Holy smokes, April is always a tough month to stay on top of and it has been especially difficult because I just took a week vacation in California and I still have Utah backlog from my Xmas vacation! So no shortage of material to share. First up is a couple days in mid April when I visited three more counties for my 100 counties in NC project. I had just come back from California on Saturday morning from my red-eye flight, so I was hesitant to go back out and drive but the siren song was calling, or more appropriately the Henslow's song. Every year in April-May I head to the old decommissioned Voice of America site in Beaufort County near Bear Grass to get a peek at the Henslow's Sparrows that get active there around this time of year. I was a little late getting up and its a 2-3 hour drive from Wilmington so I was worried it would get hot and the birds would stop singing. When I got out the truck, I was initially alarmed that I could not locate any of the tell-tale farting call/song of the Henslow's. However, after some exploring of the side roads that you can walk on, I did find a handful singing and this particular one was super cooperative.
Henslow's Sparrow
Prairie Warblers were also establishing breeding territory and were very cooperative.
Oddly enough, the Common Yellowthroats were less cooperative.
Eastern Kingbird
Beaufort is one of those counties that is named after someone that has a county and a town/city named after them in NC but oddly they are not adjacent. Beaufort the city is not in Beaufort the county. The county seat in Beaufort County is Washington or what the locals affectionately call Little Washington. This is not to be confused with Washington County which of course is not encompassing Washington the city/town.
Beaufort County has about 45k people mostly in Washington or Aurora, and is otherwise quite rural. According to Wiki:
"Beaufort County was first called Pamptecough. The name was changed about 1712 to Beaufort, named for Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort (1684–1714), who became one of Carolina's Lords Proprietor around 1709."
I kind of like Pamptecough better which was a Native American word although I can't find the meaning of it.
Also according to Wiki:
"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 958 square miles (2,480 km2), of which 827 square miles (2,140 km2) is land and 131 square miles (340 km2) (14%) is water.[5] It is the fifth-largest county in North Carolina by total area. It is split in half by the Pamlico River and the mouth of the Pamlico River."
Anyhow, it is a nice county and Washington is a nice town on the water (Pamlico River) and boasts some notable people of which I picked my favorite, Dominique Wilkins! I have some good memories of watching him play when I was growing up.
- "Dominique Wilkins, nine-time NBA All-Star, noted as one of the best dunkers in NBA history, earning the nickname "The Human Highlight Film." In 2006, Wilkins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame."
But I digress.... After the VOA site, I hit up a couple of counties on the way home.
My methodology for picking sites in a county is usually looking at eBird and picking the spots with the most species. So that's what I did for Greene County. My first stop was the Greene County Sports Complex but it was super hot and buggy there and the birding was abysmal.
So I moved over to the boat ramp and trails which are named Scout Park in eBird although I could find nothing online about a Scout Park. Both these spots are bordered by Contentnea Creek which drains into the Neuse River way downstream. Scout Park was much better. I ran into a nice feeding flock at the end of the trail which winds next to the river.
Notice this looks a lot alike the previous image taken about 300 yards up river, but it had gotten cloudy and the bird activity was probably picking up as a consequence.
White-eyed Vireo
Prothonotary Warbler
I have been super lucky with Yellow-throated Vireos so far this spring. They usually are not very easy to photograph in my experience.
It started to rain a bit so I took that as a queue to pack it in and head to the next spot. But first some fun facts about Greene County!
The population is about 20k people, and the county seat is Snow Hill which is where the two spots I birded in are located.
This map is zoomed out the point where Contentnea Creek is not even visible.
A quick history lesson from Wiki:
"Greene County, being a part of land grant by King Charles II of England in 1663, was first settled around 1710 by immigrants from Maryland, Virginia, and parts of North Carolina. The original inhabitants of the area, the Tuscarora Indians, fought with these immigrants and on March 20–23, 1713, a fighting force of South Carolinians and Yamasee Indians, under Colonel Murice Moore, defeated the Tuscarora, under the leadership of Chief Hancock. This was the final major battle of the Tuscarora War at Fort Neoheroka near current day Snow Hill."
Not much else to mention here and unfortunately I didn't have time to visit the town and patronize a restaurant.
The next spot I picked was Neuseway Nature Park in Kinston, NC. It was fairly hot out by this time so I don't have much to share, but I could see it being a decent place first thing in the morning.
Brown-headed Cowbird
Chipping Sparrow
I think this is a Lancet Clubtail which is a first to me. They have more yellow than the Ashy Clubtail on P9 which is the last long segment on the abdomen.Kinston and consequently this park is located in Lenoir County. Lenoir County has 55k people and has an area of 400 square miles.
Well all that was on the 16th but I have a couple photos from a quick visit to Wrightsville Beach later in the week.
Wilson's Plovers are back in full force.
Likewise for Sandwich Terns.
A few Common Terns are establishing territory in the breeding colony.
Common Tern
Royal Terns getting frisky!
Black Skimmers are back in huge flocks.
It turns out I had already visited Beaufort County this year so only Greene and Lenoir were new. That brings me to 39 counties for the year. I think I posted incorrectly 35 last time, I really had 37 from the last post and added 2 more this time.
I am already back from another trip from the Raleigh and Charlotte areas this past weekend while I brought my son to his Science Olympiad competition and a track meet. I will save those for another post.
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