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ASHE COUNTY'S AMPHIBOLITE MOUNTAINS

#35: 25 March thru 8 April 2026

"This Week At Hilton Pond North" is an on-going series of original photo essays—posted more or less weekly—about natural history happenings here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of upper Ashe County, North Carolina. If you want a free e-mail reminder about each new installment, click here to SUBSCRIBE.

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Random observations about Blue Ridge Birds & Nature

● Banded in 2026: 23 species, 1,209 individuals

● All-time (2024-26) totals: 70 species, 4,387 individuals

The table below shows birds banded during the Current Period (Columns 1 & 2), each species' Yearly Tally (Column 3), and a Grand Total for each species (Column 4) since banding began at Hilton Pond North on 10 March 2024. Any new species for the current calendar year are in RED.

BANDED BIRD RECAPTURES/RETURNS

AT HILTON POND NORTH

25 March thru 8 April 2026

SUMMARY: We had an especially productive two-week period for recaptures and returns during late March and early April 2026. Encounters with American Goldfinches and resident Carolina Chickadees were of particular interest. Birds in RED are in at least their fourth year; one AMGO was in at least her FIFTH year. Five AMGO marked (*) and banded May thru August are likely non-migrant local breeders. AMGO showed a preponderance of returning males (12 vs. 6).

On 29 March 2026 we were surprised to re-trap a Field Sparrow we banded here on 23 March 2024. Even more remarkable, we recaptured it last year on 27 March 2025!

NOTE: List does not include our MANY same-season recaptures, some of which are same-week or same-day.

Carolina Chickadee banded here 09/09/24; now 3rd year female

Carolina Chickadee banded here 11/09/24; now after 2nd year unknown

Carolina Chickadee banded here 12/26/24; now after 2nd year unknown

Carolina Chickadee banded here 12/26/24; now after 2nd year unknown (2 birds)

Carolina Chickadee banded here 12/30/24; now after 2nd year unknown

Carolina Chickadee banded here 07/01/25; now 2nd year unknown

Carolina Chickadee banded here 10/30/25; now after hatch year unknown

NOTE: Since CACH are non-migratory, it's likely all are year-round residents produced locally or near Hilton Pond North. CACH dispersal after hatch is generally less than 2.5 miles.

American Goldfinch banded here 03/23/24; now 4th year male

American Goldfinch banded here 03/27/24; now after 4th year female

American Goldfinch banded here 03/31/24; now 4th year female

American Goldfinch banded here 04/01/24; now after 4th year female

American Goldfinch banded here 06/27/24; now 4th year male*

American Goldfinch banded here 06/28/24; now 4th year male*

American Goldfinch banded here 08/25/24; now 4th year female*

American Goldfinch banded here 10/17/24; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 10/25/24; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 10/25/24; now 4th year male

American Goldfinch banded here 10/31/24; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 11/25/24; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 01/26/25; now 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 02/24/25; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 04/07/25; now 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 04/22/25; now 3rd year female

American Goldfinch banded here 05/07/25; now after 3rd year female*

American Goldfinch banded here 05/08/25; now 3rd year male*

NOTE: It is likely nearly all these AMGO migrated away from Hilton Pond North the spring after banding and then returned in a later winter. Birds marked (*) in May thru August are likely non-migrant local breeders.

Field Sparrow banded here 03/23/24; now 4th year unknown

NOTE: This FISP was not observed at Hilton Pond North prior to recapture. It may have migrated a short distance or merely moved to a lower elevation nearby for the winter.

Northern Cardinal banded here 02/09/25; now after 2nd year female

Northern Cardinal banded here 08/04/25; now 2nd year male

NOTE: NOCA are year-round residents at Hilton Pond North. Fledglings may disperse up to three miles, occasionally thrice that. Midwinter migrants from further north have not been documented from our latitude.

Tufted Titmouse banded here 06/29/25; now 2nd year unknown

Tufted Titmouse banded here 09/25/25; now 2nd year unknown

Tufted Titmouse banded here 12/10/25; now after hatch year unknown

NOTE: This species likely shows similar dispersal to CACH (see above) around Hilton Pond North.

White-throated Sparrow banded here 12/16/25; now 2nd year unknown

White-throated Sparrow banded here 12/17/25; now 2nd year female

NOTE: A true medium-distance migrant that most likely breeds in Canada and occurs at Hilton Pond North only in winter.

White-breasted Nuthatch banded here 09/05/24; now 3rd year male

White-breasted Nuthatch banded here 11/19/24; now 3rd year male

NOTE: This species shows similar fledgling dispersal to CACH (see above) and may be even more restrictive with dispersal less than a mile of Hilton Pond North.

Carolina Wren banded here 10/08/24; now after 2nd year female

NOTE: This is a permanent resident species at Hilton Pond North, with fledgling dispersal less than a mile.

