New Battles

As I’ve lived in Chapel Hill for nearly five years now, I thought I’d figured out all of the prospective birding locales in the immediate area. I realized, to my surprise, that I was wrong when I discovered Battle Park, a nearly 100 acre forest administered by the NC Botanical Garden practically across the street from the university and no more than two blocks from where I work. I had never seen it as it’s tucked in behind some of Chapel Hill’s more ostentatious houses, but from above it looked worth checking out.

Figuring that exploring a potential new bird spot might add some excitement to what was most likely going to be a fairly pedestrian late winter excursion, I headed up on the hill Sunday morning to give Battle Park the once, or maybe twice, over.

Yeah, I realize Daffodils are anything but a native plant, but these were so nice right next to the trail. No doubt intrepid explorers from a colony in someone’s backyard. The fact that they’re in full bloom these days is nice though, native or not.

The birding was mostly slow, though I managed to incite a minor riot with a little Screech Owl whistle, pulling some birds close enough to try a little digi-binning. The best subject was this little Ruby-crowned Kinglet messing around close to the ground. Not a great picture by any means, but digi-binning is kinda tough. Zeiss should make one of those digibin devices like Swarovski’s done.

Anyway, I don’t know that I’ll be back to Battle Park in the near future. I didn’t see anything I couldn’t see at Mason Farm, another botanical garden facility I frequent far more often. There’s some potential here, but there’s a good reason I hadn’t heard about it before last week. The other places are just better.