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| FIELD TRIP REPORTS FROM 2008 | |
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Lincoln's Sparrow
October, 2008 Greensboro, NC
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Mears Fork
Greensboro Landfill Virginia - Augusta, Bath & Highland Cos. Potluck #1 Potluck #2 Greensboro Lakes A&T Farm Easter in the Savannah River Area Potluck April Whitacre's Farm Randolph County West Virginia |
Ashe County Potluck August Winston-Salem Waste-water Treatment Plant Pilot Mountain Hawk Watch Starmount Forest/Bog Garden Mushroom Walk Country Park/ Battleground Park Miller Park Bog Garden Pocosin Lakes Thanksgiving at the Outer Banks Alamance County |
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MEARS FORK WALK Twelve PBC
and Pearson Audubon members walked the Conrad tract on Mears Fork on January 5.
The property, purchased by Guilford County in 2006, was the first acquisition as
part of its Open Space Program. Approximately 50 acres, the tract is composed of
bottomland forest and wetlands through which the main creek and several
tributaries meander. On the south side are mixed oak/hickory/beech bluffs up to
100 feet above the wetlands below. The county is working to acquire several
other parcels along Mears Fork with the intention of protecting a corridor along
what has been called the cleanest creek in Guilford County. |
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LANDFILL We had quite
a nice morning at the landfill. In spite of the lack of garbage these days,
there were plenty of good birds to see. Much to our amazement, our local
celebrity Peregrine, "City Boy," was seen cavorting with some vultures. Lou
Skrabec was the first to notice something smaller in among the big birds and
once we all got our bins on him, we could clearly see his solar-powered antenna.
Thus, we knew it was our City Boy who was seen downtown over the holidays by a
variety of club members. I got a few quick shots off, and the antenna is
actually visible in one of the pictures. |
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Augusta/Highland/Bath County, VA Field Trip January 26-27, 2008 By George Wheaton Light snow ushered in a chilly dawn on Sunday, the second day of the PBC’s rescheduled trip to northwestern Virginia. The temperature rose gradually, the sun eventually came out, and conditions approximated those of the preceding day – temperature hovering around freezing, only a slight breeze, and a few inches of patchy snow on the ground. Birding was far more pleasant than it would have been on the preceding weekend when the trip was originally scheduled – predictions of snow and ice in Greensboro, and actual highs of 10F in the Blue Grass Valley accompanied by strong winds. As a consequence of that earlier wintry blast, we found all but a few ponds completely iced over. Those that were still open contained very nice mixed flocks of waterfowl. Five stalwart members of the PBC, toting along mounds of cold weather gear, journeyed north to Staunton, VA where we were met by two veteran local birders who attempted to help us track down birds on our very ambitious target list. Thanks to their help and the keen eyes of our group, we were able to get excellent views of most of our target species and, very importantly, we were able to get everyone on nearly all of the high priority birds. Almost everyone in the group came home with at least one life bird and some folks had several new birds. There were many “high fives.” The weekend got off to a great start on Friday when two of our group were able to get to Staunton just before dark, and following detailed instructions, were able to locate the hoped for Short-eared Owl. Unfortunately, a vigil maintained at the same location at dawn on Saturday was unsuccessful. However, we shrugged that off and drove only a very short distance to an open pond that contained several species of waterfowl. One of our local contacts scanned the large flock of Canada Geese that was clambering up onto the ice rimming the pond and found our very much hoped for Cackling Goose – a bird only recently accorded full species status. What a way to begin the day - before having breakfast or checking out of our rooms! After a quick breakfast we began working on additional priorities. One of these was Barn Owl. Once again, we were extremely fortunate, finding two highly photogenic specimens of this specie. Yes, they were roosting in a barn just north of Staunton. Before heading west to Monterey in the early afternoon we added several more species including the high priority targets of Loggerhead Shrike (in the Swope area), Horned Lark, including one flock of over 300 birds, and one Lapland Longspur located by one of the local birders after persistent searching. The trip to Monterey was relatively uneventful. One of us did pick up a Purple Finch in McDowell but a fast trip through the Blue Grass Valley in fading afternoon light did not produce additional target birds. Dawn on Sunday morning found us at the famous Beverage’s feeders in Monterey. (This location has produced stunning rarities in past years e.g., Varied Thrush, Hoary Redpoll, etc.). As scripted, six Evening Grosbeaks flew in at 7:30. Shortly thereafter, this vanguard was followed by an additional 28 birds. Many were the relatively drab (but pretty) females while half a dozen were adult males in very bright, crisp plumage. Their white secondaries and bright yellow “eyebrows” were stunning. After watching them for a prolonged period, the birds moved away from the feeders and we followed suit, heading first south and then north into the Blue Grass Valley outside Monterey in search of other targets. With diligent scanning along our route we eventually found a single dark morph Rough-legged Hawk, which provided long-range telescopic views. We missed two light morph birds that others had reported from the same general area. Just as we were debating whether to attempt travel on a treacherous looking icy road, a juvenile Golden Eagle soared low overhead, providing prolonged knockout views. The eagle was engaged in an aerial dogfight with two Red-tailed Hawks. The size differential between these two species was striking as was the acrobatic agility of the Golden Eagle, which frequently parried attacks by performing half- or full-roll maneuvers. With lasting images of the dogfight in our minds, we began the trip home, proceeding south to Lake Moomaw in Bath County. We picked up several good birds near and on the lake (e.g., Common Merganser) and stumbled across our final target bird of the trip. For two days we had carefully searched through every promising patch of brush that might harbor an American Tree Sparrow. At our last stop, the bright eyed among us found this bird consorting with a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos. All of us had satisfying looks. Upon arriving home, the group voted on “Bird of the Trip.” This honor went to the Evening Grosbeak, with the Barn Owl a close second. Golden Eagle received honorable mention. We had a great time and saw a total of 75 species with an additional four being tallied in the Greensboro area as we began our trek north.  |
