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Durham Co., NC birding today



Birders,

My Durham County list has been gnawing away at me, sitting for some time
at 197 species -- I want to hit that 200 mark.  So, today I decided to
spend the day birding entirely in my home county to see if I could dig up
a county bird or two.

My path took me to Croasdaile Golf Course, the pond on Goodwin Rd., Little
River Impoundment, Flat River Impoundment, NC State Agriculture lands near
Butner, Lake Michie, and Little River Lake at Orange Factory.  I birded
from 8:30 'til 4:15 and managed to dig up 61 species, including two birds
that were new for my personal county list.  (Now my county list sits at
199 and I think THAT'S going to gnaw at me worse!)

Here are the highlights:

Orange-crowned Warbler:  locally rare, I found one calling at Flat River
Impoundment.

Common Yellowthroat:  "occasional" in late November, an adult male was at
Flat River Impoundment.

Rusty Blackbird:  a nice flock of 30 or so was foraging in the forested
ditch between Old Oxford Highway and the Little River Impoundment parking
lot.  It was fun watching them walk along flipping over wet leaves for
morsels.

The Flat River Impoundment area also yielded lots of Red-tailed Hawks, a
Red-shouldered Hawk, 20+ Black Vultures, a Barred Owl calling at 1:30pm,
and hordes of sparrows including Savannah, White-crowned, and Fox.

Finally, a Blue-headed Vireo was nice to see at Croasdaile Golf course.

Non-birds of interest included six species of butterflies (posted on
CarolinaLeps), a darner that flew by in bad light, and a Chorus frog
trying to vocalize.  I also saw a pretty cool grasshopper, although I
don't particularly like grasshoppers.  This one was VERY streamlined,
tapering to a point at both ends, slightly thicker than a pencil, about
two inches long including its antennae which it pointed straight ahead of
its pointy face, accentuating its streamlined appearance.  Pretty neat
(for a grasshopper).

Good birding,

Jeff


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey Pippen    				 jspippen@duke.edu
Biology Dept. Box 90338
Duke University, Durham, NC  27708		PH: (919) 660-7278
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^