I always spend a lot of time watching the birds at my parents place in North Carolina. They have so much personality.

My last full day in North Carolina we decided to do something exciting, at least exciting to us! My Mom and I went back to the Blue Ridge Parkway, through Craggy Gardens and up to Mount Mitchell.

First we stopped a trail that said it had ruins from old buildings at the end where it meets up with the Mountain to Sea trail. The ruins were just one rock chimney as far as I could tell, although pretty cool! The trail was gorgeous, with a small waterfall right off the road, and the creek along most of the trail that you had to cross a few times. My favorite part…chipmunks running around everywhere!

From there we headed to Craggy Gardens.

Glassmine Falls as seen from overlook at Craggy Garden.

It is weird going up to Craggy Gardens, where it still looks like Winter. Weirder still to keep going up to Mt. Mitchell. It had snowed the week before and they mountains where transformed into waterfalls of melted snow, while little patches of snow still remained on the side of the road. I could believe it, I’m from Florida and here I was seeing snow in May! Crazy!

Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak east of Mississippi. Cool air and beautiful views. Smells like Christmas up there. Pines! And lots of moss. Very cool place.

Also very friendly Dark-eyed Junco’s up there!

On the 4th day of my trip we went up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Pisgah, Graveyard Fields, and then down through Pisgah Forest. Stopping at several overlooks, birds could be heard everywhere but are nearing impossible to locate! I started feeling very discouraged about mountain birdwatching, the way the sound travels on the mountains the birds could be on another mountain for all I can tell! We spotted one person out there with a parabolic microphone to amplify faraway sounds. This is clearly a whole new world of birdwatching.

One bird I did see everywhere were Indigo Buntings. That flash of blue was all over the place!

Indigo Bunting

Young male Indigo Bunting

Canada Warbler on Mt. Pisgah

Dark-eyed Junco at Graveyard Fields

So many birds at the bird feeder up in North Carolina!

Tufted Titmouse:

Goldfinch:

White Breasted Nuthatch:

Dark-eyed Junco:

House Finch:

jumping!

Downy Woodpecker:

Red-bellied Woodpecker:

I also saw Brown-headed Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Pileated Woodpecker, Dove, Carolina Wren, and of course Carolina Chickadee. A Bluebird showed up a few hours after I headed back home! Maybe next time… It’s so much to see what will be there every morning.

There is something about winter, where the leaves fall off the trees and suddenly you can pinpoint where the birds are when they are chirping! This is a thing that doesn’t really happen in Florida, but in North Carolina it had me up every morning looking for birds in the trees! Just a few of the many song birds I saw…

And who might have built this lovely nest?