During the wintertime, there are fewer species of birds in our neck of the woods. However, the ones who are year-round and winter only residents really stand out. One such cold weather superstar is our February 2015 pick for our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn blog series: The Pine Siskin.
We anticipate that 2015 will be a great year for birding in western North Carolina, so why not start this year’s 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series with a great bird, specifically the Great Horned Owl.
We wrap up this year’s 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series with one of our favorite little birds, the Carolina Wren, which makes Pisgah National Forest near Asheville, NC, its year-round residence.
An occasional visitor to the seed/suet snack bar at the Inn on Mill Creek B&B, the Red-bellied Woodpecker is a year-round resident of Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina, and is our November 2014 bird in our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn blog series.
| Beautiful Barred Owl photo by MDF [Source: Wikimedia Commons] |
While the phrase, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?” is not heard much inside the Inn on Mill Creek B&B (answer already well-known: Innkeeper Dave!), you may hear it outside, in the trees of Pisgah National Forest surrounding the Inn. And just who is asking that question? None other than the Barred Owl, our October 2014 bird in our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn blog series.
| Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at the Inn on Mill Creek |
September marks the end of summer here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, and what better way to bid farewell to lovely summertime than feature one of our lovely summer residents before he flies to his winter home in Central or South America? Therefore, we introduce you to the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, our September 2014 bird in our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series on our blog.
Last month, we featured one of our sparrows as part of our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series on the blog in 2014. This month, our sparrow love continues, with our July pick: the Eastern Towhee.
| Song Sparrow at the Inn on Mill Creek B&B |
Summer is here and that means a myriad of songs are brought to us each day by nature here at the Inn on Mill Creek B&B inside Pisgah National Forest: bullfrogs, crickets and of course, birds, to name a few. And you know if something has “song” in its name, you can count on it being part of nature’s summer live concert series. Thus, we’ve given the Song Sparrow our June entry in our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series on the blog for 2014.
| Eastern Whip-poor-will [photo credit: National Audubon Society] |
Many evenings during the week in May and June, at precisely 9pm (OK, maybe not precisely…sometimes at 9:04pm), guests of the Inn on Mill Creek B&B and North Carolina Birding Trail site are treated to short symphony by the Eastern Whip-poor-wills. Since it is a May mainstay in our neck of the woods, we’re bestowing the Whip-poor-will with the honor of being our May 2014 bird in our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series on the blog.