If you missed our 2025 Ruby-throated Hummingbird Banding Summary, it's still posted HERE.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

BIRD BANDING RESULTS FOR

HILTON POND NORTH DURING CURRENT PERIOD

25 March thru 8 April 2026

All banding at Hilton Pond North is done by Dr. Bill Hilton Jr. (federal master permit #21558) under auspices of the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory and NC Wildlife Resources Commission, following standard humane procedures for capturing, handling, banding, and releasing wild birds.

NEWLY BANDED BIRDS

AT HILTON POND NORTH

25 March thru 8 April 2026

Hilton Pond North's Bird & Nature Cams are up and running; turn on "Sound" to hear bird calls. Click on the name YouTube in the image above to access our 24/7 channel; there you can subscribe to the livestream and stay abreast of exciting year-round Nature Cam happenings in upper Ashe County NC, the heart of the Blue Ridge Province. (Current temperature also shows up, and sometimes you'll see snow, rain, or fog; thus, the livestream also serves as a weather cam!)

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

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All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Apple Podcast #35

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Photos & text by Dr. Bill Hilton Jr.

Executive Director, Hilton Pond North: Blue Ridge Birds & Nature

At our previous research site in the South Carolina Piedmont, House Finches (HOFI, adult male above) were quite abundant in our traps and nets; 11,967 bandings during 43 years made them our second most common species (15% of all bandings). Right behind were 10,245 Purple Finches (PUFI), while American Goldfinches (AMGO) led the pack with 12,998. In our first 26 months here in the North Carolina mountains AMGO are again on top with a whopping 2,379 bandings to date (74%). PUFI with 467 bandings and HOFI with just 29 show contrasting but expected results. Hilton Pond North sits at ~2,900 feet in dense, largely forested upper Ashe County—exactly the kind of landscape PUFI favor during migration and winter; they're a forest-edge and closed-canopy species at heart, at home in northern hardwood-conifer mixes and mature second growth. HOFI, on the other hand, are a "human-commensal" species that expanded eastward through the 20th century, riding a wave of suburban sprawl, ornamental plantings, and backyard feeders like our former South Carolina site. Where we are now, dense Blue Ridge woodland with relatively few human structures is not their preferred habitat.

We've yet to see a wintering Brown-headed Cowbird (BHCO, male above) at Hilton Pond North, but by late March the species begins to appear in increasing numbers at our platform feeders. In all three of our springs here in North Carolina, males have returned first with prospective mates showing up about a week later. Males likely arrive earlier to establish dominance relationships with other males and begin displays and competitive behavior that determines mating access. Female cowbirds are the operationally critical sex; they're the ones making nest-finding and laying decisions and appear to assess male quality partly based on observing male-male competition.

BHCO banding numbers have been small—only 25 (eight males, 17 females)—but more are in the neighborhood. Most captures have been in live traps on the ground or on our big platform feeder containing sunflower seeds, cracked corn, and white millet. (Curiously, the best bait for capturing male cowbirds appears to be a female cowbird already caught in a trap; multiple males are drawn to her.) As soon as the female is ready, she'll continue mating with several males, each day producing a single egg she'll place in the nest of some unsuspecting warbler, sparrow, or other open-cup builder. Brown-headed Cowbirds don't go deeply into dense woods, so the vast forests around us here may provide some protection from their nest parasitism on local songbirds.

This week's Eastern Phoebe (EAPH, above) was the first we've seen since back on 30 January 2026. Shortly thereafter began a brutal February with snow and single-digit temperatures not conducive to well-being of a bird that is mostly insectivorous. Phoebes have a broader cold-weather diet than most flycatchers, taking small berries and shifting to water-surface foraging—even catching small fish!—but a prolonged hard freeze eliminates flying insects and locks up stream edges they depend on. It's likely our mid-winter bird bailed out or perished, so this week's individual is probably an early spring migrant. EAPH are "porch-nesters"; old mud on light fixtures when we moved to Hilton Pond North in February 2024 suggest they bred here historically. Females construct the entire nest with no assistance from her mate, collecting mud and adding live moss to the outer nest wall.

Sunset from Hilton Pond North, 05 April 2026 (above).

It started out a gray and rainy day for Easter sunrise services, but by day's end the evening tableau made up for it. Peace.

The Wood Frog tadpole saga continues at Hilton Pond North, where multitudinous larvae survived a couple of late-March nights in the teens by burrowing into the impoundment's muddy substrate. They're alive, noticeably larger, and bunched up in the video above (click arrow to start), their hind legs not yet budding out. We suspect that stage in metamorphosis is not many days away. Stay tuned!

Good friends and long-time supporters Kim Pierce Lascola (left above) and Amy Girten, aka the self-proclaimed "Garden Gurls," were here again this week from Shawnee Hills OH to bring some semblance of late-winter order to native floral areas at Hilton Pond North. They went to work along a freshwater seep near the pond, installing a new colony of Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, a plant we had hoped to find—but didn't—when we moved to our 35-acre Blue Ridge property in early 2024. Along with Wood Frogs, Common Raven, and Rosebay Rhododendron, this was a coveted organism that symbolized mountain living for us, and was the only one of the four not present.

