Trail 2: Abbotts Creek Trail (Eastern Part)

12/10/2011.  10:24 AM.

Start:  GPS N 35, 54.938, W 78, 34.406
End:   GPS N 35, 54.962, W 78, 33.624

There is an easy parking entrance at the 2400 Block of Dunn Road. GPS N 35, 54.915, W 78, 34.219. Follow a short unpaved trail from the end of the roadway, then turn left onto the asphalt path.  The Falls River Avenue entrance is a few hundred feet to the right down the same path.  I saw quite a few birds on the short stretch to Falls River Ave., so it might be worth a look.  However, there is no good place to park near the Falls River Avenue entrance.  

It was sunny and probably about 45 degrees Fahrenheit when I started.  This trail was much more wooded and had many more birds overall than the western part of Abbotts Creek Trail.  Much of this area is swampy, with wooden walkways raised above the wet ground in several locations.  It was a great place to see woodpeckers.  There were several active places for birds, including right near the beginning of the trail at the Falls River Ave. entrance.  There were two particularly good places to see woodpeckers.  One was a large swampy area with a few cattails that had a lot of red-headed woodpecker activity, and another was in the woods near a large pond that has a couple of benches set up, and a sign talking about Great Blue herons.  I saw three species of woodpecker on this trail, including the red-headed, red-bellied, and downy.

Birds Near Fall Creek Avenue Entrance (N 35, 54.938, W 78, 34.406). Species are listed in order of sighting.  GPS coordinates are not repeated if species are sighted within a couple of hundred feet of each other.

Tufted Titmouse:  These were very common along this entire trail.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker:  I saw this one at least twice, near the beginning and end of the trail in the non-swampy areas.  

Carolina Wren

White-Breasted Nuthatch:  I saw this toward the end of the trail again as well.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler (N 35, 54.814, W 78, 34.162)

At Large Swamp Area:  N 35, 54.775, W 78, 33.971

Northern Cardinal

Red-Headed Woodpecker:  This woodpecker is listed as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  This was only the second time I had seen them in the wild.  They are very striking whether climbing on a tree or in flight.  The red color of the head is much richer and less orange than many other woodpeckers with reddish heads (such as the red-bellied woodpecker seen earlier).  I saw at least three different individuals and at several different locations along the trail.  A good place to pick up this bird if you don't have it.

Carolina Chickadee

Probable Song Sparrow:  It was down low to the ground but I couldn't confirm the central dark spot on the chest.  However, the Tekiela guide lists only four common sparrows in the Carolinas, and it definitely was not the other three.  Might have been one of the less common ones, though.

Downy Woodpecker

At Swampside Benches Area (N 35, 54.789, W 78, 33.763):  This area is actually a shallow pond thick with rushes.  The sign says that Great Blue Herons nest in the nearby trees, and indeed, I could see a large nest in a tree across the pond.

Mourning Dove

Black Vulture (in flight and perched):  The vulture was visible from the very end of the Abbotts Creek Trail where it meets the Neuse River Trail.  It flew in from up the trail, then perched on a large power stanchion.


Back at Falls River Avenue Entrance (N 35, 54.938, W 78, 34.406)

American Crow

Red-Tailed Hawk:  I got a good look at this one as it flew almost directly overhead twice.

Dark Eyed Junco

I finished around 12:30 PM.  This time I identified 14 species (not counting the song sparrow) and saw six species that I did not see the previous week on the western part of Abbotts Creek trail.  That is a total of 21 confirmed species seen so far.    In total, I saw four different species of woodpeckers between the two parts of the Abbotts Creek Trail (Pileated, Red-Headed, Red-Bellied, and Downy).