This will be a day of easy walking of about 3 miles at the most through fields and along the shore of Lake Lure and other nearby spots.  Fields may be wet so waterproof shoes will be helpful.

We will start our day at Morse Park in Lake Lure, which has a good network of easy paved trails with small swampy wetlands along the lake shore. We should be able to see both over-wintering birds as well as early migrants such as Tree Swallow, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Northern Parula. Swamp and White-throated Sparrows should be in the deep thickets along with a few over-wintering Brown Thrasher and maybe a Gray Catbird. Bald Eagles nest and winter around Lake Lure and small numbers of ducks appear from time to time. These could include Wood Duck, Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck and Hooded Merganser. 

We will continue driving around Lake Lure checking the lake for waterfowl, before heading into the more rural parts of the county. This will be a voyage of discovery as we drive down the quiet country roads looking for Pine Warbler, Brown-headed Nuthatch and maybe Blue-headed Vireo in some of the larger pine stands.