The Southernmost Saw-whet Owl

We arrived just in time to see the Friday-the-13th Full Honey Moon creeping up over the top of  Devil's Courthouse, one of North Carolina's most infamous of rock faces set beside the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The national park sign explained that according to Cherokee Legend the cave below the cliff is "the private dancing chamber and dwelling place of the slant-eyed giant, Judaculla."  It was a dramatic start to our nocturnal quest.  

Of course our goal was not to slay a giant, but spot the tiny Northern Saw-whet Owl, one of North Carolina's most elusive breeding bird species.  Our guide was Marcus Simpson's Birds of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which proclaims that the area around Devil's Courthouse is one of the best places in North Carolina to see this northern species.

My friend, "Johnny birder," needed to see one for his life list and his wife Lesley, though not nearly the psychotic lister, was happy to join us on a short birding trip to the mountains. 

Up on top of the Courthouse we were treated to a jaw-dropping moonlit view of the valleys, clouds and towns below. 

View of the Friday-the-13th Full Honey Moon from atop Devil's Courthouse

It was a bit windy and we hadn't heard any owls after about an hour and I was beginning to worry that it was too late in the season to hear them sing.  How many silent owls were we walking past in the darkness?  Eventually, Johnny and Lesley noticed a squeeking sound that we might have passed off for branches rubbing in the wind except that it was too regular.  Further investigation with lights revealed a nest box and a fledgling calling from a branch just in front of the opening!

Fledgling Norther Saw-whet Owl, Devil's Courthouse

 After some photos and much celebration we made a late camp for the night.  Who should we run into at dawn the next morning, but none other than Marcus Simpson himself, the very author of the bird guide that had led us to this cute baby owl.

Better yet was the back-story he shared with us.  Marcus had set up the nest box we had seen, which he has been monitoring along with 30 others in the North Carolina mountains for decades. Despite diligent annual checks, he had never found evidence that any of his boxes were being used by Saw-whets.  So the owl we found was very important!  It demonstrated that these little owls were using at least one of his boxes.  On top of that, it represents the southernmost record of breeding for this species!

I can only assume that the confluence of celestial and calendarial events led us to make this discovery.  Thanks to Johnny and Lesley for helping spot this little treasure and to Marcus Simpson for writing up the map for us (buy your copy now!).

I saw a Saw-whet!

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.

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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