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Gulls, LeConte's Sparrow at Ro-Rap Lake
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Gulls, LeConte's Sparrow at Ro-Rap Lake
- From: RJDNC@aol.com
- Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 19:42:45 EST
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
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)