Purple Finch and Fox Sparrow, Spartanburg, SC December 6, 2019

Saturday December 6th was a day for Michael Robertson to introduce me to some of his preferred birding sites in Spartanburg.  It was my first trip to the area, so everything was new for me.  Our first stop was Croft State Park which is a former army training base, including 7,000 acres of excellent woodland habitat.  And imbedded in those rolling hills are two large manmade lakes – Lake Johnson and Lake Craig, which were our 2 key hotspots in the park.

First we headed to Lake Johnson, with our initial stop being at one arm of the lake.  We had a few Canadas, Mallards, and Bufflehead on the lake, and many of the regular expected landbirds – a nice stop but nothing unusual.  Next we headed a bit farther down the road to a picnic area on the Lake.  As soon as we got out of the car we heard the soft “pik” calls of at least one Purple Finch flying by.  There have been almost no reports of Purple Finches in the area this winter so we were very happy to have heard one. 

My statebird map for Purple Finch is inserted below – solid shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species; cross-hatched states are those where it is regular but I haven’t yet seen it.  I just need it in a few more states as a migrant or wintering bird.

Later we headed to Lake Craig and found where we found a flock of 10 Red-breasted Mergansers.  A rarity for the SC Upstate, but not new for my SC statelist.

Next we were on to local hotspot Cottonwood Trail.  Although located in a suburban portion of Spartanburg, this trail has some excellent riparian and woodland habitat.  And then later the trail took us to a nice wetland – more excellent habitat.  At one point I heard a brief portion of a song that sounded like a Fox Sparrow.  But since I still needed this one for my SC list I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions based on just a partial song.  But then later I heard the song again – and both of us independently thought it was indeed a Fox Sparrow.  A bit further down the trail we heard it giving its sharp call notes, and then finally we got a visual of the target as it perched in the underbrush.  I still need this wide-ranging species in a number of states across the country.

Nice to check off a couple more SC target species, albeit ones that typically quite regular.  That gives me 252 on my statelist.  And thanks to Michael for showing me these locations.