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A birding hotspot-to-be?



Hi Carolinabirders,

My girlfriend and I spent this afternoon volunteering for the Triangle 
Land Conservancy. The task: removing old trash from a farm dump on the 
new La Grange Riparian Preserve in southern Chatham County. The tract is 
not yet open to the public, presumably won't be until the rest of the 
trash is removed (there's a LOT) and the trails and such are upgraded. 
When it does open up, I'm sure driving directions will be made available.

The TLC obtained the tract because of a rare habitat type, a hillside 
seepage bog, and its associated plants, insects, etc. However, our guide 
mentioned that one of the farmer-created clearings was going to be 
maintained by mowing, even while others would be allowed to revert back 
to deciduous forest. When someone asked why, he mentioned "a regionally 
rare bird species" but didn't remember exactly which one. Ginger Travis 
(who also volunteered) and I examined the preserve bird list and found 
that Henslow's Sparrow apparently breeds there! Assuming that the tract 
ever does open to the public, driving time from the Triangle to La Grange 
is about half what it takes to reach John and Paula Wright's famous Voice 
of America sites where most folks around here go to see Henslow's 
Sparrows.

As for today's litter-collecting foray, we never got anywhere near the 
alleged Henslow's habitat. I did see my first Dark-eyed Juncos of the 
season along the road in, with a mixed-species flock of chickadees, 
titmice, and Golden-crowned Kinglets nearby. Along the same road on the 
way out, White-throated Sparrows has suddenly become abundant, while the 
insectivores had left. Airlie and I searched for the seepage bogs after 
we finished with the litter for today, but if we saw them, they didn't 
look terribly different from the surrounding habitat. The guide mentioned 
that the bogs were about 1/4 of their historical size due to manipulation 
and abuse by the farmers who previously owned the spot, so maybe we never 
really saw one; TLC has plans to restore them to full size eventually.

We did visit an old pond, originally created by beavers, then enlarged by 
the farmers. The tall grass around the pond was hopping with dozens of 
Song and Swamp Sparrows. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Yellow-rumped 
Warbler, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, an Eastern Phoebe, a Red-bellied 
Woodpecker and a Northern Flicker all foraged in the trees beside the 
pond. Most exciting, though, was a flight of hawks that soared over just 
before we left. It started with a lone Turkey Vulture. This was joined by 
a Northern Harrier, the first sighting of this species in the preserve, 
uncharacteristically soaring high overhead with the vulture. A cluster of 
5 Black Vultures followed these two. And I had a few tantalizing and 
frustrating views through the trees of what seemed to be a very dark 
buteo, but this individual never moved into open sky where I could 
properly ID it...

Non-bird sightings included a Smooth Earth Snake (Virginia valeriae), a 
Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer), a Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor or 
H. chrysoscelis), a Pearl Crescent, and a Mourning Cloak. No dragonflies, 
alas.

Good birding!

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

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