Lower Haw River Trail to Pokeberry Creek

The Lower Haw Natural Area is home to eagles, osprey, turkey buzzards, great blue herons, hawks, owls, numerous warblers and songbirds - Scarlet Tanagers, Pileated and Downy Woodpeckers, Indigo Buntings, Prothonotary Warblers, Loons... to name just a few. River otters, fox, bobcat and turtles also live in the area. The Natural Area is also the center of a small, rural but close knit community. Bynum is a former cotton mill village (as Carrboro, Saxapahaw, 9th Street in Durham...). The trail head was the mill site. The mill closed in 1983 and burned in 2001. For the sake of the wildlife -- and the pets in the Bynum neighborhood -- please keep your dog on leash. Many of the neighborhood cats are antique but feral kitties that are long term residents and are very much loved. The neighborhood respectfully also asks: please don't set your car alarm. The trail head is in a safe neighborhood. Car alarms disturb the entire community. False alarms are frequent.Only two car burglaries have occurred in 35 years. In both cases it was a neighbors car in their driveway and a window was broken late at night. The most recent case they stole a book bag. In the other incident (many years ago) the burglar stole mix tapes and a jar of pennies. Neither items as expensive as the windows they broke.