Bird's-Eye View: Expand your birding options at Horizons

Earlier this month, I woke up to one of our glorious fall mornings. The skies were clear, a nip was in the morning air, and leaves showed their first tinge of fall color. Of course I had to go birding, but where? Horizons Park is not a place I visit often, but it always seems to beckon to me in autumn.

Horizons is part of the Forsyth County park system. It is a large park, 492 acres, and is located on Memorial Industrial School Road in Rural Hall. It has a disc-golf course, ball fields, a volleyball court, a 2-acre dog park, mountain-biking trails and picnic facilities. In addition, two nature trails and vast expanses of meadows make it a great place just to stroll in solitude, commune with nature and watch the birds.

Eastern bluebirds reside in nest boxes at meadow edges throughout the park. On my recent trip, a few sat on the overhead wires as I drove up. I parked in the main lot on the south side of the road and walked a few yards to a grove of large trees at the disc-golf course. This is a great place to find woodpeckers, and this day I quickly spied Red-Bellied Woodpeckers and a Northern Flicker. Chickadees, titmice and other small birds also flew around the treetops.

From here, new visitors may want to explore the nature trails, which wander through wooded areas of the park. Loop A begins near the picnic shelter and is less than a mile in length. A longer Loop B can be accessed at the southern, downhill end of Loop A. From late fall to spring, look especially for kinglets, nuthatches, Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers, Brown Creepers and Hermit Thrushes.

My preferred route is different. I proceed through the grove of trees to the scrubby habitat at the edges of the park. At Horizons, the best birding areas are along the shrubs, tree lines and fences that border the meadows. There, birds find cover and plenty of food, including a variety of berries and plenty of seeds. On this October day, Northern Mockingbirds, Gray Catbirds, robins and a female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak ate cherries, while Carolina Wrens sang and chattered from the brush.

As I continued along the park perimeter, small birds hopped in and out of the trees and vines. Eastern ebes escorted me briefly on at least three occasions. Also look for these dark-headed, tail-flipping flycatchers around the barns near the parking lot. Early on, a Magnolia Warbler showed off its yellow belly, while a Black-and-White Warbler found a tasty caterpillar in the shrubs. By now, these birds have moved south. However, an accompanying Ruby-Crowned Kinglet probably had just arrived.

The kinglet was a harbinger of several species that winter at Horizons. In the next few months, look also for its golden-crowned cousin, sapsuckers, White-Throated and White-Crowned Sparrows, Rusty Blackbirds, Hermit Thrushes and possibly Purple Finches and Red-Breasted Nuthatches. They will join such year-round residents as Red-Shouldered and Red-Tailed Hawks, Cardinals, Towhees, Blue Jays and White-Breasted Nuthatches.

An area of bottom land in the southeast corner of the park often is a good birding spot. The hedgerows, a small stream and nearby sycamores invite a variety of species throughout the year. From there, my route takes me through a pair of meadows along the south border of the park to where the Loop A and Loop B nature trails meet. I took Loop A to return to my car.

Without a lake or wetland to attract some species, Horizons lacks the bird-friendly reputation of some other local parks. On the other hand, it has habitat that could support species not often seen elsewhere, such as American Woodcock, Eastern Meadowlark and Wild Turkey. The park is only 15 minutes from downtown Winston-Salem, but it seems underutilized by the community and is relatively unexplored by birders. You might be surprised how much Horizons Park has to offer during all seasons.

■ Bird's-Eye View is a joint column by Ron Morris and Phil Dickinson. Today's column was written by Dickinson. Dickinson is a legal writer. He has been an active birder for 15 years, and is a past president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County and heads the conservation committee. Morris retired after 24 years as curator at the N.C. Zoo. He has studied birds around the world and is currently the vice president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County. If you have a birding question or story idea, write to Bird's-Eye View in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101-3159, or send an e-mail to birding@wsjournal.com. Please type "birds" in the subject line.

■ To reach Horizons Park from Winston-Salem, take University Parkway north to Stanleyville Drive. Bear right on Stanleyville Dr. and continue to the flashing traffic signal at Germanton Road/N.C. 8. Cross Germanton Road on to Memorial Industrial School Road and proceed about a mile to the park.

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