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A beautiful day on the Blue Ridge Parkway
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: A beautiful day on the Blue Ridge Parkway
- From: steven.shultz@us.pwcglobal.com
- Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 08:57:52 -0400
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Rick Payne and I decided to try our luck on the BRP Sunday. The weather
was absolutely beautiful, the birding average. (But I figure that anytime
you are healthy enough to get out, walk some trails, meet some people, and
enjoy the day is a winner regardless of how many migrants show up!) The
day started well with 7 Turkeys strutting alongside the Parkway between
US21 and Mahogany Rock. We stopped at the old roadbed leading to the
summit of Mahogany Rock and immediately got into a nice mixed flock of
warblers including BTB, Tennessee, Worm Eating, Black and White, and
Magnolia. Little did we know that these would be the last warblers
identified for several hours. A bit further along the trail several
Scarlet Tanagers sat in the top of the same tree. I finally got to see a
Turkey in flight at the summit. A trio of birds was checking out a large
woodpile as we approached. Two birds simply walked off, but the third had
to be different and flew. Pretty neat. A hike up Scott's Ridge revealed
exactly one bird, a Hairy WP. Pretty sad, but as I said it was a nice day.
I think the steady southeast wind combined with the lack of much frontal
activity for several days kept the number of migrants below the potential
for this time of year.
The hawk watch at Mahogany Rock overlook was a lot of fun. This was my
first hawk watch experience. I tried to absorb as much of the atmosphere
as possible from the plastic owl mounted on a pole to the paper Osprey kite
(holding a paper fish) flying nearby. Although the southeast wind was not
particularly conducive to major bird movements, we got to see 50 or so
Broad Wings and a couple of Cooper's in the short time we were there. The
folks manning the count were great, answering my questions as well as
fielding a question from a pair of young ladies who asked "So, what is the
point of birdwatching?".
The day ended with a small flock of warblers on the Mahogany Summit trail,
mainly Magnolias but Rick got a nice Hooded as well.
Probably the most interesting sighting on the trip came on our drive up
from the Triangle. An incredible meteor lit the skies over Burlington
about 5:40am. The fireball slowly travelled from south to north and was so
bright as to cause a little shadow on my retina for the next few minutes.
Rick and I decided it may have been bright enough to be seen during the
day. If you've ever seen that video of a fireball from a high school
football game in Colorado you have a good idea of what we saw. (I
understand that this is way off topic, but any of you out early Sunday
morning listening for migrating northern thrushes may have seen this beauty
as well!)
Have a great week!
Steve Shultz
steven.shultz@us.pwcglobal.com
Cary, NC
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