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Falls Lake and Brickhouse Road: no grebe, but lots of other stuff
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Falls Lake and Brickhouse Road: no grebe, but lots of other stuff
- From: stevep@receptor-biol.duke.edu (Stephen J. Perry)
- Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 09:38:34 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi folks,
Spent most of Sunday pm at Falls Lake hunting for the Western grebe.
At Rolling View there were a number of horned grebes and birders
hoping, but no big grebe. I must apologize for getting two folks
hopes up when I approached them along the lake edge to a point from
where they were scoping. En route, I thought they may have found the
grebe, so I tried to judge in what direction they were looking, and
sure enough there was what looked like a large b+w grebe. However, on
getting to the point and announcing I saw it, I could only locate
horned grebes and coots. Perspective, heat haze and excitement got
the better of me! Also present were Bonaparte's and RB gulls, 1 c.
loon, Pied-billed grebes, female ruddy duck, 2 mallards.
I then moved on to Brickhouse Road for some sparrows and a wishful
look across the upper reaches of the lake for said grebe. Plenty of
white-throated, song, field sparrows about, a good view of a Cooper's
hawk, a flock of 30+ red-winged blackbirds and a c. yellowthroat all
were clearly visible along the paths running towards the lake view.
From the view there were over a dozen GB herons visible, most just
standing hunched over, but one gave some very nice spear fishing
demonstrations. Also visible were 11 snipe and plenty of killdeer, DC
cormorants and more RB gulls.
On the way back to the car as we passed between the depot buildings,
a HUGE marmot dashed into the path, stood staring at us for about a
minute, then scurried under the concrete step of one of the sheds:
what a critter!
--
Steve Perry
Receptor Biology Lab, Duke Uni Med Center, Durham, NC
stevep@receptor-biol.duke.edu