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The Jordan Lake count and the Triangle Birder's Guide



Hi Carolinabirders,

Not sure how many other folks use the Triangle Birder's Guide, at 
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/index.html, regularly. Well, this past 
Sunday, I was assigned to cover the Hank's Chapel-Gum Springs Church Road 
area. At first, Will Cook was assigned as my partner, but (as you might 
have noticed from his post) he was later pulled away and assigned to 
Seaforth and vicinity.

This left me covering a site which I had never visited, not knowing which 
spots were most likely to have birds. So I checked the TBG, and found 
that Will had written up a page on the area. I printed this out and used 
it extensively, following the route Will has used on previous counts.

Will's words: "At 0.1 mile on Dee Farrell is an old farm field on the 
left, often buzzing with activity". No kidding! I picked up 31 species in 
maybe half an hour here. I had been grading until 5:30 AM, so no owls or 
nightjars were left when I arrived, but this field and the pines across 
the street held lots of breeding species, including Prairie Warbler, 
Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, Common Yellowthroat, both Orchard and 
Baltimore Orioles, and many others.

"At 0.4 mile is a large field on the left. Stop here and follow a short 
trail to a graveyard. There are often many sparrows and other field birds 
here." The only sparrows present were Field. However, this place had 
several Yellow-breasted Chats, one perched right out in the open! 
Figures, I had left my camera in the car. I heard a distant Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo down the creek bed aways. And on the way back to my car I found 
myself face-to-face with a Gray Fox! It had a ball of fur in its mouth, 
looked like perhaps a rabbit which it was taking to its kits.

The bad news: both of these fields show signs of impending development. 
The first field has a road cut through it and a sign touting some 
construction company, and what looks like a new house back in the woods. 
The second field had huge piles of dead wood scattered around (the fox 
probably had a den in one of them) and was horribly eroded in places. I 
never did find that graveyard...

"Hank's Chapel is usually a very birdy spot, with Killdeer in the lawn, 
Bluebirds and Phoebes on the tombstones, Meadowlarks and sparrows calling 
in the adjacent cow pasture, and warblers passing through the trees." 
Found most of those, including a Savannah Sparrow, one of my two "B" 
birds ("A" birds are those found on at least 9 of the last 10 counts, "B" 
only 7-8; I didn't find anything less frequent). "I don't know why, but 
the trees on either side of this small field often produce the most 
warblers", right again; the only non-breeding warblers I found here were 
Yellow and American Redstart, both singing right from this spot. It's 
uncanny... I also found two Eastern Box Turtles in this area, one on the 
dirt road into the woods behind the church, the other straddling the 
double yellow line of Hank's Chapel Road until I escorted it into the 
adjacent field. Will mentioned this field: "There is a large field here 
that often is good for field birds." Well, only a Meadowlark this time, 
but I did spot my only herons of the day here: two Greens, flying over 
the field!

"At 0.7 miles on the left is Robeson Creek Canoe Access... The parking 
lot area can be moderately good for land birds." Found Summer Tanager, 
Northern Parula, a few other things here. Most exciting was a Question 
Mark butterfly, sitting in the mud at my feet, flashing its punctuation 
at me. Left my camera in the car again...

"At 1.9 miles on the left is Providence Chapel Road. This 0.7 mile dead 
end road might have some birds, though I've never birded it. You'll be 
left wondering where the chapel actually is. Perhaps the sign at the end 
instructing you to park and walk along a dirt path is a clue." Well, I 
saw only a few birds driving down, and the only sign at the end said "NO 
TRESSPASSING etc. etc. etc." Didn't see any trail.

"At 2.9 miles is the bridge over Stinking Creek, with a pulloff at 3.0 
miles. There usually isn't much here, but you can scope a small part of 
Jordan Lake and enjoy the flight of Barn Swallows." I did, especially 
when a Red-shouldered Hawk wandered over the bridge and was mobbed by the 
swallows. I enjoyed it even more when I noticed that amid the Barn 
Swallows were at least four Cliff Swallows!

"At 4.3 miles is Clark Poe Road (1977). This 0.7 mile long road ends at a 
barrier. You can continue on foot to a small arm of the lake. Often very 
birdy." Well, Ovenbirdy, at least. I heard several here, and had good 
looks at two. A Spotted Sandpiper flushed where the road ran into the 
water. Not much else, other than another Question Mark, and the first of 
my ten ticks for the day. To be fair, it was getting a little late in the 
day by now (11 AM), and noone on the Jordan Lake count had many migrants 
yesterday.

"At 4.6 miles is a large field on the right. It's worth giving a quick 
look for things like Prairie Warbler." At least four were singing here. 
Will scores again...

I checked the other sites on the TBG, without much luck, probably due to 
the warm sunny weather and late hour. However, I returned to Robeson 
Creek, which I had skipped past earlier. As Will hints in the guide, I 
saw and heard several Yellow-throated Warblers and heard Northern Parula 
here, even at mid-day. No Louisiana Waterthrush though. I did get about 
the best look I've ever had at Acadian Flycatcher, singing from a low 
branch; I was again without my camera. A few interesting clubtail 
dragonflies were defending rocks in the creek, not sure of the exact 
species. And shortly after I decided to stay until I found one more new 
bird for the day, even at risk of being late for the countdown, a 
Red-headed Woodpecker flew in and perched on a dead pine tree. Yes, the 
same ones of which Will says "An area of dead pine trees on the left (the 
work of pine bark beetles) is great for woodpeckers". Nostradamus, watch 
out...

Nothing new to report from the yard bird-wise. A female Ruby-throated 
Hummer was gleaning the sides of the house this morning, possibly 
collecting spiderwebs for a nest. And a Silver-spotted Skipper showed up 
this morning as well.

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

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