Finding Birds in
Guilford County
Favorite birding spots of members of the Piedmont Bird Club in Guilford County, NC
© 2003 Dennis Burnette
I. Introduction
Guilford County is unique in North Carolina in several ways that affect birders. Rural and suburban areas surrounding two relatively large cities with plenty of amenities for visitors, five large reservoirs, an excellent road system including two Interstate highways, parks that preserve a variety of habitats, extensive hiking trail systems, and a centrally-located environmental center make it relatively easy to find most of the birds that occur regularly in the county.
Although there are some nice birding sites in Guilford County, there are no national or regional birding "hot spots," no hard-to-find species, and no unusual concentrations of birds like one might find at wildlife refuges and national parks. On the other hand, we have some really nice birding locations where northern birders might find a Brown-headed Nuthatch, a southerner could see a Common Raven, and westerners will enjoy such eastern species as Northern Cardinals and Blue Jays. A good day of winter birding can produce 40 to 50 species, while a nice day in May or June could result in 60 to 70 birds on a checklist.
It is difficult to estimate how many of the approximately 200 regularly-occurring species of birds a person might reasonably expect to see in Guilford County in a birding year. Weather patterns seem to play a significant role in affecting when or if some species show up. For instance, dry summers often result in extensive sandbars and mud flats that attract migrating shorebirds in late summer through autumn. Light to moderate rains provide shallow feeding areas for dabbling ducks in fall and winter. Summer storms may blow in coastal or even pelagic species. Weather fronts in spring and fall influence warbler and hawk migration densities and dates. Frozen lakes during unusually cold winters may send waterfowl south. And sometimes birds appear or are absent for a year or two for reasons not apparent to humans.
With this in mind, we can suggest that a birder who spends a moderate amount of time in the field during each season in a variety of habitats could reasonably expect to find about 145 to 155 species in a year of birding. More diligent birding might push that up to as many as 200 species in a good year. If one mostly watches birds coming to a feeder in the back yard, it would be considerably fewer, while someone who goes out nearly every weekend to seek the hard-to-find species would see many more. One of the joys of the birding hobby is that one may be as passionate or as "laid back" as you want and still have a good time.
The sites in this guide cover all of the habitat types in Guilford County. It would be impossible to bird all of these locations adequately in one day, but armed with a recent city/county map and personal transportation, a birder could spend a pleasant long day sampling the bird life of the area at many of them.
One enjoyable strategy is to group habitat and bird types seasonally. Here are two examples: In late fall and winter a tour of the Greensboro lakes could produce a good selection of waterfowl; Spring and fall are good times to look for warblers and other neotropical migrants in Hamilton Lakes Park and Fisher Park. Another good approach is to visit single a birding location that has a variety of adjacent habitats. For example, the Bicentennial Greenway in High Point and Triad Park near Kernersville offer woodland, grassy fields and edges, and low wet areas that attract a diverse selection of species.
I hope that you find this collection of site descriptions useful. Most of the birding locations noted here were discovered long ago by local birders who generously passed along their knowledge to succeeding generations of new birders. Current members of the Piedmont Bird Club have made suggestions and have helped guide the direction of this bird finding guide.
However, all of the errors and omissions in the guide are solely the responsibility of the author, Dennis Burnette. I would be pleased and appreciative to receive your corrections and suggestions for how to make this a more useful guide. Contact me at deburnette@triad.rr.com. Enjoy!
© 2003 Dennis Burnette
I. Introduction
Guilford County is unique in North Carolina in several ways that affect birders. Rural and suburban areas surrounding two relatively large cities with plenty of amenities for visitors, five large reservoirs, an excellent road system including two Interstate highways, parks that preserve a variety of habitats, extensive hiking trail systems, and a centrally-located environmental center make it relatively easy to find most of the birds that occur regularly in the county.
Although there are some nice birding sites in Guilford County, there are no national or regional birding "hot spots," no hard-to-find species, and no unusual concentrations of birds like one might find at wildlife refuges and national parks. On the other hand, we have some really nice birding locations where northern birders might find a Brown-headed Nuthatch, a southerner could see a Common Raven, and westerners will enjoy such eastern species as Northern Cardinals and Blue Jays. A good day of winter birding can produce 40 to 50 species, while a nice day in May or June could result in 60 to 70 birds on a checklist.
It is difficult to estimate how many of the approximately 200 regularly-occurring species of birds a person might reasonably expect to see in Guilford County in a birding year. Weather patterns seem to play a significant role in affecting when or if some species show up. For instance, dry summers often result in extensive sandbars and mud flats that attract migrating shorebirds in late summer through autumn. Light to moderate rains provide shallow feeding areas for dabbling ducks in fall and winter. Summer storms may blow in coastal or even pelagic species. Weather fronts in spring and fall influence warbler and hawk migration densities and dates. Frozen lakes during unusually cold winters may send waterfowl south. And sometimes birds appear or are absent for a year or two for reasons not apparent to humans.
With this in mind, we can suggest that a birder who spends a moderate amount of time in the field during each season in a variety of habitats could reasonably expect to find about 145 to 155 species in a year of birding. More diligent birding might push that up to as many as 200 species in a good year. If one mostly watches birds coming to a feeder in the back yard, it would be considerably fewer, while someone who goes out nearly every weekend to seek the hard-to-find species would see many more. One of the joys of the birding hobby is that one may be as passionate or as "laid back" as you want and still have a good time.
The sites in this guide cover all of the habitat types in Guilford County. It would be impossible to bird all of these locations adequately in one day, but armed with a recent city/county map and personal transportation, a birder could spend a pleasant long day sampling the bird life of the area at many of them.
One enjoyable strategy is to group habitat and bird types seasonally. Here are two examples: In late fall and winter a tour of the Greensboro lakes could produce a good selection of waterfowl; Spring and fall are good times to look for warblers and other neotropical migrants in Hamilton Lakes Park and Fisher Park. Another good approach is to visit single a birding location that has a variety of adjacent habitats. For example, the Bicentennial Greenway in High Point and Triad Park near Kernersville offer woodland, grassy fields and edges, and low wet areas that attract a diverse selection of species.
I hope that you find this collection of site descriptions useful. Most of the birding locations noted here were discovered long ago by local birders who generously passed along their knowledge to succeeding generations of new birders. Current members of the Piedmont Bird Club have made suggestions and have helped guide the direction of this bird finding guide.
However, all of the errors and omissions in the guide are solely the responsibility of the author, Dennis Burnette. I would be pleased and appreciative to receive your corrections and suggestions for how to make this a more useful guide. Contact me at deburnette@triad.rr.com. Enjoy!
