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Falls, Jordan, Crabtree lakes also



Folks:
	I guess everyone in the Triangle is hitting the local lakes now, with
the frigid weather and icing up of lakes. Where are the Common
Mergansers we often get when lakes up north freeze over? Maybe they are
disguising themselves as Hooded Mergansers. This used to clearly be an
uncommon bird 30 years ago. They are everywhere now! If you add all
those reported at Lakes Crabtree and Jordan, plus the ones I saw
Saturday at Falls, you have over 1000 birds.

Well, I visited Falls on Saturday, and parts of Jordan and Crabtree on
Sunday. 

Falls -- most of the birds at NC 50 bridge:
Common Goldeneye -- 1 adult male. A beautiful bird seen east of the
bridge, past the boat ramp
Hooded Merganser -- everywhere, 150 at least
Black Duck -- 100 or more with some Mallards and a few other puddle
ducks, all huddled together at Beaverdam Reservoir, seen from the
causeway across that lake
Lots of Herring Gulls (30 or more) mixed with Ring-billed but saw no
Bonaparte's.
Cheek Road bridge was disappointing; not much.
Alas, essentially ALL State Park areas STILL closed -- NC 50 boat ramp,
Sandling, Beaverdam, etc. I imagine Rolling View closed also.

Jordan -- Sunday.
Great Egret 1. What a shock! One flew across the US 64 causeway. Rare in
winter.
Lots of the 3 common gulls as seen from Seaforth. More at bottom on
Seaforth. But -- DON'T GO TO SEAFORTH NOW!

Crabtree -- Sunday. Josh Rose mentioned what he saw when I met him.
After he left, I went to the trail on the other side of the causeway.
Steve Schulz mentions driving to the back of a plant. It may be safer to
park on the gravel area next to a small power generator(?) and take the
trail that goes into the woods next to the lakeshore. It gets you to the
place for viewing the lake -- best in the afternoon, as you are looking
NE and E. From this area I saw 10-15 Greater Scaups, and a few Lessers.
I'm glad that Steve claimed Greaters before I did! IDing these guys is
always tricky, but in the afternoon sun and fairly close view, I feel
sure enough that about 15 of the 20 were Greaters, with some definite
Lessers. Interestingly, I did NOT see Common Goldeneye or Redheads. I
did see the Canvasbacks, the two White-winged Scoters (great birds!),
and the other things Sandy Cash mentioned add to his list Ruddy Duck and
PBG. (Where did the Coots go?). Thus, Lake Crabtree is the place to go
now -- lots of birds, and the place is OPEN, and no one seems to be
getting warning tickets there.

I mention the latter, because I wish to correct a comment Will Cook made
a few days ago, about where to park at Seaforth. As I rudely found out
yesterday, SEAFORTH IS CLOSED NOW. I parked by the closed gate, walked
to the boat ramp, and had a nice time looking at things. As I walked
back to my car, a ranger stopped me and told me that Seaforth is closed
now. Not only was that bad enough, but my car had a WARNING NOTICE on
the windshield for 2 violations -- parking in a no parking area, and
entry into a closed area. There is no fine, just a warning.

Also closed (and that means no entry, not just parking outside a gate
and walking in): Ebenezer Point, Poplar Point, you name it! If it is
gated, you are out of luck. At Falls, basically all Park places are
closed.

All of this is ridiculous. These were closed because of the ice storm in
early December! How long does it take to get places opened? Don't the
Park Rangers have anything better to do now than to drive around and
ticket birders and hikers (as campgrounds are pretty much shut down)?
Can't they clean up the closed areas, or are they waiting for tree
companies to come and cut down limbs, etc.?

Sorry about venting frustration, but I fear I won't be the last one to
get a warning notice and get the folks at the 2 lakes riled up at
birders. Until these areas are opened, there will be the occasional
conflict and ill will. (These places are normally open in winter, and
Ebenezer, Seaforth, NC 50 boat ramp, Sandling Beach, Rolling View, etc.,
are very important lake-viewing sites.) There are major areas of the
lakes that cannot be seen from the few places that are now open.

-- 
Harry "Common Criminal" LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
1615 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1615
(919) 715-8687 (work)
FAX: 919-715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net