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Grebe yes; pelican no at Falls Lake



Hi C-birders,

Found time to sneak out to Falls Lake this morning. Around 11:30 AM, I 
spotted the Western Grebe in the usual area, well offshore between 
Rolling View and Sandling Beach. For anyone not familiar with Rolling 
View's layout, the grebe is NOT being seen from the beach with the 
swimming area, on the left-hand side of the peninsula as you drive in; it 
is being seen from the beach adjacent to the boat ramp and community 
center near the end of the main park road. This morning it was just to 
the right of the largest white-sand beach on the far shoreline. Saw only 
one grebe, and even that one was only visible on two of approximately 
five scans of that part of the lake; as Will noted last night, it spends 
more time under the water than on top of it. Not sure what to make of the 
report of three grebes last night. There was an unusual abundance of 
waterbirds around this morning: in addition to the usual cormorants and 
gulls, and the previously reported Horned Grebes (of which I counted 
five), there was a raft of 20 American Coots and a separate raft of six 
unidentifiable dabbling ducks, and a passing motorboat flushed a cluster 
of six birds that appeared to be five Red-breasted Mergansers and a 
smaller, darker bird with no visible field marks, possibly a Pied-billed 
Grebe?

Tried briefly for the pelican with no luck. It was not visible, as of 
noon today, from the I-85 bridge, even with binoculars. The only white 
bird in sight was an apparent Snowy Egret flying over the north part of 
the lake heading south; also saw a Red-tailed Hawk and a Belted 
Kingfisher, both on the powerlines south of the highway. I should also 
add that, although the breakdown lanes on this bridge are plenty wide 
enough to stop safely, they are clearly marked with "EMERGENCY STOPPING 
ONLY" signs; vagrant pelicans probably don't qualify in the eyes of the 
local sheriff, so stop on the bridge at your own risk. This bird may have 
caught a thermal and left town, but may also be feeding elsewhere in the 
lake, so folks who have time should definitely check the spots I 
described yesterday, as well as traditional Falls Lake spots like the 
Cheek Road causeway, the Will Suitt railroad grade, the Hickory Hill boat 
ramp off Redwood Road, etc.

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/