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Grebe yes; pelican no at Falls Lake
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Grebe yes; pelican no at Falls Lake
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 13:14:06 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi C-birders,
Found time to sneak out to Falls Lake this morning. Around 11:30 AM, I
spotted the Western Grebe in the usual area, well offshore between
Rolling View and Sandling Beach. For anyone not familiar with Rolling
View's layout, the grebe is NOT being seen from the beach with the
swimming area, on the left-hand side of the peninsula as you drive in; it
is being seen from the beach adjacent to the boat ramp and community
center near the end of the main park road. This morning it was just to
the right of the largest white-sand beach on the far shoreline. Saw only
one grebe, and even that one was only visible on two of approximately
five scans of that part of the lake; as Will noted last night, it spends
more time under the water than on top of it. Not sure what to make of the
report of three grebes last night. There was an unusual abundance of
waterbirds around this morning: in addition to the usual cormorants and
gulls, and the previously reported Horned Grebes (of which I counted
five), there was a raft of 20 American Coots and a separate raft of six
unidentifiable dabbling ducks, and a passing motorboat flushed a cluster
of six birds that appeared to be five Red-breasted Mergansers and a
smaller, darker bird with no visible field marks, possibly a Pied-billed
Grebe?
Tried briefly for the pelican with no luck. It was not visible, as of
noon today, from the I-85 bridge, even with binoculars. The only white
bird in sight was an apparent Snowy Egret flying over the north part of
the lake heading south; also saw a Red-tailed Hawk and a Belted
Kingfisher, both on the powerlines south of the highway. I should also
add that, although the breakdown lanes on this bridge are plenty wide
enough to stop safely, they are clearly marked with "EMERGENCY STOPPING
ONLY" signs; vagrant pelicans probably don't qualify in the eyes of the
local sheriff, so stop on the bridge at your own risk. This bird may have
caught a thermal and left town, but may also be feeding elsewhere in the
lake, so folks who have time should definitely check the spots I
described yesterday, as well as traditional Falls Lake spots like the
Cheek Road causeway, the Will Suitt railroad grade, the Hickory Hill boat
ramp off Redwood Road, etc.
Good birding,
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/