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Lake Crabtree 9/6



Hit Lake Crabtree County Park after work yesterday.  Crabtree almost hit me
back, but first the birds...

Baltimore Oriole- striking adult male
Scarlet Tanager
Summer Tanager - pair
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black & White Warbler
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

I found the largest flock of birds 10 minutes before I had to leave and did
not get to sort through them all.  Many, many birds though!

While a favoed piece of advice here on Carolinabirds is "sometime you have
to look up", sometimes you should look DOWN.  I was following one of the
paved trails and generally keeping my eyes on the tops of the adjacent
trees.  Every few steps I would glance down to make sure I was still on the
trail.  On one of these glances I found that a Copperhead was in strike
position just a few inches from my left foot.  Uttering the appropriate
expletive, I side stepped the serpent and reassessed the situation.  I was
fortunate as the snake had decided not to strike, even though an attempt
would have probably been successful owing to the close proximity of my foot
to the reptile (less than 1/2 the body length).  Not wanting the next
person down the trail to encounter the snake, or worse kill it, I found a
stick of decent length and gently moved the snake to a nice fallen log off
the trail.

I'll be back out at Crabtree Saturday a.m. hoping to find some more
migrants.  Maybe I'll see some of you there (and fewer snakes...)!

Best,
Steve Shultz
Cary, NC
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