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Raleigh & Durham CBCs
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Raleigh & Durham CBCs
- From: "Will Cook" <cwcook@duke.edu>
- Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 17:35:10 -0500
- Priority: normal
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
On Saturday 12/18 Kent Fiala, Christina Kennedy, Josh Rose, and I covered the
western part of Lake Wheeler, including the Penny Road causeway and the
marshes described at: http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/wheelermarsh.html
Each time Lake Wheeler seems to have fewer ducks than the the count before,
thanks to the imported grass carp eating all the duck food. The marshes
still abound with sparrows, though, and as usual we saw hundreds of Song,
Swamp, and White-throateds there. Unfortunately, the Virginia Rails decided
not to sound off this year. No LeConte's this time, but we did see a Black-
and-white Warbler, the first one I've seen on a CBC. We ended up with 62
species, which I think beats Josh's "big day" record from last December.
The only other write-in I remember hearing about at the countdown party was
Tundra Swan -- the "arctic swans" that appeared in the newspaper.
On Sunday 12/19 I covered the Knap of Reeds area just north of Norm, and
while I didn't see anything as spectacular as a Miss. Kite, it was a great
morning. As I started down the trail opposite the prison (on Old Oxford Hwy,
1.8 miles north of Brickhouse Road), I noticed a lot of noisy commotion
ahead. There was a flock of 300-some American Robins, with a couple of
hundred Cedar Waxwings perched nearby, hundreds of sparrows in the grass, and
a flock of over 400 blackbirds feeding on the trail ahead and milling about.
Sensory overload! I carefully sneaked up on the blackbirds to get a better
look, since I didn't have a scope, and was astounded to see that the vast
majority of the blackbirds were Rusties! Searching through the flock, I
managed to pick out about 50 Red-winged Blackbirds, 2 Starlings, and 5 Brown-
headed Cowbirds among the estimated 350 Rusty Blackbirds.
Several species made themselves known in amazing numbers: 7 Pileated
Woodpeckers, 12 Brown Creepers (seemed to be 1 or 2 in every flock of tits),
22 Winter Wrens, 340 Cedar Waxwings. Other good birds for the count: 55
Green-winged Teal, 6 Northern Bobwhite, 8 Red-headed Woodpeckers, 1 Red-
breasted Nuthatch, and 1 Palm Warbler. 59 species for the day.
I still need to write up the Knap of Reeds Creek area for the Triangle
Birder's Guide, though part of the area is covered in the last paragraph of:
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/knapexp.html
--
Charles W. "Will" Cook w 919-660-7423
cwcook@duke.edu h 919-967-5446
Duke University Botany Dept., Durham, North Carolina
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook