We had lots to listen to when we started way out at Mangum Court -- Summer Tanagers and Northern Cardinals were singing full tilt.   It was a little hairy finding good places for the first few stops in the dark -- it would have been much better if we had scouted our route ahead of time!

We also ran into data-form chaos!   So when we got back home, we designed a couple of more possibilities -- see the new data forms.   We obviously need to try some of these options before we can come up with a really good one!

Traffic on Mount Carmel Church Road was a little bothersome -- mostly competing with the sounds of the birds.   It didn't keep us from hearing the Louisiana Waterthrush, though.

Our route led us through Carrboro, where we found a surprising variety of birds -- Eastern Wood-Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Wood Thrushes, and several woodpeckers.   Stopping was easy -- we just pulled into the nearest side road.

Back out in the countryside, on our way through Calvander, we found some field birds (Eastern Meadowlark, Red-winged Blackbird), some forest birds (Ovenbird, Red-eyed Vireo), and some developments we had never heard of!

We quickly realized the future convenience of making a list of our stopping places -- with a quick description of how to recognize them -- "past the yellow house", "at the intersection of such-and-such road", and so forth.   Next year will be much easier!

It was a beautiful, cool morning.   The birds seemed to like it as much as we did.   We already feel like this route is "ours" -- we can't wait to see what happens next year!