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Falls Lake and Brickhouse Road: no grebe, but lots of other stuff



Hi folks,

Spent most of Sunday pm at Falls Lake hunting for the Western grebe. 
At Rolling View there were a number of horned grebes and birders 
hoping, but no big grebe. I must apologize for getting two folks 
hopes up when I approached them along the lake edge to a point from 
where they were scoping. En route, I thought they may have found the 
grebe, so I tried to judge in what direction they were looking, and 
sure enough there was what looked like a large b+w grebe. However, on 
getting to the point and announcing I saw it, I could only locate 
horned grebes and coots. Perspective, heat haze and excitement got 
the better of me! Also present were Bonaparte's and RB gulls, 1 c. 
loon, Pied-billed grebes, female ruddy duck, 2 mallards.

I then moved on to Brickhouse Road for some sparrows and a wishful 
look across the upper reaches of the lake for said grebe. Plenty of 
white-throated, song, field sparrows about, a good view of a Cooper's 
hawk, a flock of 30+ red-winged blackbirds and a c. yellowthroat all 
were clearly visible along the paths running towards the lake view. 
 From the view there were over a dozen GB herons visible, most just 
standing hunched over, but one gave some very nice spear fishing 
demonstrations. Also visible were 11 snipe and plenty of killdeer, DC 
cormorants and more RB gulls.

On the way back to the car as we passed between the depot buildings, 
a HUGE marmot dashed into the path, stood staring at us for about a 
minute, then scurried under the concrete step of one of the sheds: 
what a critter!

-- 
Steve Perry

Receptor Biology Lab, Duke Uni Med Center, Durham, NC

stevep@receptor-biol.duke.edu