A resident of the neotropics, the blue-gray gnatcatcher migrates to our neck of the woods for the summertime and thus gets a spot as our June bird in this year’s 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series on the blog. The gnatcatcher is a tiny gray bird, with a long white-edged tail and dark streaks above its eyes that make it look like the gnatcatcher flew straight out of the Angry Birds game.

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If you look up in the trees near the Lake House at the Inn on Mill Creek in the spring or summertime and see a blue-colored bird perched at the very top, and he’s singing, and singing, and singing some more, and you go out for an afternoon of sightseeing and come back and there he is, still singing, then you’ve met the Indigo Bunting. [Photo below of two Indigo Buntings by our guest, Sharon Hurst]

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Its cheery song is smile-inducing, the return of its golden feathers in April adds to Spring’s color palette, and its frequency and acrobatic skills at the feeders make it a constant joy to watch. What’s not to love about the American Goldfinch? The second most-photographed bird at the Inn on Mill Creek (after our unofficial mascot, the ever-entertaining Tufted Titmouse), the American Goldfinch is also one of our most asked-about birds. So let’s give the goldfinch its due as the featured bird in the month of April in this year’s12 Months of Birding at the Inn series on our blog.

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When you watch the suet and seed birdfeeders at the Inn on Mill Creek, you may notice a smallish bird with a big head, a short tail, and a white chest, with striking black and gray markings and black going over the top of its head, quickly scooting up and down and all around a tree trunk at weird angles. If he looks like the guy in the photo above, then you’ve seen the White-breasted Nuthatch, our March bird in the 12 Months of Birding series that we’re doing on the blog.

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We can always count on the Northern Cardinal to add some pep to a winter day, with cheerful chirping and colorful plumage, so we’re giving this spunky bird the February spot in our 12 Months of Birding at the Inn series.

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January is a fairly unpredictable month in the mountains of Western North Carolina. One day, we’ll see bright sunshine and temperatures in the 40s or 50s, then blustery temps the following day with snow. So we’re countering the month’s unpredictable nature with a very predictable bird for our latest installment of 12 Months of Birding at the Inn: the Carolina Chickadee.

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We’ve picked the Wild Turkey as the November bird for our 12 Months of Birding series. We see Wild Turkeys at the Inn on Mill Creek quite frequently…they seem to be big fans of our apple orchard. As year-round residents, Wild Turkeys enjoy scattered open spaces in Pisgah National Forest (like our orchard) and feast on acorns, fruit, insects and fern fronds, all of which are in good supply here.

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Our 12 Months of Birding series continues this month with the Pileated Woodpecker. The Pileated Woodpecker is a large bird who lives year-round in Pisgah National Forest that surrounds the Inn on Mill Creek. In particular, they love the woods just behind our fruit orchard and if you sit on the swing at the Inn for a little while, you can often hear their bold, striking calls, which match their striking looks. (The Cornell Lab of Ornithology defines the Pileated Woodpecker’s call as “whinnying”.)

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