Welcome to a fellow Tarheel. I too live in North Carolina, about 30 minutes north of Charlotte up I-85.
Western North Carolina is a great part of the state with a lot of birding potential.
I'm including a link to a
North Carolina article in Opus here on Bird Forum. It'll give you a summary of the state and a list of other NC related articles on Opus. Look it over and if you should happen to have any questions, feel free to ask me. You can do that by going to the "envelope" beside your user name at the top right of the page, clicking on it and begin a conversation.
Glad to have you join us!