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POTLUCK #2
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GREENSBORO Lakes |
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A & T Farm Field Trip |
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EASTER 2008 TRIP TO THE SAVANNAH AREA By Louise Brown, Carolyn Allen and Emily Tyler Emily Tyler and Don and Carolyn Allen did a marvelous job of organizing our trip to the Savannah River area over the long Easter weekend. During the two-and-a-half days our group of seven logged 92 species, which was pretty good considering it was the third week in March and earlier than most of our Easter trips. Saturday morning was a bit chilly and windy, but the wading birds and ducks didn’t seem to mind. The Savannah River NWR always provides a wide variety of bird life. The large collection of Glossy Ibis, along with their white cousins, kept our attention for some time. As always, sparrows were hard to see, but Song, Savannah and Swamp were identified. The sky was thick with thousands of Tree Swallows. The waters were populated with Coots, Moorhens, Ring-necked Ducks, Black Ducks, and Blue-winged Teal. We were delighted by a variety of wading birds; Tricolored Herons, an immature Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Herons, Great, Snowy and Cattle Egret, as well as a Black-necked Stilt flying over. An American Bittern standing motionless in the reeds was picked up by Don Allen’s sharp eyes. We had lunch about half way around the Refuge’s “Four-Mile Loop.” Silver Bell trees were in bloom; an array of yellow flowers, mustard and primrose among them, challenged our botanists. Yellow jasmine and cross vine added color in shrubs and overhead. On Saturday afternoon we moved to Tybee Island, a new location for a PBC trip. This was our only ocean beach birding opportunity. North Beach on its jetty provided Ruddy Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers, along with Greater Black-backed, Herring and Laughing Gulls, two Royal Terns, Sanderlings, and Willets. Northern Gannets were making their famous dives just offshore. On Sunday, at Harris Neck NWR, more than a 100 nests in the rookery were occupied by Wood Storks and Egrets. Nesting Anhingas (the males sporting their breeding turquoise eye- shadow) and both Black- and Yellow-crowned Night Herons were spotted nearby. Ann Walter-Fromson discovered a Merlin, and Tara O’Leary found the first of two Blue-gray Gnatcatcher nests. Other birds of interest before moving south to Altamaha WMA in the afternoon were Wood Ducks, Blue-headed and White-eyed Vireos, Red Breasted Mergansers, Chipping and Field Spar-rows and several warblers and wood-peckers. On Monday we visited the Webb Wildlife Center on the Savannah River. The weather was a bit too cold and we were too early in the season to enjoy the “star resident birds” of this area: Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Bachman’s Sparrows. However, other migrants and residents gave us plenty to look at and we added several new species to the trip list. There we saw Pied-bill Grebes and heard the fantastic call of this bird with a volume way beyond its modest size! |
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POTLUCK The potluck field trip on
Saturday, April 12, took 11 bird club members from the Lake Brandt Marina to the
Nat Green Trail, then to Peck Elementary School and back to the Bog Garden. The
weather was cool and threatened to rain until just after the trip broke up, when
it actually did rain. Most of the ducks, cormorants, swallows, and gulls that
have been on the lakes lately had taken off in the last week – the Ring-billed
Gull noted in the trip list was a single individual. We did have some bright
spots, in a pair of Prothonotary Warblers singing dueling songs on the edge of
Lake Brandt, along with a single hummingbird, and great looks at the
Yellow-crowned Night-Herons on their nests. |
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SPRING BIRDS IN RANDOLPH COUNTY April 26 By Craig Lawrence On April 26th, sixteen
people joined Jane Lewis on a walk through this 210 acre land conservancy
property in Randolph County. The day began cloudy, but as the sun came out, so
did the birds. Later in the day thunderstorms passed close by, but the skies
were quiet by the time the Whip-poor-wills began calling. The group saw a total
of 61 species in a number of habitats: hardwood and pine forests, wetlands and
streams, and open prairie. Many were able to have very close looks at a number
of neo-tropical nesters including Yellow-throated Warbler, Summer Tanager,
Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Ovenbird, White-eyed Vireo and Prairie
Warbler. Our last sighting, at dusk, was an American Woodcock that flew close
over our heads, just before the Whip-poor-will started its evening chorus. |
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WVA Field Trip Eight PBC members
and a guest joined Julien McCarthy and Judith Pate at their West Virginia
getaway (“JUJUBLU”) on the Bluestone River to enjoy a wonderful weekend of
birding and socializing (including lots of good eating!). |
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Ashe County When Herb Hendrickson leads
his annual trip to Ashe County in the spring, his primary “target birds” are the
Empidonax flycatchers that historically are seen along the New River. The three
species found there are the Least, the Acadian, and the Willow Flycatcher.
