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!

What a lovely morning to be off work. It was warm and breezy. There were birds singing everywhere.

The Red-headed Woodpecker appears to be nesting in the dead pine that the Kestrel likes to sit on, today they were both there, I wonder if they mind one another?

I also spooked a couple of Bob White’s, sorry to spook them but it’s hard to see ground birds when you are too busy looking up! Most of those little warblers and such are so high up in the trees. I had my first sighting of Northern Parula in the yard.

Northern Parula

White-eyed Vireo

More and more butterflies and flowers popping up, birds building nests all over the place. Spring is coming!

Here is a little peek at Lake Harney Wilderness Area. It is a short hike. The start of the trail is down a sandy road, not to be done on a hot day! Luckily today was very nice. I mean, it is only the first of February!

The River Loop has beautiful sprawling oaks and a crazy amount of spanish moss. Then there are a few good spots to view the river. This is also a historical landmark, and there is a board with a timeline and the history. Starting with an Indian settlement, going to a ferry dock, and then a railroad over the river, of which some remnants remain.

I love the roots of the cypress across the river. Then, in the photo below I knew I was photographing a Great Blue Heron, but the Kingfisher on the fence post could not be seen with the naked eye. Do you see it?

On the walk back I saw an enormous Eagle’s nest. Much bigger than the once I have been watching. But I did not see any Eagle’s nearby, and according to the Florida Eagle Nest Locator it is no longer active.

What to take photos of when there are no birds around? Hmmm…

Those baby pine trees are my favorite, so cute sprouting up everywhere.

More on North Carolina… It rained for a few days and eventually turned to snow. That was the first time I had ever seen snow falling and how exciting! It started to snow in the night and in the morning I was so excited to see it was clear and sunny and there were patches of snow and lots of frost to go out and enjoy!

We walked down to the river, where there is an abundance of one of my favorite things… moss and lichens.

I am used to photos like the one above with water droplets, but that was frozen. And there were lots of icicles on the rocks where water trickles down… pretty cool.

This concludes the postings of my North Carolina trip! Until Spring when I return…

On my last day in the North Carolina, the peach tree started to blossom. Spring looks like it’s going to be beautiful there! I wish I was going to be there to see it. Not to be too sad though, instead I will be enjoying the beach and the birds back home in Florida. Yep, there’s beauty everywhere!

That is an Eastern Phoebe I caught down by the river. Not too many birds down there, but there were some ducks on the river bank. I was trying to inch closer and they left in a rush as soon as they saw me. I waited for ages for them to return but they did not. I sure regret that I was leaving and didn’t have another day  to check back on that spot for them.

However, most of the bird action was up the mountain in the tree tops. I saw may of the resident birds: downy woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, bluebirds, chickadees, titmice, chipping sparrows, goldfinches, robins, towhees, wrens, and mockingbirds. We put out bird seed and it didn’t take long (just a few hours!) for the chickadees and titmice to start visiting.

I got home from North Carolina last night but I have a  lot more photos to go through. Here are a few more.

Carolina Wren.

There are cows across the street, they have 5 calves and are so adorable to watch! This is why I am a vegetarian.

Carolina Chickadee.

How could one not want to go to a place called ‘The Enchanted Forest’? It makes me think of The Enchanted Forest Series by Patricia C. Wrede… Dealing with Dragons, etc. A really good book series I loved as a child and still get an urge to re-read every once and a while, which just shows that is IS really good. Well, this Enchanted Forest is a little different from that one, but it is lovely, and is located in Titusville, Florida.

Coffee berries. Apparently the birds love them. I’ve had coffee berry juice (purchased at Whole Foods) and it was really good, so I wanted to eat these so bad! They look plump and delicious. But berries in the wild scare me a little, even though I am pretty sure they are coffee berries I was like “what if I’m wrong??” so I didn’t eat any… what do you think? Is that what they are?