.  We started our trip at the King’s Bridge Conservation Area in Mills River.  Conserving Carolina has just recently completed a large flood plain restoration project at this large field complex, and it is now one of the best sparrow hotspots in the region.  The site was so birdy that it took us 2 ½ hours to bird just a half mile of trails.  We finished with 7 sparrow species, including excellent close looks at Lincoln’s and White-crowned Sparrows.  And just when we thought this would be a walk for sparrows, it turned out that the best bird was a warbler – an “Audubon’s” Warbler – the western race of the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  It was eating poison ivy berries with a small flock of our eastern “Myrtle” Warblers. A Snipe and 2 Great Blue Herons were nice additions in the wetlands at the site.

The checklist for this portion of the walk can be found here:   ebird.org/checklist/S280667929

From there we made a short stop at the Mills River Park, where we found 3 adult White-crowned Sparrows in full song.  Plus, we watched a foraging flock of at least 500 Tree Swallows with 1 late Barn Swallow mixed in.

The checklist for this second portion of the walk can be found here:   ebird.org/checklist/S280664562

“Audubon’s” Warbler

by Patrick Bigelow