Finding Birds in Guilford County © 2018 Dennis Burnette
II. Introduction
Birding in Guilford County
Guilford County is unique in North Carolina in several ways that affect birders. Rural and suburban areas surrounding two relatively large cities (by population, Greensboro is third largest and High Point is ninth largest in the state) with plenty of amenities for visitors, five large reservoirs, an excellent road system including parts of four Interstate highways, parks that preserve a variety of habitats, extensive hiking trail systems, a state park, 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 very nice birding sites in Guilford County, there are no national- or regional-class birding sites like birders find on the Outer Banks or the Blue Ridge Parkway. That being said, we have some great birding locations that attract many species of birds, including some unusual ones for our region. This is true especially if the birder is from elsewhere and not familiar with some of the birds of this area. Northern birders might find a Brown-headed Nuthatch, a Deep South birder 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 long day of birding during spring migration in a variety of habitats 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 mudflats 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 further north 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 a birder may be as passionate or as casual as he or she wants 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 area 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 a single birding location that has a variety of adjacent habitats. For example, Gibson Park in High Point and Price Park in Greensboro offer woodland, grassy fields and edges, and low wet areas that attract a diverse selection of species. Even sitting on a bench every day overlooking the lake in the Bog Garden in Greensboro could produce well over 100 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 and the T. Gilbert Pearson Audubon Society (our local Audubon chapter) 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 [email protected]. Enjoy!
Birding with Other People
Looking for birds on your own can be fun and relaxing. Getting away on your own can help reduce stress and allow a person to commune with nature at an almost spiritual level. Sometimes just quietly sitting at the edge of a pond or strolling along a trail in the woods is just the thing to restore and refresh us in our busy lives.
On the other hand, birding can be a social activity. We can enjoy the company of friends, meet new people with like interests, and even learn from more experienced birders. In fact, there may be no better way for a beginner to get into the hobby of birding than by joining knowledgeable birders on field trips and local bird walks. Birding with others also gives us the opportunity to see (and possibly try out) the binoculars and other equipment local birders find helpful.
We are fortunate to have both an Audubon chapter and a long-standing local bird club with overlapping memberships in Guilford County. People who are interested primarily interested in birds find the Piedmont Bird Club (PBC) a welcoming group that sponsors several field trips monthly, programs from September through April, and two local bird counts. PBC members also are involved in several conservation projects. Started in 1938, PBC may be the oldest nature group in the Triad. It has a listserv to communicate with members, a Facebook page, and a website.
Whereas PBC is a local group, the T. Gilbert Pearson Audubon Society (TGPAS) is part of the much larger National Audubon Society and one of nine Audubon chapters in North Carolina. It was chartered in the early 1970s. In addition to birds, that group also has members who are interested in a wide range of wildlife and nature from butterflies and dragonflies to native trees and wildflowers. Many in TGPAS get involved in national, state, and local conservation activities. TGPAS has monthly programs September through May, monthly nature walks, and several interesting ongoing conservation projects. TGPAS has a monthly newsletter, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a website.
Roughly half of the members of each group are also members of the other group, so there is a lot of “cross-pollination” between the two groups. These groups often co-sponsor nature walks, nature education, and conservation projects. Here is how to contact them:
Piedmont Bird Club
PO Box 38833
Greensboro, NC 27438-8833
Website: http://www.piedmontbirdclub.org
T. Gilbert Pearson Audubon Society
PO Box 10157
Greensboro, NC 27404
Website: https://www.tgpearsonaudubon.org/
Looking for birds on your own can be fun and relaxing. Getting away on your own can help reduce stress and allow a person to commune with nature at an almost spiritual level. Sometimes just quietly sitting at the edge of a pond or strolling along a trail in the woods is just the thing to restore and refresh us in our busy lives.
On the other hand, birding can be a social activity. We can enjoy the company of friends, meet new people with like interests, and even learn from more experienced birders. In fact, there may be no better way for a beginner to get into the hobby of birding than by joining knowledgeable birders on field trips and local bird walks. Birding with others also gives us the opportunity to see (and possibly try out) the binoculars and other equipment local birders find helpful.
