On Saturday October 7th we visited 2 State Parks about an hour from here.
Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature
Preserve is a 900-acre wilderness and conservation area. It features four
miles of trails which will lead hikers through tall longleaf pine forests and swamplands,
and there is also a museum with interactive exhibits. We had 2 "target birds" we hoped to see today. One is a rare Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the other a Brown-headed Nuthatch.
We started at the Visitor's center to pick up the trail map and to visit their exhibits of their flora and fauna of the Preserve.
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
House Finch
Pine Warbler
House Finch - male
It was a beautiful morning and the birds were active and musical. Finding them in the trees is another story...haha. We did spot a few.
This backlit shot is the only one we got of the Brown-headed Nuthatch but at least we saw him. Their sound is pretty unmistakable as they sound like a rubber ducky squeak toy.
cool mushroom
a bit of fall color
We also had high hopes of seeing Beavers today. They have a pond and are often seen there. However, there were none. We did see evidence of them though. Not blaming the loud people with the large dog for not seeing them, but just as we got to the area they yell loudly "see any Beavers?". Then, where we moved out of the way to let them pass by with their dog, was right in the way of where the thirsty dog wanted to be to drink loudly from the pond. It was funny he was slurping so long and loud. I'm thinking to myself, leave the Beavers some water....
Beaver pond
gnawed off tree trunk
Beaver Dam on one side of the bridge
it was an easy trail for the most part
It was lunch time and we drove to the nearest town to find food. It seemed there were 3 choices and the busiest one was the crepe place, so we waited the 15 minutes or so to get a table. It was "fancier" than we were looking for since we are dressed in our "birding clothes". (SPF pants and shirts and hat hair) It was a good choice and we enjoyed the food and the nice outdoor table we got.
Betsy's Crepes
Josephine - Goat cheese, carmelized onions & bacon
The Dempsey - ham, ricotta, mozzarella, olives, mushrooms & sesame seeds
French Kiss - Nutella & Bananas
We split the crepes to try both. The Josephine had the most flavor and the Dempsey was kind of boring. The French Kiss was a definite hit with us both.
After lunch we drove about 20 minutes to Carvers Creek state park. Long Valley Farm was prominent feature in the park, but it is closed for renovation and the millpond was dry. Made the "no swimming" signs seem funny.
Just as we started to hike it started to rain. Not a lot, but on and off. Again, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker was known to be seen here. We hiked the loop trail and just as we got back to the last leg it started to pour. We had hoped to spend some more time along the road as they are often seen there. They like the longleaf pines. We really only saw a bunch of Robins and a few other "usual suspects".
Visitor's Center
easy trail
American Robin
Eastern Bluebird in the millpond
dry pond
no swimming!
former winter estate of James Stillman Rockefeller
Chipping Sparrows
The parks are on or up against Ft. Bragg. At Carvers the sound of the firing range was almost nonstop. After awhile you don't really hear it anymore.
We had planned to stop at a lake on the way home, but the rain was relentless. It rained all night and into the next day. Luckily, we had planned to take Sunday off anyway to catch our breath.
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