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Lake Crabtree today



Swung by the recently re-opened Lake Crabtree at lunch today.  The park was
closed yesterday and part of the morning today.  Since they, like I suspect
most of us in the Triangle, had little to no damage, they went ahead and
opened at 11 a.m.

When I arrived the only storm reminders I noted were a bunch of leaves on
the ground, but I figure in another month there will be a lot of leaves on
the ground anyway, so I proceeded without pause to the open play area.  As
hoped for, the 1-2 inch rains Thursday created a nice bit of shorebird
habitat.  At 1pm there were two PECTORAL SANDPIPERS poking around with the
ducks.  Maybe something else will come in tonight, so if you are there in
the morning you might want to bring a scope.

With only 20 minutes left (after spending some time at the open play area
lamenting that my "waterproof" Swift Audubon binoculars were not, in fact,
waterproof) I frantically wandered around looking for a titmouse flock in
hopes of seeing a warbler or two.  Found one that contained a nice adult
Chestnut-sided male, Blackburnian at eye level, Black-throated Blue,
Northern Parula, Black and White, American Redstart, Rose-breasted Grosbeak,
Red and White-eyed Vireos, pewee, and 617,001 Pine Warblers (approximately).

Interested in knowing if any of you have had issues with the
"waterproofness" of the new Swift Audubon 8.5x44's?  I had them out on the
end of a pier at Wrightsville Beach yesterday for about 20 minutes.  They
did not get particularly wet, but today are all foggy inside.  I talked to
the folks at Swift (they were very nice) and will be sending the binocular
back for service, hopefully under warranty.

On the way back from WB I stopped at the sod farms near Timothy.  While I
only saw Killdeer poking about, there are plenty of puddles that might
attract some shorebirds this weekend...

Best,
Steve Shultz
Apex, NC