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lots of coot, few baldpate, etc. northwest cor. Ro. Rapids Lake




9 October--
A very big flock of 1,600 coot from Vultare Wildlife Res. Com. boat landing 
at nw corner of Roanoke Rapids Lake.
All bunched together extra-close (eagle?-- bald eagles seen regularly 
here--subsequently saw post about eagle hovering over coot on Lk Crabtree) 
feeding "like crazy", maybe 2% diving for weed at any given moment, most 
pecking at or just under surface.  Love those waterweeds, and failure to 
control (on upstream Lake Gaston).
Lowest estimate was 1,000, and first call was 1,500.  Wait until the ducks 
get into this stuff (Ruddies, mainly, but none seen yet)---the ducks will be 
even more and harder to count.  Thank God.
The few times I have gone over this lake with a boat, the coot were in a 
very few fairly closeknit flocks, so I do not suppose there were very many 
more today.  (The 20+ new houses to the west may result in more disturbance 
of the waterfowl, but maybe the outflows from their septic fields will 
eventually make up for that by producing even more waterweeds and perhaps 
less boat traffic.)

7 Baldpate arrived and hung out on the far side of the coot.
3+ Pied-billed Grebe,
1 Osprey (dangling, damaged foot?),
25+ Tree Swallows (heading nw, probably feeding along surface of lake   in 
unseasonably cold, windy weather).



Frank Enders, Halifax NC.  fkenders@hotmail.com


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