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81 species in the Triangle on Sunday



Hi Carolinabirders,

Norm Budnitz and I, not being part of the Snowy Owl-chasing crowd (we're 
both from Massachusetts, they're like pigeons up there), decided to do a 
big day on Sunday. The official ABA record for NC in December (I know 
people have had many more species, probably 100+, but none of them have 
reported their totals) was 56 species, reported by Dan Lebbin and I a 
couple of years ago in a count cut short by Dan's afternoon classes. Norm 
and I figured we could get at least 70 species, since I had gotten that 
many by myself in January, February and March of various years.

We started at Horton's Pond, where Norm had taped out an Eastern 
Screech-Owl on the fall NAMC. This time we instead heard the bizarre 
squall of an immature Great Horned Owl before we had closed the car 
doors. We couldn't come up with any rails or other owls before dawn. 
After the sun rose, we spotted six of the seven possible woodpeckers in 
under an hour. Unfortunately, we never saw a Pileated; a distant call 
which was probably this species was never repeated. Some overhead calls 
that sounded like Pine Siskins also vanished into the chatter of more 
common species. We did pish up a Blue-headed Vireo, a species I had seen 
here on my last big day in January with Frank Rheindt.

Then it was nearly 8 AM, time for Ebenezer to open. Despite a cold front 
having just passed through, the lake was nearly empty. Not one loon, 
grebe, gull, or diving duck. We spotted one flock of dabbling ducks 
consisting of a Pintail, a Gadwall, and a half-dozen Wigeon. A Bald Eagle 
appeared soaring over the far shore, and a few American Pipits 
materialized on the swimming beach. We suffered a setback at the nearby 
sewage settling ponds, as the many ducks there flushed before we could 
scope them. However, we saw the usual many Bufflehead, and picked up our 
only Brown Creeper and Red-shouldered Hawk of the day. Seaforth S.R.A. 
contributed our lone Brown Thrasher, and our first Bonaparte's Gull, but 
none of the Goldeneye or Oldsquaw that were there last December.

After a stop for the triangle's best burgers at the R&T Grill (complete 
with two more species, Red-winged Blackbird and Red-tailed Hawk, from 
the parking lot as we waited), we headed for Wake County. We didn't have 
a permit to enter the NCSU Experimental Dairy Farm, but scanning this 
area from Lake Wheeler Road added Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks and 
American Kestrel. Yates Mill Pond was empty. We stopped at Greenview for 
the resident Loggerhead Shrike, but unexpectedly found another at West 
Lake and a third along 1010 Road. West Lake had another surprise in five 
Tundra Swans among the usual Canvasback and American Wigeon. Lake 
Crabtree rated very low for waterbird quantity (not a single American 
Coot!), but had high quality with a lingering Great Egret and a female 
Northern Shoveler. I spotted our only unshared species of the day, Cedar 
Waxwing, taking flight as Norm negotiated an I-40 off-ramp.

We scouted the RDU airport without finding anything new, although the 
hundreds of Ring-necked Ducks in Brier Creek Reservoir probably had other 
Aythya species mixed in; unfortunately, the light was behind them, and we 
didn't dare get out of the car and set up a scope. Then we cut up into 
Durham County and visited Rolling View S.R.A. No Western Grebe or White 
Pelican, but we did add Herring Gull, Common Loon, Horned Grebe, and 
Hooded Merganser to our list, cracking our goal of 70 species with time 
left to hit the Butner Gamelands!

I recounted our list en route, and discovered that I had failed to check 
off a couple of species; we actually had 72. 80 species was looking 
possible. Not long after we turned onto Brickhouse Road, Norm picked a 
small group of Rusty Blackbirds out of a huge flock of Common Grackles, 
and our first Towhee of the day finally appeared, followed by a few Wood 
Ducks. We tried but failed to pish up the previously reported Lincoln's 
Sparrow. The reliable White-crowned Sparrows were a little further down 
the road, but now our light was failing. As the sun set, we pished up a 
Field Sparrow, a Winter Wren, and some long-overdue Swamp Sparrows. 
Finally, a Barred Owl boomed from the nearby woods, our 80th species! 
Then, as we walked back to the car, an added bonus: a Fox Sparrow sang. 
We listened in vain for early Woodcocks, and tried taping without success 
for Saw-whet and Screech-Owl along Brickhouse Road and at Penny's Bend, 
before calling it a night.

Norm and I were pretty happy. After all, I had done a big day at Fort 
Fisher and vicinity with Frank in September 2000, birded from 4 AM until 
midnight, and gotten only 80 species. Norm and I had gotten 81 in just 
over 12 hours without getting anywhere near the ocean. However, then I 
got home and checked my e-mail, something neither Norm nor I had done 
since Friday. I read about Jeff Pippen's American Black Duck (which we 
undoubtedly flushed without seeing) and Orange-crowned Warbler, and 
Shelley Theye's Blue-gray Gnatcatcher from Saturday. We somehow missed 
the Green-winged Teal that Steve Schultz saw at West Lake the day of our 
big day, and we didn't have a permit to look for the Scaup at the dairy 
pond. Harry LeGrand saw Least Sandpiper and Common Snipe on Sunday at 
Falls Lake. Add those to the Pileated Woodpecker and Pine Siskins that I 
thought I heard at Horton's Pond, plus some inexplicable misses like 
American Coot and Hermit Thrush (not to mention House Sparrow, which I 
seem to miss every time I do a big day), and 90 species in one winter's 
day in the Triangle might just be possible, if the sun stays up long 
enough...

Good birding,

Josh


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

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