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Chapel Hill CBC and beyond



Birders,

As Will already mentioned, Toni Rexrode and I covered a couple areas on
the Chapel Hill CBC this past Sunday.  One of the areas we covered
included my field research site in Duke Forest.  While we did see a few
"good" birds there, we were disappointed not to find some species that I
often see there, and that we totally missed in our area of the count.
Well, as Murphy's law of birding would have it, I headed out to the field
site today and saw the kestrel that frequents the big field by the site
(and that we couldn't find on Sunday).  Then while I was out working on a
research project at 4:15pm with bright sunlight still pouring in, a Great
Horned Owl called several times.  (We stayed til after dark for that bird
on Sunday!)  I've often heard Barred Owls in the middle of the day, but I
don't usually hear Great Horneds.  And finally, as I was getting ready to
leave the site, a flock of 6 Wild Turkeys crossed the path in front of me!
I'm sure you've guessed that they were no where in sight 4 days ago.
Anyway, the CBC was still a lot of fun with some good birds.  I just wish
I could "slip" those three extras in to the tally sheet . . . :-)

The best bird we did find last Sunday was the Black-and-white Warbler that
Will already mentioned.  Unlike the females that I occasionally see on
coastal CBCs, this was a nice male with very black streaking below and a
dark cheek.  Another nice bird to see was a Blue-headed Vireo with a flock
of kinglets, chickadees, nuthatches and the aforementioned warbler.  It
was in the Horace Williams Tract near the Animal Protections Services
buildings in Chapel Hill.  (Thanks Rob G. for telling me about this place
several weeks ago!)

Good birding!

Jeff

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