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Durham NC spring count



Yesterday (4/30) I counted the Knap of Reeds Creek area on the Durham Spring 
Bird Count.  It's always a fun area to count and I had a pretty good day 
with 83 species of birds and a life butterfly (E. Pine Elfin).  Lots of 
great unusual wildflowers blooming, too, such as Hoary Puccoon and Nettle-
leaved Sage.  My best birds included a slightly late female N. Harrier, 
Cooper's Hawk, a Wild Turkey, mid-day Barred Owls chatting with each other, 
3 N. Waterthrushes singing, a couple of Kentucky Warblers, and a singing 
White-crowned Sparrow.  Common Yellowthroat was the most numerous bird of 
the day - had about 60.

On the down side I saw very few migrants, and the few I did see were the 
most common ones, such as Yellow Warbler.  Completely missed Hooded Warbler -
 they seem to be harder to find the last few years.  Also missing were 
Carolina Wrens - I only counted 7 whereas a normal count is around 30 or so. 
Perhaps the big freeze in January did them in too, as it did the kinglets 
and Winter Wrens. Others had very low numbers of C. Wrens, too.  Common 
Grackles were also conspicuously absent - only 2.

Highlights on the overall count included a Marsh Wren, a Wilson's Warbler, 
and a flock of a hundred Rusty Blackbirds.  Compiler Mike Schultz won't be 
able to post a complete report anytime soon, since he's headed off to Texas 
to look for Colima Warbler (poor guy...).


-- 
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