[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Durham count II: Ellerbe Creek



Hi Carolinabirders,

While Toni and her TNC partners were counting in the Duke Forest, I was
scouring the Ellerbe Creek watershed for birds. Steve Hiltner, executive
director of the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, joined me for most of
the day, and Rae Jean Proescholdbell joined us for the first few hours.

Best bird of the day came before I even had my pants on: opened the
bathroom window at quarter past 4 AM and heard a Chuck-will's-widow! Yet
another yard bird... Airlie drove our car to Wilmington for the weekend,
so I had to bike up Roxboro St. and met Steve and Rae Jean by the big
wetland behind the defunct Big K Mart. Unfortunately, I didn't have any
playback equipment small enough to carry by bike, so was unable to tape
for rails or other marsh birds; struck out there. Only night bird was a
Barred Owl.

Dawn chorus actually didn't start until well after dawn, maybe because we
were in an area with lots of light pollution. Right around sunrise we had
our second big surprise, a quartet of Common Loons flying low overhead! We
later learned that two other Durham SBC parties also had low-flying COLOs
near sunrise; Falls Lake must have had a bunch of them spend Saturday
night there and leave early Sunday. Meanwhile, both Red-headed and Red-
bellied Woodpeckers mated while we were watching, making us feel a bit
voyeuristic; a Hairy Woodpecker, apparently way ahead of its cousins, was
busily carrying food into a cavity near the sewer line that functions as a
boardwalk into the marsh.

We eventually followed Ellerbe Creek downstream. Found and pulled a few
stands of a particularly nasty invasive exotic plant, Garlic Mustard
(Alliaria petiolata). Heard Ruby-throated Hummingbirds several times,
though never actually *saw* one; I must be the only person in the Triangle
whose hummer feeder is still untouched since last October... anyway, we
heard most of the hummers near patches of profusely flowering Crossvine
(Bignonia capreolata), an earlier-flowering look-alike to Trumpet Creeper.
The exposed rocks below the out-of-service railroad harbored a Spotted
Sandpiper, while several Orchard Orioles frolicked in the trees along the
railroad between the creek and Club Blvd. A Green Heron flew into the
wetland near there.

The rest of the day was quieter. The gamelands along Lower Ellerbe Creek
provided a hoarse-sounding Prothonotary Warbler and a couple of Northern
Parulas, plus a spectacular visit by a quartet of male Wood Ducks who were
too focused on impressing a female to notice my watching from above. Six
Acre Wood added some suburban things I hadn't seen yet, plus the added
amusement of a female Northern Cardinal getting physically abused when she
perched too close to the local Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher nest. Up in the
Ellerbe headwaters, I finally heard my first Ovenbird of the day near
Bennett Place. The WDNC property didn't add any new birds, but did provide
a nice wildflower show with lots of Atamasco Lilies, Lyreleaf Sage, and
little white violets of some kind. The Northern Rough-winged Swallows
which we'd seen there two weeks ago were still present, making me even
more suspicious that they're nesting, though I have no idea where; no
banks or even school buses in the vicinity...

The day closed with another surprise: as Steve took me back to where my
bike was locked, we pulled into a newly paved sewer-line access right
behind the defunct Big K Mart, and a pair of Wild Turkeys ran in front of
us!

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/