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Bald Eagle at Lookout Shoals Lake



My brother and his wife are camping on a small island in the middle of
Lookout Shoals Lake (on the Catawba County side) this weekend.  We visited
him there this evening and found the birdlife to be awesome!  The highlight
was the ALMOST adult Bald Eagle (it had only a few more feathers to molt
before becoming completely black-bodied) who positioned itself directly
across the lake from where we were!  It was there from 2:00pm until about
7:30pm when it followed an Osprey down river towards the dam and shortly
returned with a fish.  It will be interesting to see if a pair of eagles can
be found and if a nest can be located.  There were two Ospreys and had we
been aware of their presence before 7:30pm, we would've had more daylight to
look for a nest.  I would assume that there is a nest somewhere on this
sparsely populated lake.

We also found a pair of Prothonotary Warblers carrying food to a nest!!!!!
We couldn't actually see the nest---it was just far enough into the tangle
that we couldn't find it, but they returned to this same spot, with food,
four or five times.  This would be only the third nesting record in Catawba
County---at least that we know of!  Other birds seen and heard were:
Eastern Kingbird, Carolina Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Red-eyed Vireo,
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Fish Crow, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-billed Cuckoo,
Barn Swallow, Rough-winged Swallow, Mallard, and a very young Wood Duck who
gave us quite a challenge in our identification of him!  The little thing
was very cooperative but just looked quite disheveled and unkempt!  As
darkness came upon us, we also heard Whip-poor-wills, a Great Horned Owl and
a Barred Owl.  Lookout always offers surprises for us!

Lori
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Dwayne & Lori Martin
Foothills Bird Club
Claremont, NC
dlmartin@twave.net