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RDU Birding spots



Birding around the Raleigh-Durham Airport keeps getting more difficult
each season. There are new roads now (as always), and all seem to be
limited access, with a median, etc. Trying to find your way to Brier
Creek Reservoir and the Rough-legged Hawk field can be extremely
difficult. Basically, getting to the reservoir from US 70 is very
convoluted, and getting to the field at the north end of the runways
from I-40 is ditto. Plus, once you reach the reservoir, how do you get
back onto I-40?

Well, I visited these places Sunday. The reservoir had several hundred
Ring-necked Ducks, plus some Ruddy Ducks, Mallards, Canada Geese, etc.
(Each winter, a good variety of diving ducks show up, including Greater
Scaup, Redhead, and Canvasback). You can pull off onto grassy areas on
the east side (northbound lane), but you have to walk across the median
and across the southbound lanes to see the waterfowl. There really is no
good way to pull over on the southbound lanes (closest to the lake), as
there is pavement only -- no grassy shoulder. Aviation Parkway now cuts
across the upper end of the lake, splitting the lake. The ducks are now
much closer to the birder, but the habitat has been reduced. Plus, it
just isn't a lot of fun crossing medians of major highways and then
figuring out how to get back onto I-40, how to get to the fields at the
north end of the runways, etc. I went to the end of the road and turned
around at a stoplight, rather than taking an interchange, which carries
you to wherever it is you don't want to go.

All in all, good luck, and make sure you aren't on a tight schedule,
timewise! While you're at it, try to calculate how many acres NCDOT has
paved over with all those highways, interchanges, etc. between I-40 on
the south and US 70 on the north.

Harry LeGrand

--
Harry E. LeGrand, Jr.
N.C. Natural Heritage Program
Division of Parks and Recreation
1615 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1615

Office: (919) 715-8687
Home: (919) 832-3202
FAX: (919) 715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net
http://ils.unc.edu/parkproject/nhp/index.html