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7/10/02

Nature notebook

SMN


Birds:

° Black-and-white warbler, yellow warbler, American redstart, tree swallow and noteworthy, a white-throated sparrow - white-throateds spend the winter with us but most nest in Canada. To have one here in July raises questions but the bird is most likely an early migrant or post-nesting wanderer (these birds were recorded 7/6 on the regular -1st. Saturday of the month - Beaver Lake Birdwalk in Asheville)

° Blue grosbeaks (on the Greenway in Franklin, Beth Brinson & Kathy King 6/27)

° Chestnut-sided warbler, black throated blue warbler, indigo bunting, red-eyed vireo, blue-headed vireo, wood thrush and veery still being heard and seen along the Blue Ridge Parkway-BRP- (various reports, Waynesville Overlook, Jenkins Ridge Overlook and Big Witch Overlook are some good local stops)

° Barred owl (Rainbow Springs Road near Wayah Gap Kathy King & Beth Brinson)


Wildflowers:

° Wild quinine, Parthenium integrifolium, wild indigo, Baptisia tinctoria, and greater coreopsis, Coreopsis major ( hillside just past Pinnacle tunnel, headed north on BRP, Beth Brinson & Kathy King)

° Turk’s-cap lily, Lilium superbum, Carolina lily, Lilium michauxii, crimson bee-balm, Monarda didyma, flowering raspberry, Rubus odoratus, and black cohosh, Cimicifuga racemosa are all becoming quite evident along the shoulders of the BRP (various reports)

° Leatherflower, Clematis viorna ( along Forest Service Road 71 & FS 67 near Standing Indian in Macon County, Beth Brinson & Kathy King)


Butterflies:

°Question mark, red admiral and great spangled fritillary (FS 71, Beth Brinson & Kathy King 7/4)

° Diana fritillary and red-spotted purple (Rainbow Springs Road near Wayah Gap, Beth Brinson & Kathy King 7/4)