North Carolina county #33 Little Tennessee River Greenway
I had been dodging rain all day during this trip. Up until now I was lucky that it would start raining as I was getting ready to leave an area, or it would only rain while I was driving and clear up when I arrived somewhere. But after about 5 hours of driving and 4 hours of birding, my luck ran out. After I was about 150 yards down the trail, the thunder started and a downpour came. I was actually prepared for this and had a makeshift garbage bag cover for my camera and the waterproof cover for my backpack, but since I was not far from the car yet, I went back and waited it out. After about a half hour the weather cleared and I got lucky again for the rest of the day.
This was an interesting feature in the greenway path – I guess some beavers made a small pond out of a swamp along the path, and the community decided to preserve it. There were actually tadpoles swimming above the sidewalk where it overflowed into the path.
Little Tennessee River Greenway is in the middle of Franklin, NC, and runs along the Little Tennessee River. I walked 1.5 miles of it and turned back for a total of 3 miles. It is a paved path and there was a good amount of birds along the way. I got a total of 27 species in 2 hours and 18 minutes. I listed 5 Brown Thrashers but it seemed like they were everywhere along the path. I saw a Kingfisher along the river and Red-wing Blackbirds in fields next to the path.
The highlight of the trip was spotting two Orchard Orioles foraging in a tree along the river. The light wasn’t great but I managed to get a few photos. These are some sharp looking birds.
I was definitely getting fairly weary at this point and the last mile went slowly. I finally made it back to my car and did the last leg of my trip to the Carolina Motel, where I was staying. My first day of three was done and very successful!
ebird checklist