Pender and Cumberland (13-19Mar2023)

March is always a little slow birding wise.  Most migrant breeders are not back yet with a few exceptions. I also have been participating in family stuff, so I didn't travel far afield this week.  I am sitting at the airport now on my way to London for work, so hopefully I can get out and post some European birds soon.

First some local birds...

Someone had posted some adorable Great Horned Owlet pics on Facebook and listed Trinity Landing which is a new community about 1-2 miles from my house.  So naturally I was intrigued and one day after work I went to check it out.  The community has a sign in front that says no trespassing but I thought it would be ok to drive in and just stay in my truck.  I drove all the way to the back of the community and quickly saw a nest up high over the boardwalk that leads into the marsh.  I didn't even have to get out of my truck!

 Great Horned Owl and chick.

Saturday after dropping my son off at his regatta at Wrightsville Beach, I drove up to Pender County and took a long walk in the Abbey Nature Preserve.  It was raining or misting pretty much the whole time so the bird opportunities were minimal.

A rather wet Blue Jay.

The trails wind through hard woods and a pond habitat with some small creeks.  I keep hoping a Louisiana  Waterthrush would come here during migration but so far no luck.

Pender County is actually pretty huge at 869 square miles which puts it at the 5th largest county in NC.  It's growing rapidly because of its proximity to my home county of New Hanover.  The population was recorded at about 60k people at the last census.

It includes the whole of Holly Shelter Gamelands which is where I usually get my warbler fix for some of the breeders in the area which pretty much shun almost all of New Hanover.  Birds like the Swainson's Warbler, Hooded Warbler and Worm-eating Warbler.  It's too early for them though.  Soon....

Later in the afternoon I went surfing which was fun and then went to pick up my son.  They were still racing so I watched them for the last couple races.  

There he is with his sailing partner giving me the peace symbol like a true player.

Sunday was the second day of racing for the regatta and his team (Junior Varsity) took first place!  

Common Loon - At the beach on Sunday I had some more common birds.

Sanderling

I headed to the Battleship to get my Northern Rough-winged Swallow which always shows up this time of year.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow 

The Rusty Blackbird flock is still hanging out but they will be moving north soon.

Finally I ended my weekend with a short trip to Lake Waccamaw in Columbus County. 

Columbus County is also huge at 937 square miles which brings it to the 3rd position on largest counties in NC.  However, despite the anger area it has less people than Pender county with around 50k people.  Lake Waccamaw State Park is one of my favorite state parks in NC and sits on one of the largest of the Bay Lakes which I wrote about on earlier posts.

The boardwalk down to the lake which always has some nice flocks of birds.

The pier is nice and long and gives you a great view over the huge lake.

A Yellow-throated Warbler was actively hunting for food in the crannies on the boardwalk but was silent and probably not on territory.

I had 10 or so Blue-gray Gnatties so they are coming in hot and heavy now.

Check this park out if you haven't yet! 

I probably will visit both of these close counties again soon, so will keep this short and sweet.

34 down, 66 to go!

Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland Counties (11Mar2023)

This workweek was uneventful for birds, so I was itching to get out and try my luck in some new places.  Initially my plan for Saturday was to hit up Lake Waccamaw State Park early and then head west to hit some counties just west of I-95.  I awoke at about 2am with a bout of insomnia.  I know when I get insomnia that its best to not fight it and just get up and go about my business without waking up the family.  So I went downstairs and started to research my route.  I decided to switch my itinerary after seeing that Lake Waccamaw doesn't open until 8am.

 The initial plan was to head clockwise in a big oval, but I switched it and headed counterclockwise with Jessups Mill Pond as my first stop in Cumberland County.

This mill pond is just a random state gameland with a bay lake similar to the others I visited earlier this year.

Cypresses with mixed oaks surrounding the pond with some Long-leaf Pine Habitat a little further away from the water.  A large flock of domestic type Muscovy Ducks waddled over to me as soon as I opened my car door so someone has obviously been feeding them.   It took me a little while to lose them as I walked to the northwest side of the pond.  I ambled along that path and back into some longleaf pine habitat for about 2 miles round trip.

Nothing really special but I did run into a nice feeding flock including 2 Blue-headed Vireos which tripped the rarity flag in eBird, not sure why.

Blue-gray Gnatties will be flooding the area soon but for now they are still scarce.

Cumberland County is the 5th most populous county mainly due to Fayetteville and the large military presence in the area.  It's also the 3rd largest county at 937 square miles.  It was named after Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland who was made famous by a battle on English soil during the Jacobite Uprising in the 1700's. It's about time we renamed it.  How about the latin word for Army since Fort Bragg is the centerpiece of this county - Exercitus!  Better than some patronymic of an old English general.  We did after all declare independence from the British, not that I have anything against them.

After Jessups, I headed over to my second planned stop of the "All American Trail" north of Raeford, NC in Hoke County.  It was the eBird hotspot with the most species so I figured it would be a good place to spend the morning.  According to sources online this 20 mile carriage trail runs through some nice pine habitat with Bachman's Warblers and Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers.  What it didn't say online was that it was closed...  When I got there various signs posted said the trail was closed due to dangerous conditions. That piqued my interest so I looked it up online.  Apparently someone was shot there presumably by a hunter a number of years ago and then I guess there has been more incidents since then.   The details were scant and it was a little annoying that no one has flagged it as closed in eBird.

