Taylor Piephoff

Taylor Piephoff

In the past I have written about Latta Park in Dilworth and its attractiveness to spring migrants. The creek running through the park is a migrant magnet, drawing treetop birds down into the creekside shrubs and creek itself as tired migrants search for a drink and a bath.

Caption: the Kentucky warbler, a woodland species that is becoming exceedingly rare in Mecklenburg County.

This week I want to address several questions that I frequently get asked this time of year. Judging by the volume of email I get, many of you are experiencing the same situations throughout our area.

Barn swallows have returned to our area for the nesting season, and I could not be happier. I like all the members of the swallow family, but barn swallows are my favorite. I love to watch them in their graceful flight with their slim bodies, long wings, and deeply forked tail. They effortlessly skim and frolic over small bodies of water and open fields, gulping down insects they catch on the wing.

On March 31, I joined an enthusiastic group of birders at Six-Mile Creek Greenway off Marvin Road in southern Mecklenburg County. The morning started off rainy, but the promise of finding some new arrivals kept everyone interested.

Birders are drawn to a bird’s plumage characteristics as an initial means of identification. This is understandable; plumage is generally unique to a species and is all that is required to clinch a quick and easy identification. Occasionally, however, a situation arises where other means of identification are needed, or at least need to be considered.

I spent some time last weekend along some of the county’s properties looking for neotropical migrants. This term refers to bird species that breed in the United States and Canada, and then spend the winter in Central America, South America or the Caribbean.

The Four-Mile Creek Greenway gives birders a chance to see diverse habitats.

As winter winds down and the nesting season cranks up, I thought I would update you on some ongoing seasonal topics that I have written about in the past.