Ospreys never get old.
In the morning on Saturday I dropped Luke off at NC State and I had about 3-4 hours to spend and I knew just where to do it.... Mial Plantation Rd on the Neuse River Greenway is one of my favorite spots in Wake County in the Spring. Its a long paved greenway with no motorized traffic and it is sandwiched between rolling hills of farm fields, mature forest and the Neuse River.
Brown Thrasher
This Swainson's Warbler was very loud and clear but it took a while to pick it out of the tree tops.
This Wood Thrush claimed bird of the day with its confiding demeanor. And the song so rich and beautiful too.
I am going with Pearl Crescent with this one but it could be a Mimic Crescent.
Louisiana Waterthrush
Eastern Bluebird
Indigo Buntings were singing like crazy in multiple spots along the field edges.
Hooded Warbler
Blue Grosbeak
Right on time it started raining and Luke called to pick him up. We had a nice lunch at a Bul Box near the NS State campus. I highly recommend the Bulgogi Bowl.
We got on the road towards Weddington and the skies opened up, flooding the highway. We barely made it out of Wake alive. Luckily the rain stopped when we made it into Moore County and I convinced Luke that stopping in a county park would be a good idea. Phillips Park ended up being a great pick although the birding was slow due to afternoon heat.
Beautiful fields with knee-high grass and mature Pecan trees with a gravel half mile loop.
Best bird was this migrating Broad-winged Hawk!
A little about Moore County. It is about 700 square miles and has almost 100k people in it which means it's the 17th biggest county and has about a mid range population compared with other counties. Pinehurst is the biggest town in the county but we didn't have time to visit it. This county is not really diverse with about 77% whites. Consequently it leans conservative and is full of golf courses.
Luke had an ok track meet but didn't get the time he wanted. It was fun to watch none the less. Weddington High School has an amazing campus. I had no idea there was a super affluent enclave in this area of Charlotte, I thought they were all on the lakes to the north. The meet didn't end until 10pm or so but we made it just in time to eat at a restaurant called CO. We got some pork belly Banh Mis and some other tasty fusion bites. Yum! By the time we got out it was close to 11pm so we got ourselves a hotel and I had one more shot in the morning to add some county birding. Luke had to do a long run so I selected a park with plenty of trails. Cane Creek Park in the southwest part of Union County fit the bill perfectly.
This is a large park sitting near the border of South Caroline and southeast of Charlotte. Union county's proximity to Charlotte means it holds a fairly large population of 238k people although you wouldn't know based on this corner of the county which is rural and secluded. It's about 631 square miles making it the 23rd largest county in NC. Monroe is the county seat and is where are hotel was.
Here is an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia, its crazy to think these kinds of things happened a little over a hundred years ago.
Monroe, the county seat of Union County, also became a focal point during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1958, local NAACP Chapter President Robert F. Williams defended a nine-year-old African-American boy who had been kissed by a white girl in an incident known as the Kissing Case. A second African-American boy, aged seven, was also convicted and sentenced to live in a juvenile reformatory until he was 21 for simply witnessing the act.
We have come a long way, but still have a ways to go.
Randy Travis the country singer is probably the most famous person to come out of Union County from the town of Marshville. If you have traveled from Wilmington to Charlotte on the 74 you have probably seen this mural.
Disclaimer - not my pic, I pulled it from a Google search.
The park itself was super nice but we got there kind of late because Luke wanted his beauty rest and slept in. Consequently, it was crowded with weekenders BBQing and making a lot of noise.
It wasn't loud enough to drown out the beautiful song of this and other Summer Tanagers though.
There were plenty of Ovenbirds too.
I got intentionally lost but eventually found my way back and we got back on the road to get home.
After about an hour on the 74 we decided to stop for lunch and I found a place called the Taco Factory in Rockingham. It was delicious and cheap which a combination I love. The tacos were authentic and simple with just some cilantro and onions as a garnish.
Our last stop on the way home was a little park in Richmond County called Hamlet City Lake.
Richmond County is mid-sized with about 473 square miles and 46k people. It is home to Rockingham which is the largest town in the county but I know it mostly from a marathon I ran in Ellerbe which is in the northern part of the county. It was a brutally hilly marathon which is why I will always remember it, at least if you are used to the flat country of Wilmington.
What is Ellerbe famous for? Its where Andre the Giant built his range and called his home.
Not my picture, thanks to Wiki.
Most people probably remember Andre from his role in the cult film classic, the Princess Bride. If you haven't seen it, go do that now.
Hamlet City is really just a suburb of Rockingham. The lake park wasn't anything special to be honest but maybe I was just ready to go home. I made a list of about 20 birds and we got back on the road.
Great times!
I am up to 41 counties for the year! I finally figured out how to count the counties using eBird instead of manually counting on the map. However, most of the counties I still need are towards the mountains and a longer drive.
That being said, I still have 7 months to do it!
No comments:
Post a Comment