Wednesday, June 08, 2016

The Roan Balds, Tuesday, June 7.

If a place could have been any more windy than on the Roan I don’t want to go there. How brutal the winds were I can’t begin to describe other than it roared and buffeted each of us sometimes making it impossible to hold our binoculars steady. On top of that, when we started northbound on the AT from Carver’s Gap the trail disappeared into the fog.

While the wind never did die down --we retreated to Roan Mountain State Park to eat lunch-- the sun came out and the scene was its usual awesome view. Carver’s Gap should be on your itinerary.

Most of the few birds were we saw were heading downwind at about 90 mph.

On the way down, we stopped at Hummingbird Hill and lo and behold we had a ruby-throated hummingbird!

For the day’s looking on Jane Bald, Engine Gap, Carver’s Gap, Hummingbird Hill, and Roan Mountain State Park: Wild turkey, Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk (wind pushed and here and gone in maybe one second, Mourning Dove, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Northern Flicker, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Raven, Crow, Blue Jay, Robin, Common Yellowthroat, Song Sparrow, Junco, Towhee, Pine Siskin, and Goldfinch.

Left to right are Gil Derouen, Jim Anderson, and Roy Knispel. We're all leaning into the gale-force wind hoping a vesper sparrow will go by but not at 60 mph.

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