High Country Audubon Society

11/03/2026

The High Country Audubon Wednesday Valle Crucis Community Park Bird Walks start at 10am beginning tomorrow, to let the birds and birders warm up a bit.

10/28/2026

High Country Audubon Outer Banks Winter Birding Trip
Jan 8–11, 2027

We are going birding in the OBX Jan 8–11. Leaving Jan 8th, stopping at Pungo NWR & Alligator River NWR before continuing on to Nags Head. We will hope that Rt 12 will be open by then, so that Saturday & Sunday we can explore the OBX, including Pea Island.

Debbie and Jimmy Shetterly will head a carpool/caravan for all who want to join us. Depending on the weather forecast, Wes and Sheryl may stay at Oregon Inlet Campground. Otherwise, we usually stay at the Comfort Inn, South, in Nags Head. If enough people want to go, we may be able to get a group rate for rooms. We need to know by the end of November.

Friday, Jan 8: Pungo NWR and Alligator River NWR on the way to Nags Head
Sat & Sun: the Outer Banks, including Pea Island

For details, go to https://highcountryaudubon.org/bird-walks

09/17/2026

The daily update from our intrepid Hawk Watch Leader, Anita. Still time to join her tomorrow through Sunday mornings for our Annual Hawkwatch. See HighCountryAudubon.org and click on the Hawk Watch banner for details.

Hi, Everyone!

Great Day at the Hawkwatch today! Our grand total was 560 migrants with 544 being Broad-wingeds. 24 Monarchs. A good variety of 2 Ospreys, 1 Northern Harrier, 1 Red-shouldered, 2 Cooper's, 2 Sharpies, 1 Red-tail (yes, we are sure because he was making a B-line), did I say 3 Bald Eagles, and 3 Merlins!

Our largest groups of Broad-wingeds were 18,21,25,26,29,33,41,42, and 45. All the rest came by in smaller groups. The winds were not helpful to them and we saw many flapping! They were not quite as high as we have seen them, either. And most of them went straight South, which means Grandfather Mountain did not get to see them.

And what's up with the Merlins today? Janie and Vicky came over after birding Trout Lake and they saw one getting drinks of water and then Debbie Shetterly came over after Valle Crucis and said they had one perched in a tree! They must have stayed over after all that overcast weather yesterday and Then decided to head past our overlook? or there were just so many Merlins around? Maybe.

It was another scorcher out at Osborne Overlook but Nancy, so thoughtfully, brought a bag of ice for everyone's water and Freya's, too! and some cubes of watermelon that were perfect, Thank you, Nancy. Lelia pitched the shade tent for breaks from the sun. Thank you, Lelia.

Word is getting around about the excellent hawks we have been able to catch sight of and more people are showing up to help. I thank Art from near Heffner Gap for stopping off on his way to someplace else with his scope and Crosley Raptor book to help out for hours! Now I want one! And I got to meet Debbie Mitchell from Morganton for the first time after communicating with her by email after she read some of my Hawk Ramblings. Journals, Hawk Thoughts. What should I call them? I sort of like the way Hawk Thoughts sounds.

And Lucretia came back with her camera and got some more photos. We were talking about how to get more of you avid hawk lovers to come out and help us watch and Lucretia came out with something like we should get a bunch of eyeballs and have them near a kettle...something about looking for kettles. I am old and it took me a moment to visualize something....and this is why young people should get involved with HCAS! The idea just popped out of her and I have no idea how to use it. It made me laugh.

So many visitors from Wisconsin, this year! Multiple nice couples. Makes me want to visit Wisconsin! And the last visitors of the day were a couple with their young daughter Abby who is from Florida. Abby wants to help us do some watching and they will be back tomorrow after they have had a chance to study the handout of the hawk illustrations I gave them. She may be 6 years old...I hope they do come back.

But, seriously, is everyone waiting for more hawks to show up? Well, they are coming! Don't you want to have at least 1 day at Hawkwatch with us? We are having a great time and it really is quite something unique. I heard Debbie Mitchell say she had no idea they would be so far away. Most of them are far away but we Always get some great close up looks, too!!! And we learn so much! I just love working together to have to figure out what it most likely was and I think our count is pretty darn accurate, especially since we only have 3 1/2 years under our belts as "official" counters.

Thanks to Bill English, Lelia Bentley, Nancy Zapotocki, Debbie Shetterly, Debbie Mitchell, Karen Brown, Robb Biller, who drove from TN, Janie Wey,and Vicky Wise,Jane and Terry from the VCP walks (Sorry, I don't know your last name) and Lucretia (found out her name is from an old rock song). And Freya who rides sh***un with Karon Brown and ate ice, watermelon, apple, apple chips, pistachio nuts, 1 dog treat and I don't know what all.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds for us at The Hawkwatch at MP 278.

The end.

