Drought 2007 Effects on Walnut Creek Trail

The drought of 2007 has placed central North Carolina between storms off the coast and floods in the interior cities. It is not unusual to have a period of clear dry hot weather.

Consistent with my love of the greenways, I wondered how the drought is affecting the trails. Walnut Creek Trail is one of the most interesting trails in the greenway system.

This trail is a favorite of fishermen in the southern part of the city. It is also one of the greatest places to find birds across a wide range of species.

The trail technically starts at Cooper Road and ends at Rock Quarry.

The stretch of the trail I prefer is from Rose Lane to Rock Quarry. The portion going to Cooper Road is all sidewalks.

On this trail I shot pictures of thirty one different species of birds in a single two hours walk from Rose Lane and back. I even got a red tail hawk, who posed nicely for a few pictures.

On one end of the trail, there is a boardwalk that goes along a marshy area. In the early spring, there is great visibility about the time birds are migrating back to Raleigh.

There is a lot of cover even in the nearby bushes and forest, which makes it an ideal place for birds to rest on their way to someplace else.

This trail is also home to a wide and varied selection of wild flowers. It has the normal orange and yellow flowers that can be seen near any wetland in Raleigh. It also often packs a surprise or two for the curious photographer.

Flowers come and go in brilliant whites, yellows, pinks, blues, purples and reds. With the wide variety of birds passing through this tiny piece of God's earth, it is sown with the seeds of their favorite berries and seeds.

Some of the flowers are there for a short time. Others linger throughout the year as they go slowly through their show of color.

Some flowers, like wild morning glories, intertwine their leaves and blossoms with vines making is difficult to tell them apart.

The drought has been hard on Walnut Creek as I traveled along it. Several of the water sources for the creek are now just dry furrows running through the forest.

The creek itself has just a small trickle of water coming in. The bottom of the creek has pools at the low point with barely enough water left over to keep the flow going.

The small forest birds didn't seem to notice that the once flowing creek has become little more than one long birdbath. In fact, that is how they were using it on September 9th. Though there were few birds on the trail, there were plenty of them happily splashing in slow flowing pools of water. Unaware of the impending danger the drought poses, they were too busy flitting showers of cool water into the air. They looked like miniature sprinklers as they played with the remaining moisture.

The paths are flat and clear along the trail. There are plenty of benches for resting and watching the birds on the western end of the trail. The drought has cleared the creek of larger fish that the fishermen so enjoyed.

Possibly the birds were actually doing a rain dance in the shallow water. Or maybe not!