A quick search and I found Calloway Forest Preserve about 10 miles away.  Luckily that was open although there were warning signs there too for hunting.  I get that people like to hunt, but its really sad that in some counties it is difficult to find a safe place to take a walk without fear of being shot.

The weird thing about this park is there were signs everywhere that said No Trespassing right next to signs that said public nature park.  The main sign in front was inviting enough so I parked and hiked in.  Basically this park is a hilly version of Holly Shelter Gamelands near my stomping grounds.  Plenty of Long-leaf Pines looking great for Red-cockaded WP habitat and Bachman's Sparrows but it was really windy and I didn't find either after a long 3 mile hike.

I did find a bunch of Butterflies though...

Zebra Swallowtail dorsal side.

Ventral.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Half of the signs on the trails had bullet holes which got me depressed.  I am really sick of the gun culture in NC (USA really) and this county seemed to have signs of guns everywhere.  I guess that's what you get in a county that has a huge Army base.  Bumper stickers with AR-15s on them were common.  What in the world does a bumper sticker like that supposed to signify? "I like killing people"?  I am pretty sure no-one uses an AR-15 for hunting deer. I realize militaries are somewhat necessary in a country like the USA and sometimes killing people is also necessary in war, but do we have to glorify it and make it part of our identity?  Anyhow... a little about Hoke County..

Hoke County was named after a Confederate General who wasn't even from Hoke County, I suppose because we all should be celebrating the side that lost the war.  Just like we celebrate a British general for Cumberland County.   I am not suggesting that we name it after a Union general, but perhaps we can give it a name reflecting something the county is famous for or maybe a famous person from the county?  A quick google search and I found the Wiki page for Julian Pierce.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Pierce

He was an American lawyer and Lumbee Activist who was born in Hoke County.  "The Lumbee are a Native American people primarily centered in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland, and Scotland counties in North Carolina. They also live in surrounding states and Baltimore, Maryland."

Apparently he was murdered under suspicious circumstances that could be either personal or political or both.  I see that naming the county after a prominent Democrat could be contentious but the county somewhat surprisingly does lean democratic.

Hoke County borders Scotland County which was named in honor of the Scottish immigrants that came here in the 1700s.  The county is relatively small at 318 square miles and has about 36k people.  The political lean is about 50/50% as are the major demographic groups.  This county also has a significant number of Lumbee Indians owing to its border on the Lumber River.  I decided to hit up Lumber River State Park which actually is partially in Hoke County but I concentrated on the portion in Scotland County.

The initial plan was to hit up two spots in Scotland County, a lake near the county seat in Laurinburg and the Chalk Banks tract of Lumber River State Park.  I arrived at Chalk Banks at around noon and had so much fun walking around the trails that I lost track of time.

The State Park has two locations in two totally different spots along the river.  One day I will bring my kayak and go from one park to the other.

I parked next to a pond which had super clear water in the middle away from the vegetated sides.  The picture doesn't do it justice, it really was beautiful.  

I was looking for dragonflies but all I could find were small dragons I thought were all Little Blue Dragonlets but now that I look at my pics, I they are Blue Corporals. For some reason I only took pictures of the females.

Blue Corporal dragonfly.

I thought this was the Lumber River when I hiked the trail but I think it may just be a smaller creek draining into the Lumber.

Then finally I heard my first of the seaso

n Yellow-throated Warbler and it wasn't hard to find it in the branches above my head.  I have pretty bad hearing but these beauts are loud and clear for me.

One of the reasons I love photographing birds is that you get to look at details that would be hard to notice in the field.  This warbler seems to have some invertebrate egg in his bill.  Insect caviar!

Much of the trail winds adjacent to a swampy area that feeds the Lumber.  Eventually I got hungry and started walking back to my car on the entrance road stopping to check out some of the butterflies.

Presumed Juvenal's Duskywing. I think it is too early for Horace's to be flying.

Presumed Spring Azure.

This Juvenal's had a red marking on the last segment of the abdomen.

iNaturalist is calling this one a Juvenal's too.  I need to get a field guide.

Since I spent so much time in this State Park, I didn't have the time to head into Laurinburg for eats, so I checked online and saw that a town called Maxton was on my route and there was a restaurant called "Bill's" that got good reviews.  It was clearly a little burger place much like the one I visited in Elizabethtown (Melvin's) and it got 4.5 stars on Yelp so I figured it had to be decent.  

There were a line of people so I figured it had to be good, although I have to say it didn't smell good.  I ordered a cheeseburger all the way (chili and onions) and since it was so cheap I figured I would try the BBQ sandwich too.  I ended up waiting a good 30 minutes and at this point I could have eaten my shoe.  The burger was quite tasty but I wouldn't recommend the BBQ.  That being said I don't think it was as good as the reviews made it out to be.  Perhaps the scale is on a serious curve and since this is one of the only places to get food in Maxton, people tend to rate it high.  

By the time I got out of there it was 3pm.  My son had a soccer game at 4:30 and the drive home would be 1.5 hours so it was perfect timing, but that meant I didn't have time for Lake Waccamaw.  I will save it for a future trip.

32 Counties down, 68 to go!