Birds

The LandTrust for Central North Carolina and staff from the North Carolina Museum of Sciences are hosting the Uwharrie Naturalist Weekend on May 4 and 5 – a weekend of nature exploration in the Uwharries. The focus of this inaugural event will be breeding birds. This naturalist weekend is the first of its kind in […]

Several years ago, when we were planning to change the way we manage some of our land, I happened to meet Bob Askins, a biology professor at Connecticut College and author of Restoring North America’s Birds: Lessons from Landscape Ecology. As we discussed my projects, he encouraged me to do a baseline inventory before we […]

In February, The LandTrust for Central N.C. contracted with the N.C. Forest Service to conduct a prescribed burn on a portion of the Low Water Bridge Preserve. Approximately 250 acres were included in this burn area, and a main reason for this burn was to promote a particularly interesting species down along the river here […]

The farmer points toward a long stretch of turned earth warming in the sun. Tomatoes and squash will grow well there, he says. More crops will be planted over there, he says, gesturing toward another neatly plowed rectangle. Behind him, small fruit trees cast shadows across the grass. It’s bucolic enough to make you almost […]

One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting on the front porch of my grandparents’ house, gentle breeze blowing, sweet tea in hand, listening to the buzz and flight of hummingbirds as they gracefully sipped sugar water from bright red feeders. Sometimes there’d be more than a dozen of them, dancing acrobatically in the air, […]

If you’ve driven by the Low Water Bridge recently, you probably have seen a good bit of bulldozer activity and wondered what exactly was happening to this beautiful natural area. The work is being undertaken with a promising objective in mind. The LandTrust of Central N.C. is partnering with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to […]

Many birds lead lifestyles of the rich and famous – they “summer” in one location and “winter” in another. After nesting in the United States, some birds depart for second homes in South America or the Caribbean. Others are content to travel no farther than the Uwharries in the N.C. Piedmont. Migration is a risky […]

Whether you’re an avid birder or just enjoy watching those in your backyard, you likely have heard of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Although affiliated with the university of the same name, it is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the study and conservation of birds. Its mission is “to interpret and conserve the earth’s biological […]

It’s an unfortunate fact of life for birders in the Uwharries – spring migration peaks as trees come into full leaf. Trying to identify palm-sized birds flitting through the canopy can lead to a serious case of “warbler neck.” If you like to bird along the Uwharrie River, as I do, you also risk ruining […]

Chickens are all the rage these days. All the fashionable neighborhoods have them. I recently met a gentleman who’d built a stately coop behind his home in Charlotte’s Myers Park. In Raleigh, residents flaunt their urban flocks during the annual Hen-side the Beltline Tour de Coop. I know these things because my husband has long […]