GVL WTP Birds

["ICP Naturalist" <tchngk@hotmail.com>]

Monday 30 April 2001,
Greenville Water Treatment Plant, Old Pactolus Road, Pitt County, North 
Carolina.
With Tommy Wade.  (Thanks for getting us out of the cars, Tommy.)
1800-2000 hrs, clear and calm, 82-61 deg. F.  “OH” = seen flying over field 
of view.  “HO” = heard only.

Double-crested Cormorant? - 1 OH
Great Blue Heron - 4 OH (1 along canal)
Canada Goose - 2 OH, 30 in high formation headed E
Mallard? - 1 OH (too far for ID)
SANDHILL CRANE - 1 (flew in from S, calling, just before sunset, landed by 
yellow flower patch in wet pasture SE of cattle gate bridge)
Killdeer - 1 (field by canal)
Least Sandpiper - 1 (seen by Tommy Wade)
Mourning Dove - 10 (fields by canal)
Barred Owl - 1 HO (woods by river)
Belted Kingfisher - 1 OH
Barn Swallow - 20 (fields by canal)
Blue Jay - 2 HO
Common Crow - 1
Carolina Wren - 1 HO (in brush)
Starling - 6 (fields by canal)
Eastern Meadowlark - 1 (field by canal)
Red-winged Blackbird - 10 (fields by canal)
Northern Cardinal - 2 HO (woods by river)
Blue Grosbeak - 2 (male, female, on fence near cattle gate bridge)
Field Sparrow - 2 (fence by cattle gate bridge)

Non-birds:
Cooter - 5 (basking along canal)
Brown Water Snake - 1 (hunting in water by at cattle gate bridge)

J. K. Williams, “The Inner Coastal Plain Naturalist,” Greenville NC

The Inner Coastal Plain is a land of “‘Carolina Bays’... blackwater 
rivers... swamp forests of Bald cypress, and Tupelo and Swamp gums...
Cross-vine... Star-nosed mole, Marsh rabbit, and Rice rat... Greater Siren, 
Two-toed Amphiuma...  many bird species nest here, or
migrate through... the freshwater aquatic vegetation is rich... Tape grass, 
Bladderwort, Pondweed, Arrow-leaved spatterdock,
Duckweed....  floodplain forests... barbed with Greenbrier, and thickened 
with Poison ivy and Virginia creeper... unique fishes and aquatic
invertebrates... the endemic Neuse River Waterdog of the Neuse and Tar 
rivers... Sweet pepperbush... Sphagnum... Black bear and
Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake... Longleaf and Pond pines... famous... 
seasonal wildflower displays....”, and “rumors of Panthers....” -
from Cooper, Robinson, and Funderburg, Endangered and Threatened Plants and 
Animals of North Carolina.
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