Anticipating the Gurls' arrival, we found a native plant nursery that could supply us with mature Skunk Cabbage rootstocks (above) and ordered four. Kim and Amy put these massive roots in moist ground with speed and expertise. Even during warm summer months the seep should stay damp enough to meet the plants' needs. Skunk Cabbage is one of the most remarkable plants of eastern North American "moistlands." It's notable for "thermogenesis"—metabolic heat that melts through snow and allows blooming in late winter. We look forward to observing this phenomenon among our new plantings next January or February.

Despite their unique ecology, the Amphibolite Mountains of Ashe County NC (map above) are seldom recognized as an important sub-range of high ridges within the Southern Appalachians. Tucked between the mountain communities of Boone and Jefferson, this rugged chain straddles the border of Watauga and Ashe Counties, with North Fork New River tracing its northeastern base like a natural moat. Major summits include Howard Knob, Snake Mountain, and Elk Knob (in Watauga), and The Peak, Three Top Mountain, Paddy Mountain, and Mount Jefferson (in Ashe). At 5,520 feet, Elk Knob is the highest of the summits, but Three Top Mountain (5,020') earns top honors for sheer drama; its knife-edge ridge line and sheer cliff drop-offs make it one of the most rugged precipices in North Carolina.

The Amphibolites terminate to the northeast with Phoenix Mountain (4,716'), whose forested flanks drain directly into the North Fork. From Hilton Pond North east of Lansing, the long ridge of Phoenix Mountain dominates our southwestern skyline (above, with February 2026 hoarfrost). Thus, we can see the Amphibolites from our property just a few miles away, but we're not quite IN them—even though we have amphibolite minerals in our soil.

The Amphibolite Mountains are named because their ridges contain the largest concentration in western North Carolina of amphibolite (above)—a dark, coarse-grained, salt-and-pepper metamorphic rock born from a remarkable transformation: Technically speaking, ancient seafloor basalt that originally erupted onto the bottom of a vanished ocean called the Iapetus Sea was later buried by colliding tectonic plates and recrystallized under tremendous heat and pressure. (Whew!) This dense, hornblende-rich stone underlies the peaks today. Even more technically, "hornblende" is a mixed group of dark-colored amphibole minerals that are all double-chain inosilicates with a generalized composition of (Ca,Na)2-3(Mg,Fe,Al)5(Si,Al)8O22(OH,F)2. (Whew, again!) This whole drama unfolded roughly 460 million years ago, so rock beneath your boots on Mount Jefferson was once oozing from submarine vents on an ocean floor that no longer exists.

What makes the Amphibolites ecologically significant happens when that dense rock weathers and breaks up. Resulting soils are calcium-rich—relatively "sweet" and nearly pH-neutral—a genuine oddity amid acidic soils that blanket most of the Blue Ridge. Botanical consequences are far-reaching. Rare plants such as Gray's Lily, Trailing Wolfsbane, and Large Purple Fringed Orchid find footing here, alongside Flame Azalea (above) and a diversity of other woodland wildflowers. Above 4,000' northern hardwood forest takes over, dominated by Sugar Maple, Yellow Birch, American Beech, and Yellow Buckeye (below)—tree species more at home in New England than western North Carolina.

While amphibolite is geologically common worldwide as a predictable product of any major mountain-building episode, the Ashe-Watauga peaks are unusual in that the mineral dominates entire summits at the surface, rather than being buried within other metamorphic rock. If you kick a stone atop Elk Mountain, it's almost certainly amphibolite.

Curiously, if one hikes the Amphibolite peaks there is a noticeable absence of rhododendron, commonly seen at higher elevations elsewhere across the Southern Appalachians. Chemistry explains it: Rhododendrons thrive in acidic, nutrient-poor soils that amphibolite bedrock fails to deliver. Where rhododendron does appear—as on lower flanks of Phoenix Mountain near us (above, R. maximum)—leaching, organic accumulation, and drainage patterns dilute calcium enough to provide a root hold. But on high ridges where Amphibolite bedrock is ever-present, dense laurel hells that thrive on so much of surrounding Blue Ridge terrain simply can't get established. In other words, the Amphibolite Mountains are defined as much by what WON'T grow there as by what WILL.

It's no wonder the NC Natural Heritage Program ranks the "Amphibolite Mountains Macrosite" among the top five plant diversity hotspots in the entire southern Appalachians. Because these unglaciated peaks served as plant refugia during the Ice Ages they today harbor many rare and disjunct species stranded when the climate warmed and their preferred habitat retreated upslope and northward. A prime example is Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia (artistic rendering above above)—the famous Bluebell of Scotland—found in North Carolina ONLY on Three Top Mountain!

SUMMARY: We had a very busy two-week period at Hilton Pond North in late March and early April, with 425 birds from 12 species banded. More than half were American Goldfinches (268), followed by Purple Finches (137). We captured three new species for the calendar year, as described below.

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