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!
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