North Carolina county #73 Neuseway Nature Park
Lenoir County didn’t have a lot of public birding spots, but not far from my hotel was a place called the Neuseway Nature Park.
As you can see, they have a planetarium, along with several other small buildings with nature related museum type stuff in them, and other activities for children.
I didn’t go into the buildings, but there is also a bit of greenway around the buildings in which I looked for birds. Some of it was along the Neuse River, but due to the heat and time of day, I struggled to find anything interesting. I did get good looks at a Red-tailed Hawk circling above, and a lone Eastern Bluebird sitting in the shade of some trees.
There were also a large number of Common Grackles and some European Starlings down the road a bit. Outside one of the buildings, there were two cages – one holding a mature Red-tailed Hawk and the other a Barred Owl. It was nice to get good close-up looks at them, but honestly I don’t know how I feel about that. They didn’t seem happy and I felt somewhat bad for them.
I called it quits early due to the heat and headed to the hotel to rest up for the next day.
ebird checklist
There are trails around the ponds, where you can see plenty of song birds. Early in the morning, the ponds are full of herons, egrets, cormorants, kingfisher, anhinga, and wood ducks…
Oh, I’m sorry I missed that – I didn’t see the ponds at all. I wasn’t there until the afternoon, but if I am in the area again I might try to get there in the morning to see what I missed. Thanks for the comment!