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Red-necked Grebe at Falls Lake/My Wedding



Hello C-birders,

Tromped around the mud flats across from Hickory Hill boat ramp on
10/31.  Had some good looks at some shorebirds and a beautiful first
winter Red-necked Grebe!!!  To my knowledge this is the first record for
Falls Lakes; Jordan Lake, Weymouth Woods, and the coastal state parks
all have records of one.

The mud flats are dry enough now that you can walk out on them pretty
good from the Will Suitt Road Railroad grade.  (I think Will has a site
description on his web page)  After watching the Grebe for about 20
minutes (confirming with three different bird guides in hand), it flew
out across the lake and towards Hickory Hill boat ramp, and further up
the lake out of sight.

1 RED-NECKED GREBE
18 Killdeer
3 Pectoral Sandpiper
5 Stilt Sandpiper
10 Common Snipe
11 American Pipit

About 30 other species including my first of the season Winter Wren,
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Golden-crowned Kinglet.

BTW - I also got married on October 13, and also recieved a pair of
binoculars which I can focus on my socks, an Eagle Optics Ranger PC
10X42!  Me & Colleen had an outdoor wedding in a Connecticutt State Park
and spent our wedding night on the coast (did not pay attention to any
birds there however).

Then we flew out to Hawaii for our 11 day honeymoon!!!  Saw some very
interesting fauna in the rainforests, volcanoes, beaches, etc:

Nene ( Endemic Goose which lives only on three islands at 5,000 - 8,000
feet in elevation.)
Iiwi, Apanane, Common Amikihi (Endemic honeycreepers)
White-tailed Tropicbird
Wandering Tattler
Great Frigatebird (nest colony on nearby island)
Hawaiin Stilt
Hawaiin Coot
Hawaiin Duck (looked like a female mallard)
Sanderling
    Introduced by otherwise interesting species:
Spotted Dove
Zebra Dove
Red-crested Cardinal
Nutmeg Mannakin
Warbling Silverbill
Japanese White-eye
Rock Dove
Northern Cardinal
House Sparrow
Northern Mockingbird
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Cattle Egret

Mongoose, 3 species of geckos, Green Anole, Giant Toad, 8 butterflies, 4
dragonflies, oh yeah, and we got to snorkel with 4' endangered Green Sea
Turtles!

Brian Bockhahn
Falls Lake SRA

On-line checklists for NC state parks
 http://www.ncsparks.net/fauna&flora/birds/bird.html