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Meck Co big day



Carolinabirders,

Taylor Piephoff and I did our nearly annual (4 out of 5 past years) 
Mecklenburg County Big Day this Saturday, April 27th.  We started out at 
Cowan's Ford refuge at 5:00am, put in a long day, and ended up back near my 
house on Stephen's Road at 9:30pm.  Our goal was to stay mostly in the 
northern part of the county, but we did some fruitless chasing all over the 
county in the middle of the day.  Major areas we birded include Cowan's Ford, 
Wallace Farm, Lake Norman, Latta Park, and Reedy Creek Park, but we actually 
hit about 15 locations.  We put over 150 miles on the car and estimated over 
5 miles of hiking. (Gotta find an easier L. Waterthrush spot!)

Now for the good stuff.  We tied our county record (THE county record?) set 
in 1999 with 120 species.  Highlights include Warbling Vireo (singing in the 
county - a first for both of us), Vesper Sparrow, Common Loon (late), 
Blue-headed Vireo (late), American Kestrel (breeds very locally in county), 
Yellow-crowned Night Heron (ditto), Am. Pipit (late), Marsh Wren, and 
Blue-winged Warbler, wth many other "good" birds.  We tallied an amazing 22 
warbler species, but managed to miss Magnolia, Yellow-throated (anyone know 
where these breed in the county?), Bay-breasted and Blackpoll (too early).  
Other misses were Rose-breasted Grosbeak (bad!), Swainson's Thrush (real 
bad!), Pileated Woodpecker (again!), E. Screech-owl, and Yellow-throated 
Vireo (we need to find a breeding spot for these guys, too).

FYI - we had 112 species by 1:30pm, so the remainder of the day dragged a bit!

Here's a species list.  We didn't keep track of numbers, but I put a (1) by 
those where we only identified one individual.  Bold birds are unexpected 
"bonus birds" or rare and hard to find in the county this time of year.

Common Loon (1) (very late - full breeding plumage)
Gr Blue Heron
Green Heron
Y-cr Night-Heron (staked-out rookery)
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Am. Kestrel (1) 
Wild Turkey
N. Bobwhite
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper (1)
Common Snipe (1)
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Gr. Horned Owl (1) (seen and not heard!)
Barred Owl
C. Nighthawk (1)
Chuck-will's-widow (1) (last bird - heard at 9:27pm)
Whip-poor-will (first bird - heard at 5:00am)
Chimney Swift
R-t Hummingbird (1) (only bird we didn't both get. Taylor saw a flyby that I 
missed)
B. Kingfisher
R-headed Woodpecker
R-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker (1)
N. Flicker (ONCE AGAIN WE MISSED PILEATED - that's 3 out of 4 yrs!)
E. Wood-pewee (1)
Acadian Flycatcher (1)
E. Phoebe
G-crested Flycatcher
E. Kingbird
P. Martin
N. R-winged Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
Am. Crow
Fish Crow
C. Chickadee
T. Titmouse
W-breasted Nuthatch
Br-headed Nuthatch
Car. Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren (1)
R-c Kinglet
B-g Gnatcatcher
E. Bluebird
Veery (1)
Hermit Thrush (late, but we saw 2 or 3. Tried to turn them into Bicknell's!)
Wood Thrush
Am. Robin
Gray Catbird
N. Mockingbird
Br. Thrasher
Am. Pipit (1) (late, but this is twice we've seen this species)
Cedar Waxwing
L. Shrike (1) (getting harder and harder to find)
E. Starling
W-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo (1)
Warbling Vireo (1) (BIRD OF THE DAY!)
R-eyed Vireo
Blue-winged Warbler (1)
N. Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler (1)
Cape May Warbler
Bl-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bl-throated Green Warbler (1)
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
American Redstart (1) (usually pretty easy, this year one individual)
Prothonotary Warbler (1)
Worm-eating Warbler (1)
Ovenbird
N. Waterthrush (1)
L. Waterthrush
Kentucky Warbler
Hooded Warbler
C. Yellowthroat
Y-br Chat
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
N. Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
I. Bunting
E. Towhee
Vesper Sparrow (1) (2ND BEST BIRD OF THE DAY!)
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow (1) (late, but we've had before)
Song Sparrow
Wh-thr Sparrow
Bobolink
R-w Blackbird
E. Meadowlark
C. Grackle
Br-headed Cowbird 
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
Am. Goldfinch
H. Sparrow

All-in-all a great day.  Since we've now hit 120 species twice, we believe it 
can be beaten by a couple.  Maybe next year...

Good birding all.

Rob Van Epps
Huntersville, NC
vaneppsnc@aol.com