Date: 10/17/24 7:37 am From: Nate Dias (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Walcott Tract, Green River Game Lands, Polk Co. NC report and photos
Sorry for the belated post - I have been Internet-challenged in western NC over most of the past week.
I took a break from helping with relief efforts in the Green River Cove and birded the Walcott Tract of the Green River Game Lands this past Sunday, October 13. Still warblers around and good numbers of Gray-cheeked Thrushes and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. Sparrows are starting to arrive / migrate through - I had White-throated, Song, Chipping and Field Sparrows when about a week before I only had Chipping.
The sparrows were in the grassy/brushy road margins along the entrance road - but not out in the overgrown fields that usually have great sparrow habitat of millet, mature grasses, wildflowers, etc. Sadly most of the fields are a barren sandbar caused by Hurricane Helene's flooding. The riverside forest edges are greatly degraded and missing in sections. Walls of fallen trees and human debris are piled up along the river against remaining trees.
And the access road into the Walcott Tract (through the edge of Wilderness Cove campground) has partially washed away. It is worst at the entrance into Wilderness Cove campground beside the bridge. Hard to see how the NC Wildlife and Resources Commission can get vehicles and tractors into the Walcott Tract without rebuilding the eroded road or permission from Wilderness Cove for a new right of way arrangement. I hope they are able to do so to maintain the habitat and oldfield / early successional areas at Walcott.
Photo of the missing entrance road: flickr.com/photos/scbirdpics/54073680243/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/
View of the entrance and gate from across the river: flickr.com/photos/scbirdpics/54073752889/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/
View of the gate and missing bulletin board from the parking lot: flickr.com/photos/scbirdpics/54073680003/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/
View from the road of the former ag fields / oldfield habitat: flickr.com/photos/scbirdpics/54073879975/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/
Flotsam atop a six foot high wall of trees and debris: flickr.com/photos/scbirdpics/54073709998/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/
* There is currently not much in the way of public parking available to visit the Walcott Tract. And while the Green River Cove Road is open and barely passable from the bottom end, locals ask that the public not visit or sight see unless they are actually assisting local relief efforts.
-- On a happier note, this past Monday I had a delightful encounter with an unafraid Southern Bog Lemming (Synaptomys cooperi) on my family's property in Saluda, NC. Here is a video clip: youtube.com/shorts/fS4kpAvZLBI
Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC
flickr.com/photos/offshorebirder2/
--
"These days I prefer to hunt with a camera. A good photograph demands more skill from the hunter, better nerves and more patience than the rifle shot." -- Bror Blixen
