My daughter and I spent a day on the Parkway this weekend. The birds
were not abundant, July being the least "birdy" months in this part of
the world but there were some highlights. For one thing we ran into a
lot of rain which is really a rare bird in this area! Really worth
sitting it out in the car and watching the plants slurp it up and
several birds taking showers in the wet leaves.
I am convinced that there are few more gorgeous sights than a male
Indigo Bunting sitting in the top if a small tree at eye level in full
sun. what a sight!!
We saw many hummers at the NC Arboretum--five or six in sight at one
time. We4 also learned something there. We saw two small sparrows
with strippy breasts that we just couldn't identify. We tried turning
them into any sparrow we could think of when Linda remarked that they
still had yellow lips so must be fledglings. Just about that time
Mama shoed up--Chipping Sparrow. for what ever reason I had never
noticed that the fledglings were stripped.
At one point we were deep in the woods on a little road we found off
the highway when we tried playing a Screech Owl tape hoping to lure
some little birds out of the bushes for a look. We didn't get any
little birds but we did get an answer from one maybe two owls and what
we think was a juvenile Broad Winged Hawk came flying in for a look!
One of the most endearing things we saw was a recently fledged Black
Vulture on a road near the house. He was cute--kind of fuzzy looking.
We stopped the car to watch him and he ran away from us flapping his
wings and trying to take off. He seemed to be saying "these things
are supposed to work!" In just a minute he found his mother off the
road and was fine.
We saw one hen turkey with only one chick but we did not see a Ruffed
Grouse which was one of the main reasons we went there! this is my
nemesis bird. Everyone else seems to see them on the sides of the
roads but I never have. Oh well, something to look forward to.
Mary Ann
Barnwell, SC
