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What’s Your Favorite?
Written By: Jenny King | Issue: 2015/12 - December
Last month we asked where you like to catch the sunrise? Your choices were Sunrise Rock, Rhodes Big View and Meditation Rock. You voted and your number one selection was the breathtaking Rhodes Big View.
If you’re like many people, you tend to spend more time indoors when winter comes. But the colder months offer up some wonderful outdoor activities thanks to the opening of long-range vistas.
Are you a feeder of birds? Do you love to sit at your kitchen table and watch the many varieties flock to the bear-protected feeding stations? If so, have you ever taken it a step further and tried bird watching in the field? Since there are many avid birders in our area and a very active chapter of the Audubon Society, you’ll find lots of support should you decide to take up this rewarding pastime. In speaking with local photographer and former owner of The Bird Barn Cynthia Strain, she had some great suggestions for the novice.
Turtle Pond Road offers many locations to park and observe all types of flora and fauna. It follows Turtle Pond Creek and you can enter from the Highway 64 (the Franklin Road) across from Van Hook Glade. Another way to access Turtle Pond Road is from the Dillard Road (Highway 106) near The Mountain Retreat and
Learning Center.
Horse Cove offers many of Strain’s favorite birding perches, particularly Rich Gap Road. She says, “Horse Cove has lots of open areas to see bluebirds, kingfishers, red shouldered hawks and lots of other good birds.”
Rich Gap road can be accessed from Highway 28 (The Walhalla Road) and also from Horse Cove Road.
The Highlands Biological Station is known for its plethora of plant life, and that makes it home to a wide variety of birds. Next time you hike in the Botanical Gardens, bring your binoculars and guidebook and jot down what you see.
For more information on birding atop the Highlands Plateau, stop by Mill Creek Gallery to speak with Cynthia Strain and visit highlandsaudubonsociety.org.
After your bird watching expedition, log onto our Facebook page and let us know what you found and which was your favorite spot.
