Last weekend Mark K., Ali Iyoob, Natalia Ocampo-Penuela, Jacob
Socolar and I birded around Boone for some of the tough-to-find birds
that breed in the NC mountains. It ended up being pretty wet, so I
didn't get many photos, but the warblers we saw are pretty tough to
capture anyway.
 |
| Canada Warbler (female) |
Excellent looks at Canada Warblers were nice, but one of our main targets was Golden-winged Warbler, a species
listed as near-threatened by the IUCN. Golden-winged warblers breed in brushy early successional habitats and thus a reason for its decline is said be
Re-forestation.
It sounds a bit crazy to blame thriving forests on the plight of a song
bird, but historically these creatures probably relied on habitat
maintained by large grazing mammals (i.e. Bison) and fires, which have
since respectively been extirpated and suppressed.
They
can reliably be found at a handful of well-known breeding sites in the
mountains of NC, but we had a surprisingly difficult time tracking a
them down. Success came finally late on our final day when we visited
Shady Grove Gardens and Nursery.
 |
| Golden-winged Warbler - blurry photo by Mark K. |
But
the best bird of the trip for me was the Northern Saw-whet Owl we heard
and, after a couple hours of searching, were eventually able to spot in
the boreal forest at Roan Mountain.
 |
| Northern Saw-Whet Owl - photo by Mark K. |
Despite all the rain this was a really fun trip! It's hard to go wrong in the NC mountains in May.
--
Some notes for listing nerds:
Since
I found Golden-winged Warbler, Willow Flycatcher and Northern Saw-whet
Owl on this trip, the only remaining North Carolina breeding bird
species I need is Swallow-tailed Kite (and it's breeding status was only
confirmed a few weeks ago).
I'm
not much of an ABA area birder. This is mostly because my travel
opportunities since I got into birding have either been international or
along the East Coast. Thus, I haven't birded west of Appalachia and my
ABA area list is only 23 ticks ahead of my North Carolina list (343).
Next
week I'll get to bird in northern Minnesota and hopefully pick up some lifers
I'll have no chance of ever seeing in NC: Gray Jay, Black-backed
Woodpecker, Boreal Chickadee, Black-billed Magpie, Sharp-tailed Grouse
and if I'm really lucky, Spruce Grouse or Great Gray Owl. This trip
should push my NC vs. ABA list gap up to 28 or so, but I'll still have
opportunities to narrow it back down to 23...or lower. That is until I
go bird in California and my ABA list explodes.
Here's a list of birds that are on the NC official bird list that I have only seen outside my home state:
| Monk Parakeet |
| Ring-necked Pheasant |
| Roseate Tern |
| Common Ground-Dove |
| Snowy Owl |
| Long-eared Owl |
| Mourning Warbler |
| American Tree Sparrow |
| White-winged Crossbill |
| Limpkin |
| Black-bellied Whistling-Duck |
| Gray Kingbird |
| Mottled Duck |
| Swallow-tailed Kite |
| Black-headed Gull |
| Western Kingbird |
| Philadelphia Vireo |
