My family spent a week hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Along with my search for birds, we all were in awe of many "old-growth" trees in the forests of the park. One particularly-noteworthy area was the Cosby Creek trail, with many small streams, and many large trees,
At high elevations in the national park, Dark-eyed Juncos, Common Ravens, and Black-capped Chickadees are found (in the range where Carolina Chickadees are espected, but at lower elevations).
These Bluets were seen there:
Here, along the Oconaluftee River, we saw 3 elk.
Because I live in southeastern WI, many songbirds encountered in GSMNP are very uncommon to slightly "rare" where I live:
Blue Grosbeak
Summer Tanager
Worm-eating Warbler
Black Vulture,
and most uncommon of all,
Swainson's Warbler.
.jpeg)
