Birding the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
July 13, 2024
Register by clicking the ‘book now’ button above, or by contacting the Ventures office. We accept credit cards for an additional fee (2.9% for MC, Visa, Discover; 3.9% for AmEx), but you may also pay by bank transfer, cash, check, or money order. This Venture is limited to 12 participants.
Meeting Place and time: 6 AM at Earthfare, 66 Westgate Parkway, Asheville, NC 28806 or 7:30 AM at Oconaluftee Visitor Center Car Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park TIME: 6 AM – 3 PM COST: $60
Please bring layered clothing as even in the summer temperatures at high elevations can be quite chilly. In fact, snowfall has been recorded on Clingman’s Dome every month of the year! We will be birding at elevations ranging from 2,000 – 6,600 feet. Please be prepared to hike 2-3 miles on relatively flat trails and road but at times uneven terrain. Please bring a lunch and snacks for the morning. Comfortable footwear and sun protection will be essential, and we recommend bringing rain gear as well!
Join Clifton on an epic day of birding in the vast wilderness of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Ridge upon ridge of forest straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee here. The Smokies are world renowned for their diversity of plant and animal life, especially salamanders. This walk will focus on the avian life of the Smokies but we will certainly opportunely stop and appreciate the other flora and fauna that we will undoubtedly encounter.
The day will begin birding in the Oconaluftee River Valley. We hope to find low elevation species here and boost our bird list before heading into the higher elevations where we will find many of our targets for the day. We will make several stops along the scenic Highway 441 to bird for mid-elevation species. We hope to find a nice diversity of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and other songbirds. At Newfound Gap (5,000 feet) we will walk a short distance along the Appalachian Trail birding in the Northern Hardwood and Spruce/Fir forests. Our day will culminate at the highest point in the Smokies, Clingman’s Dome. Here we will search for spruce/fir specialists including Red Crossbill, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brown Creeper, Pine Siskin, and Golden-crowned Kinglet, and the range-restricted Black-capped Chickadee.
A few of the many species we hope to encounter on this venture: Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Canada Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Winter Wren, Red Crossbill, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red Crossbill, Brown Creeper, Pine Siskin, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Least Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Blue-headed Vireo, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue-headed Vireo, Veery, Hermit Thrush, Hairy Woodpecker, Bald Eagle, Common Merganser.