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Chapel Hill spring count/Orange County NAMC



The hastily-organized Orange County NAMC on Saturday 5/13 went pretty well, 
considering how hot the weather was.  The total for the three parties is 95 
species.  I covered Mason Farm, Dairyland Road, and Cane Creek Reservoir; 
Roy Halpin and Lee Van Malssen covered Lake Orange, and Ken Klapper scouted 
out Chapel Hill count area 6.  The best birds were the WARBLING VIREOS, 
still singing up a storm at Anilorac Farms.  I watched a non-singer, while 
two others were singing on opposite sides of the road, so I counted three.  
Other surprises were two Am Coots at Cane Creek and a flock of about 120 
Bobolinks (the latest ever reported in Orange Co.) outside the service 
entrance at Cane Creek.  The most common migrant warbler was Northern 
Waterthrush -- there were 5 at Mason Farm.

The Chapel Hill count on Sunday 5/14 was greeted with much nicer weather and 
a fresh crop of birds.  The best find I've heard of was a soaring female 
ANHINGA over Carolina Meadows, seen by Steve Graves.  This is only the 
second count record.  I covered Mason Farm and found several migrants that 
weren't there the day before.  Best birds were an OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, 
perched on top of a dead tree in the swamp on the far side of the loop, 2 
Canada Warblers (along with 4 Magnolias) in the same area, 1 male WILSON'S 
WARBLER (at beginning of the loop), and NINE N. Waterthrushes.

Other great finds on the count (that I've heard of so far) include the 
heronry that Edith Tatum already reported and large numbers of Bald Eagles 
that Ginger Travis spotted by kayaking up the Morgan Creek arm of Jordan 
Lake.

-- 
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