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Jordan Lake migrants; a classical nuthatch



On Sunday, 9/9, I went to Jordan Lake at midday, put my kayak in at the
Farrington boat ramps, and paddled slowly up the Bush Creek arm of Jordan
Lake (toward Lystra and Jack Bennett Roads). The air was heavy and still,
and the birds were awfully quiet. But in a mixed flock I found a male Summer
Tanager, a female tanager of undetermined species, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,
a Red-eyed Vireo and a Yellow-breasted Chat. The chat was skulking in a
thicket underneath some of the biggest, blackest wild grapes I ever saw --
plum-sized things. Near this flock, in a willow on the shoreline, sat an
immature Yellow-billed Cuckoo -- the first immature I've ever seen. Farther
up the shore, in pines I heard a couple of Pine Warblers trilling and saw
one. When I finally reached the little bay where this arm of the lake
terminates, I came around a corner and accidentally flushed a pair of Great
Egrets -- and then startled a doe where the woods meet the water. Back
toward the boat ramps I saw a lone Double-crested Cormorant take off and an
Osprey in flight.

Saturday had much better weather for migrants, crisp and cool, but I was
indoors attending the North Carolina nature-writing conference in Wilson
Library on the UNC campus. After a lunch break on Sat., when I headed back
to the library, I looked up at the fluted stone columns across the front of
the building and saw a White-breasted Nuthatch crawling around on the
acanthus leaves of one of the column capitals. The nuthatch was probing
crevices in the sculpted stone and must have had success because it went
busily from "leaf" to "leaf" gleaning.  An odd and wonderful sight.
Ginger_Travis@unc.edu
Chapel Hill, NC