On the way north, I convinced the family to take a short break near Camp Creek on the parkway so we could stretch our legs and let Paco go pee. I was hoping for an Alder Flycatcher as I have had them here in years past, but no dice. Probably it was too hot and the birds were resting.
Great Spangled Fritillary
This Black-throated Blue was way up in the canopy and it tripped up the rare flag in eBird. Not sure why as they are fairly common all over the parkway.
This Red-breasted Nuthatch also flagged as rare.
Camp Creek is in Burke County which also counted as a new one for my year effort although I suspect I will be back later this year to explore the county more thoroughly.
Burke is a middle sized county with 512 square miles but it does have a decent population at 90k people owing to some larger towns like Morganton within its borders.
I was searching famous people from Morganton and I landed on a gold mine. The following is the Wiki entry for Robert Harrill aka the Fort Fisher Hermit.
Robert E. Harrill, or Harrell, (February 2, 1893 – June 4, 1972) was an American man also known as the Fort Fisher Hermit. He became a hermit in 1955, at the age of 62, having hitchhiked to Fort Fisher on the North Carolina coast from Morganton, North Carolina. He had previously been committed to a mental hospital in Morganton, after his marriage failed. Harrill settled in an abandoned World War II bunker set in a salt marsh beside the Cape Fear River in the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area.
Harrill fed himself by fishing and scavenging. He and his bunker became a tourist attraction and visitors would listen to him talk about his "School of Common Sense", leaving donations in a frying pan. After living as a hermit for 17 years, he died under mysterious circumstances in 1972, with the official cause of death given as a heart attack. His life has been commemorated with books, films and a theatre production.
Legendary!
After another hour or so we found our VRBO and settled in for the evening. Paco was glad to finally get out of the car.
Thursday was mostly a work day so I only briefly got out to visit Brookshire Park in Boone which is a nice park adjacent to part of the Appalachian State campus. This is Watauga County which I had already visited earlier in the year.
And Red-winged Blackbirds.
After about 20 minutes into our walk, the skies opened up and it poured all over us as we ran back to the car. It took a day to dry out my camera bag but at least the camera stayed dry.
In the evening we headed over to EB Jeffress Park up on the Blue Ridge Parkway to take a really short hike on the Cascades Trail.
A trip to the Parkway is always worth it but unfortunately the trail was under maintenance and all we could see was the top of the falls.
The bird life was pretty much non-existent and we didn't see any other cars either. It was eerily silent other than the sound of the falls.
Technically this was a new county for me. In fact, this small section of the parkway only dips into Wilkes County for less than a mile or so as far as I could tell.
Wilkes County is definitely a county I would like to explore more of. It seems like it has some hidden gems to be uncovered. Doughton Park is in it as well as Stone Mountain State Park which I did visit many years ago. The population is middling with 65k people mostly due to Wilkesboro. It is one of the biggest counties in NC with 750 square miles. It was named for John Wilkes, an English political radical who lost his position as the Lord Mayor of the city of London because of his support for the colonists during the American Revolution. During times of prohibition, Wilkes County was known as the "Moonshine capital of the world". I couldn't find any recognizable names for famous people from Wilkes County but I am sure some of them are interesting none the less.
On Friday both Melissa and I took the day off for the first full day of the trip where we didn't have to log on and work. It also happened to be our 21st wedding anniversary! After taking Paco for a walk to tire him out, we headed out with George and did the Elk Knob Mountain hike. Its about 2 miles straight up but it didn't take long to get to the top. This is one of the few over 5000 footers in the area. The other is Snake Mountain which hosts some Golden-winged Warblers.
21 years of marriage and we are still going strong. I didn't bring my camera this time and it was really much easier to hike and I kept up no problem despite Melissa and George's fast pace.
Back down in the parking lot I noticed a Turkey trying to hide in the grass.
Field Sparrows breed up here.
Dark-eyed Juncos too.
We went back to let Paco out and then headed to the South Fork New River for a Innertubing adventure. The weather was a little iffy with possible thunderstorms and I had no idea if we would be jumping into the water so I didn't bring my phone and thus have no pics. It was a blast! We put in at the High Mountain Expeditions headquarters and floated for a couple hours on the New River. Perhaps because of the questionable weather, there were hardly any other people on the river and we had sections where we floated in complete silence.
Not my photo but you get the idea. They pick you up two miles downstream and bring you back to your car.
For dinner we went to an awesome restaurant called Craft Bistro in West Jefferson.
Saturday morning we set off home early but I walked Paco one more time and saw some of the locals - Hooded Warbler Male.
Female
Northern Parula
Indigo Bunting.
Our final stop on the way home was to Yadkin Memorial Park in you guessed it, Yadkin County!
Halloween Pennant
Red-winged Blackbird
Great Egret
It was blazing hot and despite trying, I didn't get too many bird pics. However, it was a really nice park with tons of different habitats and I will be back.
So where do I stand with my county effort? 54 down and 46 to go! I don't think I am going to make it but who knows, maybe I will step up my game later in the fall. I love going to the mountains in the fall and the migration might light a fire under me.
As a review, this latest trip bagged me Mecklenburg, Gaston, Jackson, Macon, Clay, Cherokee, Graham, Burke and Wilkes Counties. So if I can do a couple more trips like that, I could make it happen.
Larry Birds, just not too hard. He just doesn't have the same drive that Jamie has.
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