I don't enjoy running. But it's good cross-training for my other exercise, so two or three days a week I hit the trails at Winston-Salem's Shaffner Park and Silas Creek Greenway.
Rather than run with earplugs tuned to music, I focus on sounds and sights of birds as I move along. Over the years, I have discovered that this small area offers rewarding birding opportunities.
The 114 acres of the Carrie Fries Shaffner Park straddle Silas Creek Parkway on the west side of the city. The land was donated to the city by Shaffner heirs in 1958. She was a daughter of Francis Lavin Fries, a well-known cotton and wool mill owner during the 19th century. Carrie's husband, John Shaffner, was a doctor and served with the Confederacy in the Civil War.
The park primarily offers facilities for active recreation, including tennis courts, soccer fields, a children's playground and an exercise par course. Silas Creek runs through it, wooded areas border it, and the greenway extends from the park two-thirds of a mile to Robinhood Road. These make for pleasant walking and good bird habitats. I have counted over 80 species in and around the park. In May, I will probably see 30 during a single run.
Access the par course from southbound Silas Creek Parkway or Kirklees Road. Expect lots of walkers on a sunny, spring morning. But the birds usually are there, too. A row of nest boxes along the south side provides homes for bluebirds, chickadees and titmice. Other common birds — cardinals, Carolina wrens, goldfinches, towhees and robins — may be singing, too.
Keep your ears tuned also for the "fee-bee" of the eastern phoebe or the "chewy-chewy, chicken-chicken" of an indigo bunting in a streamside sycamore. Overhead, a neighborhood red-shouldered hawk may be circling. If you arrive early, you may even see a heron sitting along the creek.
Parking for the eastern part of the park and the greenway is on Yorkshire Road. You also can cross Silas Creek Parkway through a tunnel at the traffic light. Don't try birding when the soccer players are in action, but at other times walk along the riparian creek areas bordering the fields.
Bluebirds, phoebes and yellow-rumped warblers sit on wax myrtles along Silas Creek. Catbirds or mockingbirds usually are around, and you may hear squeals from brown-headed nuthatches in the pines. Sometimes, I hear pine warblers trill from other pines near the playground, and overhead a red-tailed hawk or turkey vulture is a fairly common sight.
It becomes difficult not to pause at times when I hit the greenway during the spring. Belted kingfishers nest in the stream bank, and their rattling calls always make me pause. So, too, do the flute sounds of wood thrushes or pleas for attention from red-eyed vireos — two summer species that nest in the nearby woods. The greenway also is a rest stop for migrating warblers such as black-throated blue and American redstart.
Spring is not the only time of year to enjoy the birds of Shaffner Park. Fall brings the reverse migration, and during the winter, year-round residents are joined by sapsuckers, juncos, sparrows and occasional cedar waxwings. Any time is good for a walk — or run — in this park.
•Forsyth Audubon conducts its annual Spring Count and Birdathon on Saturday. The count organizer is Chuck Thompson, cosmo6190@yahoo.com. Birdathon funds support N.C. coastal sanctuaries and local conservation projects. Mail donations to ASFC, P.O. Box 15111, Winston-Salem, NC 27113. On May 14, the Audubon bird walk is at Reynolda House. Meet at 8 a.m. by Lake Katharine. The walk leader is Bill Gifford, wgifford@triad.rr.com.
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