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Merchants Millpond birds ect



Folks,

This past Friday we drove out to Merchants Millpond State Park to camp and paddle the millpond and Lassiter Swamp. On Friday night just before dark we heard the evening call of a Ovenbird from our campsite. During the middle of the night we had a very loud Great Horned Owl calling on and off for several hours, no barred Owls were heard. At dawn from camp we must have heard 4-5 Ovenbirds along with a very noisy Fish Crow.

Once we got to the canoe launch we heard Northern Parulas (abundant on the millpond), Yellow-throated Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers all later provided great looks. Just before we launched I found a Indigo Bunting at the entrance to Coleman Trail. Once on the millpond we found a Purple Martin soaring above us.

Other cool stuff we found were:

Common Baskettail dragonfly that emerged on a cypress knee 50 foot from shore that was slowing being killed by a ant 1/2 inch long. The dragonfly's wings never formed right so it could fly, one eye was eaten away yet it was still alive. In all we saw maybe 40 dragonflies on the wing, all looked to be baskettails.

A mean 3 foot Cottonmouth that posed for photos that was almost stepped on by one of our group. A black Rat Snake making its way up a Tupelo Gum tree that was 4 foot wide at the base, 40 foot to the first limb. Also was saw around 20 Red-banded Water Snakes in stumps on the millpond.

A tiny Green Treefrog foraging from a cypress knee at the waters edge, it was half grown not one inch long.

We made our way to the end of Lassiter Swamp to find the 1000 year old cypress tree, a very impressive tree. Six of us could not links arms around this tree! I have been going to the millpond for 15 years now and never found this tree due to low water in Lassiter Swamp.

Butterflies seen on Saturday were: 6 Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, 15 Falcate Orangetips and 1 azure spp.

Sunday was cold and dreary we hiked Lassiter Trail but had nothing special to report. On the way home we encountered snow for 30 mins while driving just past Roanoke Rapids.


Randy Emmitt
Butterflies Found In North Carolina Online
http://www.rlephoto.com/butterflies/butterflies.html
Coming soon an interactive CD The Butterflies of NC, SC, VA and WV