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Dare county CBC weekend (Part II) (The good part)
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Dare county CBC weekend (Part II) (The good part)
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 14:38:05 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi again,
After a refreshing almost 7 hours of sleep, Jeff woke me up again to go
owling. A mile from his house, he realized he didn't have his permit to
be in ARNWR before sunrise, so he went back for that while I drove on. I
was rewarded for remembering my permit by having a Bobcat scoot across US
64 in front of my car as I crossed the refuge boundary.
The ARNWR staff had relented and allowed us to play tapes during the
count; normally taping in NWRs is illegal. Not that it did us much good.
Jeff and I taped around for about 45 minutes: no Saw-whets, no Screech-
owls, not even a Barred! We did hear two Great Horned Owls, and saw two
birds fly over - one in the headlights, one overhead as we played a
Saw-whet call - that were both either Barred or Gt. Horned.
Jeff dropped me off back at my car at the intersection of Long Curve and
Grouse roads. Then the fun started. A few minutes after Jeff's taillights
disappeared, I heard a short, scratchy, slightly nasal "wahh!"
Short-eared Owl! A second answered, and the two went back and forth for a
few minutes. Another Great Horned hooted far away, and then another.
Then, closer, a booming "whooooooahhh", Barred Owl. And then, closer
still, an Eastern Screech-Owl! Four owl species all heard from one spot!
Jeff also thought this spot was probably the best bet for seeing a Long-
eared as it flew from its nightly hunt in the fields into a roost in the
conifers, but no luck in that department.
Sunrise arrived, and the owls quieted down. I noted a few landbirds and
the first of the day's many Northern Harriers before moving from that
spot. I then drove to White's, the gas station in Manns Harbor, for a pit
stop and a very tasty chicken, egg, and cheese biscuit. On the way there,
I birded along 264 and picked up several landbirds, including a Pileated
Woodpecker, an American Kestrel, some fly-over Northern Pintail, and my
only kinglets of the day. After breakfast, I visited the northeast end of
Link Road and was scolded relentlessly by a House Wren. I saw another
Pileated, and scared a Common Snipe out of some wet grass.
After a quiet stretch, I parked at the intersection of Grouse and Bear
roads, and started walking down Bear into the fields. Savannah Sparrows
flushed about every fifth step, except when I left the road and walked in
the grass, then they flushed about 3 per step. Saw one sparrow which
looked suspicious, possibly a Henslow's, but it wouldn't give me a decent
look. Also on this walk, I *finally* found the Rough-legged Hawk that
seems to winter at ARNWR annually; I actually spotted it seconds after
seeing my only Bald Eagle of the day. The eagle never returned, but I saw
the Rough-leg two more times in the afternoon.
After that I hiked up the northeast part of Grouse Road. No grouse
present, though I did pish a Marsh Wren out of the vegetation by the
roadside canal, and found my only Hermit Thrushes of the day in the woods
on the other side. Also, though I was no longer on Bear Road, I found a
Black Bear scat and footprint, darn near as big as my own foot (the scat
too)!
Took a break for lunch, returning to White's for a very tasty barbeque
plate. Spent the next hour or so visiting the Atlantic White Cedar stands
in hopes of finding a roosting Long-eared or Saw-whet Owl. No luck; the
cedars were very densely foliaged, the undergrowth impenetrable with
greenbriers, and there wasn't a single forest songbird there to mob if
there was an owl! One Swamp Sparrow was the only bird anywhere near the
cedars.
Proceeded into the fields, but found very little along Long Curve Road
other than the Rough-leg again, a flock of 300-plus female Red-winged
Blackbirds (not one male that I could find!), and more harriers. Actually
observed a group of 5 harriers "mobbing" a group of American Crows! That
was a reversal...
I was about to turn around and head back to 264, since that was the only
place I'd had many landbirds that day. Then I remembered that Jeff had
added Link Road to my area, and decided to try that instead. Saw Jeff
himself, along with Marlene Schum, a little ways down the road from
there, so drove down and said hello before parking at the intersection of
Long Curve and Link. Exited my car and found a few Yellow-rumps and an
Eastern Phoebe. Then spotted another flycatcher, which at first I thought
was the phoebe again. Nope, a Myiarchus!
I watched briefly, lost sight of it, and sped back down the road to tell
Jeff. We returned and, after a while, I spotted it again. We lost and
re-found it a few times, and all three of us had at least two lengthy
views in my spotting scope, with time to compare the bird with the
Kaufman and Sibley guides. I had studied Great Crested Flycatchers a fair
amount in Florida in trying to find a La Sagra's (which I still haven't
seen). This bird had paler yellow underparts, which gradually faded into
the white throat, no strong line of contrast, no dark gray. The lower
mandible had only a very thin area of pale color at the base, and the
bill overall seemed smaller. We finally agreed that this was an
Ash-throated Flycatcher!
The light failed, and we headed back to the Elizabethan Gardens for
another compilation. That's when we heard about Amelie's Eastern
Kingbird, and another birder (I forget her name) reported a Broad-winged
Hawk. Both species should have been in South America as of November; I
think there are a few records of each from Florida on CBCs, but none at
all further north yet. Neither birder realized at the time that they were
seeing a potential first state seasonal record, but both detailed their
IDs well as Jeff, Wayne, and I interrogated them. Hopefully someone
chasing the Ash-throat will re-find and photograph one or both of these
birds...
Ended my trip with a very good double cheeseburger at the Alligator River
marina (the cook said their shrimp is also really good), and drove back
to Durham.
Good birding!
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/