Anita

09/15/2026

Sorry I missed sharing the first two days of HawkWatch 2026. I was out of town. For more details, go to HighCountryAudubon.org and click on the Hawkwatch banner at the top of the page.

Here is the latest report from Anita:

Good Evening, All my Bird-loving friends,

Today was the opposite of yesterday in many ways. Yesterday we roasted and suffered from the heat and hours of direct sunlight. Today, Lelia Bentley, my partner in this project, pitched her wonderful sun shade for us and what a relief....you can hear us Ahhhhhh. Now we are ready to stay for however long. Just a bit of accessible relief has taken us to a level higher than before. Thank you, Lelia, for sharing with us! Plus she is actively doing a demo for Moon Fab, who should put her on their sales team!

Yesterday our total was 19. Sad and energy sapping. And the warblers were not around much at all! Today we had warblers flying past almost constantly....zip, zip, zip. Susie kept saying there goes another one, but I don't know what it was. Well, I didn't either! And larger passerines, too, same thing. Till around 11 o'clock. Around lunch time we only had a few Broad-wingeds and starting at 2pm, it was like the faucet started dripping....2, 11, 3,11,2, etc until it got more consistent with the 12's, then 18, etc until we finally got a 50 squadron of Broad-wingeds!!! Those of you who have been at our watches know what I am saying: flying all at the same speed, in formation, strictly business! They came over the pines to the back near the MST.

2 Kestrels at 3pm. We got the Bald Eagles at 2:24pm, 2:30, and 4:15. We did get some Unknown Buteos and Unknown Raptors (those far, far out that you have no idea even of size) but we could see them migrating.

It was good, really good after waiting and waiting....the last one of the day Lelia spots and it was for her eyes alone, because I caught sight of other birds up there, but it was an Osprey! Unmistakable, I heard her say.

When we began thinking of calling it a day just before 5, Lelia says What bird do you want to end on today? I said MMMM, how about a Harrier? And, I promise I am not kidding you, a few moments after we said Ok, time to call it and pack up, along comes a HAIRY woodpecker and Lelia said, No, we said HARRIER!

We packed up the sun shade gathered all our stuff, saw Karen Brown off along with our mascot Freya and headed home. We had Jim Dollar for about an hour and he spotted a lot of Broad-wings. Fresh eyes, we were pretty tired by then. And a gentleman from Mahogany Rock showed up named Jim Anderson. Nostalgia for past Hawkwatches. Susie and Jack Schofield came and Susie stayed with us while Jack went hiking. She's a good spotter. Nancy Zapotocki showed up again today to help and Guy and Arlene stopped by after their bike ride. And of course, Bill English, who also watched at Mahogany Rock, is one of our Best, especially along side Lelia who is in a class of her own.

We are a good group and I appreciate each and every one of you.

See you at the Hawkwatch!

Anita

09/08/2026

It can be so tempting to snip the brown stems to keep things tidy, but they are a vital late-season buffet for the goldfinches!

09/08/2026

Dragonflies are amazing!

It's older than the dinosaurs.

The dragonfly cutting across your yard belongs to a family that's been hunting the air for 300 million years — and some of its ancient relatives had wingspans close to two feet, the size of a hawk. What's flying past you is a scaled-down survivor of a design that predates trees and nearly everything else still airborne.

And it still works flawlessly. It catches the overwhelming majority of the prey it chases — a strike rate that makes lions look clumsy — steering with four wings it beats independently to hover, reverse, and bank at speed, watching it all through eyes built from tens of thousands of lenses.

Some of them migrate, too, and not the way you'd think. The green darner crosses the continent in a relay no single dragonfly ever finishes — one generation flies part of the way and dies, and the next picks up the route. The journey outlasts any one life.

While it's here, it's clearing mosquitoes over your yard by the dozen.

07/16/2026

High Country Audubon helped fund this project to help get rid of the highly invasive Mile-A-Minute w**d here in the High Country. Come on out to learn more about this!

07/01/2026

The next High Country Audubon Brookshire Park Bird Walk is happening July 4th from 8am to 10am (rain or shine). This event is free and open to the public! All ages are welcome! Beginning birders or those who are a little rusty are welcome, and there are extra pairs of binoculars for anyone who might need them.

HCAS member Guy McGrane leads the monthly Brookshire Park Bird & Nature Walks the 1st Saturday of every month. There are delightful things to discover in the park no matter what the time of year or the weather. The focus is on birds, but there are also opportunities to enjoy the flora and other wildlife in the park.

Meet at the picnic shelter / restrooms in the main parking lot at 8:00 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month. Guy leads the group down the greenway, looping around the sparrow fields on the way back, for a total distance of about a mile.

The park is on the New River about two miles east of downtown Boone, on the left just before the river crosses under the highway 421 bridge.

Directions to Brookshire Park (250 Brookshire Road, Boone, NC)

Click link below for directions:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/250+Brookshire+Rd,+Boone,+NC+28607

06/22/2026

06/22/2026