Charlotte’s Walker Branch Greenway offers ample birding opportunities

I drove down to Rivergate last Monday to check out a fairly new addition to the county’s greenway system, the Walker Branch Greenway.

It’s a short walk, less than a half mile along a wide, well maintained paved trail, but there is some diversity of habitat that can make for a nice species list on a good day. It was my first visit to that greenway and I was glad I made the drive down South Tryon toward Lake Wylie.

I accessed the greenway next to the Home Depot on Rivergate Parkway. There is a retention pond at the access that, in addition to the ever-present mallards and Canada geese, held a lone killdeer and a single foraging Northern rough-winged swallow. A few American robins foraged on the muddy edges, gathering large balls of mud to mold the foundations of their nests. There is a lot of exposed mud right now, so in a few weeks it could be very attractive to migrant shorebirds if dry conditions continue.

Adjacent to the pond was a small stand of cattails that produced singing common yellowthroat, palm warbler, white-eyed vireo and swamp sparrow. Blue-gray gnatcatchers called from the willows; I’m not sure their nasal complaining sounds qualify as a song or not. A pair of red-winged blackbirds were hanging around; they love to build their nests in cattails so I suspect that was their motive. The males sing an unmusical gurgling konk-garee that I find oddly pleasing, as many other birders do.

Into the woods I went and immediately had one singing Northern parula warbler mingled in with the many singing yellow-rumped warblers. That’s four species of warblers so far. The rest of the species I was able to identify were fairly commonplace: American robins, brown thrasher, American goldfinches, white-throated sparrows, Carolina chickadees and ruby-crowned kinglets. All were in fine voice as their beautiful noise cascaded down from the canopy.

I was a bit surprised to see a single dark-eyed junco along the side of the trail. Most individuals of that species seem to have moved on out already. There are stragglers every year, though.

I finished with 38 species after about 45 minutes of birding. If you live down toward Rivergate or beyond, check out this pleasant walk this spring.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Charlotte’s Walker Branch Greenway offers ample birding opportunities."