Columbia sewage treatment plant on 24 April 2001

["Robin Carter" <rcarter@sc.rr.com>]

Hi C-Birders,

Never one for letting work interfere with my birding during the spring
migration, today I just could not resist a lunchtime visit to the Columbia,
SC sewage treatment plant and nearby White House Road (DeLorme p. 36, G3).
If you visit, be sure to sign in and out at the office. The big ash pond had
obviously been quite dry until today, but was being flooded with water from
the sewage treatment process, so that when I visited, water levels were
favorable for shorebirds, but very few were, in fact present.

There should be water in the pond for the next few days, especially if we
get any rain tomorrow. This could attract something good.

Probably the most notable species I found today was a lingering American
Pipit.  I got Bobolinks, Yellow Warblers, and a Painted Bunting.  This area
is a good location in spring for these locally hard to find species.

Here is my species list:

Turkey Vulture -- 5
Red-tailed Hawk -- 2
Killdeer -- 5
Solitary Sandpiper -- 1
Rock Dove -- 25
Mourning Dove -- 5
White-eyed Vireo -- 1
Blue Jay -- 3
Fish Crow -- 10
Northern Rough-winged Swallow -- 15
Barn Swallow -- 2
Carolina Wren -- 2
Eastern Bluebird -- 3
Northern Mockingbird -- 2
European Starling -- 10
American Pipit -- 1
Yellow Warbler -- 2
American Redstart -- 1
Prothonotary Warbler -- 1
Common Yellowthroat -- 1
Yellow-breasted Chat -- 1
Summer Tanager -- 1
Savannah Sparrow -- 10
Northern Cardinal -- 6
Indigo Bunting -- 5
Painted Bunting -- 1
Bobolink -- 20
Red-winged Blackbird -- 5
Brown-headed Cowbird -- 2

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC
rcarter@sc.rr.com