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loons at Lake Phelps, WOW paddle trips



Coming home Sunday from Wings over Water, Anne Beckwith, Kathy Roggenkamp
and I stopped at Pettigrew State Park to have a look at Lake Phelps. (It's
just 15 minutes from Hwy. 64.) At the park boat ramp, I thought I heard a
loon call, and Kathy did too. We set up a scope. Sure enough, there were 15
to 20 Common Loons in three groups a good way out in the lake. Anne said
she'd never seen a Common Loon, so we put one of our kayaks in the water,
and she paddled out for a closer look. I went out next but couldn't relocate
the loons. I did see a raft of 18 Ruddy Ducks with one D-c Cormorant tagging
along. In wintertime Lake Phelps ought to be worth a look by birders driving
to the Outer Banks. Last November, I think Harry LeGrand reported Common
Mergansers there. It looks like a place with possibilities.

About the paddle trips at Wings over Water:  This year for the first time,
Wings offered guided trips for people who brought their own canoes and
kayaks. We went on three of them, and they were great. Particularly
wonderful was the trip to Laurel Bay in the Alligator River NWR -- this lake
is reachable only by the tiniest, most threadlike creek, which you'd never
find without being shown it -- the creek mouth was a 3-foot gap next to a
big old cypress stump on the shore of the Alligator River. Once in the creek
you couldn't turn your boat around; you could only go forward. On our way
in, Anne spotted a group of 3 Baltimore Orioles. Another good trip that I
wouldn't have had the nerve to try alone was a moonlight paddle in "the
Maze," in the Roanoke Island marshes. Our guides from the Outer Banks
Paddlers' Club never did find their way through the maze in the darkness --
the moon rose late and immediately disappeared behind some clouds -- but it
was balmy on the water, the salt air smelled great, and we had a good time
meandering around. There are a couple of things to know about the Wings over
Water paddle trips. If you sign up for one, don't expect to see a lot of
good birds -- group trips are just too noisy and disjointed. Usually only
the paddlers in the first boat or last boat see the birds. Second, don't
expect to be with a flock of avid birders. I didn't see many pairs of
binoculars. But a guided group paddling trip is very helpful if you want to
find new birding places that you can return to alone or with a friend or
two. I'm glad I went, and I got my money's worth from those paddle trips.

Ginger_Travis@unc.edu
Chapel Hill, NC