We are fortunate to have both an Audubon chapter and a long-standing local bird club with overlapping memberships in Guilford County. People who are interested primarily interested in birds find the Piedmont Bird Club (PBC) a welcoming group that sponsors several field trips monthly, programs from September through April, and two local bird counts. PBC members also are involved in several conservation projects. Started in 1938, PBC may be the oldest nature group in the Triad. It has a listserv to communicate with members, a Facebook page, and a website.
Whereas PBC is a local group, the T. Gilbert Pearson Audubon Society (TGPAS) is part of the much larger National Audubon Society and one of nine Audubon chapters in North Carolina. It was chartered in the early 1970s. In addition to birds, that group also has members who are interested in a wide range of wildlife and nature from butterflies and dragonflies to native trees and wildflowers. Many in TGPAS get involved in national, state, and local conservation activities. TGPAS has monthly programs September through May, monthly nature walks, and several interesting ongoing conservation projects. TGPAS has a monthly newsletter, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a website.
Roughly half of the members of each group are also members of the other group, so there is a lot of “cross-pollination” between the two groups. These groups often co-sponsor nature walks, nature education, and conservation projects. Here is how to contact them:
Piedmont Bird Club
PO Box 38833
Greensboro, NC 27438-8833
Website: http://www.piedmontbirdclub.org
T. Gilbert Pearson Audubon Society
PO Box 10157
Greensboro, NC 27404
Website: https://www.tgpearsonaudubon.org/
Words of Caution
Pay attention to signs, fences and other clues that indicate changes in conditions. What once may have been open to the public now may be a restricted access area. Roads that once went through to another roadway may be cut off by new highways, new neighborhoods, new shopping areas, and so on. In parks, a sports field may be in what was once a grassy meadow. A pond or other water feature may exist where none was before, while an existing one may be bigger, smaller, or eliminated altogether.
Make sure that your actions don’t cause trouble for other birders by antagonizing land managers and neighbors. Don’t trespass on private property, even if you “always go there.” Don’t enter parks and other public property when they’re closed unless it’s clear that you’re welcome. (An example is a sign that says “Closed to vehicles but open to foot traffic only.”) Don’t damage the vegetation and land, including removing specimens. For some parks and public areas, it’s possible to get special permission to enter when it’s usually closed, such as at dusk when snipe may be engaged in mating behavior, so it doesn’t hurt anything to ask the authorities in charge in advance.
Above all, be safe. It’s always safer to be with other people in case of an accident or emergency. Don’t take unnecessary risks to see a bird…it’s just birding, after all. Also, keep in mind that the social climate has changed. A birder that might have been viewed simply as eccentric 10 years ago may be seen as a potential danger by some people whose reactions may be extreme. Some birders have been threatened with weapons. A few, not in the Triad, fortunately, have been attacked. If you get a bad feeling about a location, leave. There are lots of other more congenial places to go birding in the Triad.
Pay attention to signs, fences and other clues that indicate changes in conditions. What once may have been open to the public now may be a restricted access area. Roads that once went through to another roadway may be cut off by new highways, new neighborhoods, new shopping areas, and so on. In parks, a sports field may be in what was once a grassy meadow. A pond or other water feature may exist where none was before, while an existing one may be bigger, smaller, or eliminated altogether.
Make sure that your actions don’t cause trouble for other birders by antagonizing land managers and neighbors. Don’t trespass on private property, even if you “always go there.” Don’t enter parks and other public property when they’re closed unless it’s clear that you’re welcome. (An example is a sign that says “Closed to vehicles but open to foot traffic only.”) Don’t damage the vegetation and land, including removing specimens. For some parks and public areas, it’s possible to get special permission to enter when it’s usually closed, such as at dusk when snipe may be engaged in mating behavior, so it doesn’t hurt anything to ask the authorities in charge in advance.
Above all, be safe. It’s always safer to be with other people in case of an accident or emergency. Don’t take unnecessary risks to see a bird…it’s just birding, after all. Also, keep in mind that the social climate has changed. A birder that might have been viewed simply as eccentric 10 years ago may be seen as a potential danger by some people whose reactions may be extreme. Some birders have been threatened with weapons. A few, not in the Triad, fortunately, have been attacked. If you get a bad feeling about a location, leave. There are lots of other more congenial places to go birding in the Triad.
Finding Birds in Guilford County © 2018 Dennis Burnette