Halifax County

North Carolina county #56

Medoc Mountain State Park

I have to admit that by the time I reached Medoc Mountain State Park in Halifax County, I was starting to drag a little bit.  This was my eighth county in three days and I was ready to go home and relax.

I got to the park right at 8am which is when it opens – I am not sure why this park opens an hour later than all the others I’ve been to.  It has many miles of trails for hiking and horse riding, and they also have new mountain bike trails available.

Other than Northern Parula, which were everywhere, I saw and heard no other warblers, so I guess the spring migration is truly over at this point.  Now I can start looking forward to the fall migration, which is a lot longer, although the birds are not as colorful and don’t sing much.

Once again there were lots of Acadian Flycatchers around.  I was also happy to get Eastern Wood-Pewee on my list, as I had not seen them this year yet.  I am trying to stay on the top 100 list for my state this year.  Right now I’m at number 85 but my upcoming trip to the coast should help and in the fall I can pick up some warblers that I missed.

I took the Stream Loop Trail to the Discovery Trail which runs along Little Fishing Creek for about half way.  The park was very quiet and I didn’t see anyone else along the way.  Although I didn’t get lots of species, there were large quantities of birds.  Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were particularly abundant.

This is a nice State Park, with several different trail choices, as well as opportunities for canoeing and camping.  It was a nice visit, but I was definitely ready for a break once I finished the 2 mile hike.

ebird checklist