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Gulls, LeConte's Sparrow at Ro-Rap Lake



Hi folks,

I checked out Roanoke Rapids and Gaston Lakes this morning (Sun, 28th). I was 
rather impressed with the numbers of gulls. There were gulls covering all 
areas of both lakes, especially so at Ro-Rap. I estimated over 15,000 gulls! 
Easily one of my highest ever numbers of gulls at an inland location. There 
was a good showing of other waterbirds too. Some of the things found were:
Common Loon  - 26
Horned Grebe - 25
Tundra Swan - 3
Gadwall - 100
Canvasback - 550
Greater Scaup - 6
LONG-TAILED DUCK - 1 (heard it give several calls!)
Common Goldeneye - 2
Common Merganser - 3
Red-br. Merganser - 8
Bonaparte's Gull - 25
Ring-billed Gull - 15,000
Herring Gull - 100
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL - 1 (1st winter)
Greater Black-backed Gull - 2 (adults)
 
The Lesser was seen near Ro. Rap Dam, the Greaters were in the middle portion 
of Ro. Rap, the Long-tailed was in the middle portion too. the Canvasbacks 
and mergansers were in the upper end of Ro. Rap. The best vantage points I 
used can all be found in the DeLorme Atlas (p. 22), such as the Ro. Rap. Dam 
off Bolling Rd., Edgewater Estates (the unmarked road off 10th strret near 
Deep Creek), the Van Warren Rd boat landing, the L. Gaston Dam - all on the 
south shore. On the north shore, the only good vantage spot is the Vultare 
boat landing, off of NC 46.  If you go try for some of these birds, you will 
definitely need a scope, will need to go early to avoid the wind and heat 
waves, and check as many of the places as possible. I feel that there might 
be other interesting birds out there - because there are just so many birds, 
it is hard to go through all of them. 


And I had another neat bird on the way out, at the Vultare crossroads, if you 
continue on NC 46 to the northwest for .3 miles, on the right you will see a 
good-looking field/clearcut right along the road. I had a great, close-up 
view for about 3 minutes of a LeCONTE'S SPARROW.  There probably are not many 
Leconte's in this part of North Carolina, so it was a nice bird to get. 

Later, Ricky



Ricky Davis
608 Smallwood Drive
Rocky Mount, NC 27804
RJDNC@aol.com(H)
rickyd@theodavis.com(W)
(252)443-0276(H)
(919)269-7401(W)