Unfortunately, land along the river is becoming developed for homes, and as the
river banks get “cleaned up” their habitat is drastically altered. For the last
several years Herb has been unable to find the Least, and the Acadian has become
more difficult to find. This year the only one he found was the Willow. |
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On Saturday, August 8, 14
birders - members of the bird club and friends -made a tour of the mudflats on
the perimeters of the Greensboro lakes in search of shorebirds and other
post-breeding wanderers. The weather was sunny and breezy, and the humidity was
low - about as nice a day as one could expect in the middle of August. While we
were a couple of hours too late to relocate the Glossy Ibis (see photo on page 3
by Lou Skrabec, who did some pre-field-trip birding and managed to catch the
ibis before it was harassed into leaving the area by some Great Blue Herons), we
did come up with an interesting assortment of waders large and small, along with
a sampling of local breeders. |
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WINSTON-SALEM WWTP 8/23/08 By Louise Brown A nice group of people turned out to go to the Archie Ellege Waste-Water Treatment Plant in Winston-Salem, one of the best spots in the Piedmont to look for migrating shore birds. There was only a modest group of them feeding in the sludge pond that day, including Kill-deer, Spotted, Semipalmated, and Least Sandpiper. A variety of other birds made up for the lack of shorebirds: a Cooper's Hawk, which has been seen there before; several flycatchers including Eastern Phoebe, Great-crested Flycatcher and Eastern Kingbird, which appeared part of a family group. We also saw some Indigo Buntings, a Blue Grosbeak, and a Raven. Some other birders from Winston-Salem showed up and told us that they had been to Bethabara Park, also in W-S, where they had seen some rarely seen warblers, so we made a spontaneous jaunt over there. Most of us had not been to that park before and were quite de-lighted with it. We heard a White-eyed Verio and a Hooded Warbler, but not the other birds we had hoped for. Nevertheless, there is great habitat along a path that runs through the woods alongside a creek. Bethabara Park is on the site of Moravian settlement which was established in the mid-1700s. The park features some restored buildings and the ruins of others, and is quite interesting in its own right. We saw 41 species of birds that day, and learned about a great new place! |
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PILOT MOUNTAIN 9/20/08 By Gregg Morris Only a few members attended the joint PBC/TGPAS field trip to Pilot Mountain
to observe migrating hawks this year. The low turnout was similar to that of the
previous year. The weather, though, was rather different. In contrast to 2007,
when visibility was essentially zero for a substantial portion of the day,
visibility this year was fair, with some haze along the Blue Ridge. There was
enough cloud cover to pro-vide a good backdrop for high-flying raptors.
Unfortunately, the hoped-for huge, swirling kettles of Broad-winged Hawks failed
to appear and neither did most other species, at least in any numbers. The count for the day was 230 Broad-winged Hawks, five Ospreys, two Bald Eagles, two Sharp-shinned Hawks, two Red-shouldered Hawks, one Red-tailed Hawk and one American Kestrel, and, as a nice touch, two Peregrine Falcons, for a total of 245 identified
birds. Phil Dickinson from Forsyth Audubon was the official recorder for the
day. Forsyth Audubon sponsors the annual September count at Pilot Mountain,
which has at least two purposes. The first of these is citizen science. Daily
counts and related data such as temperatures, barometric pressure and wind direction and speed are reported to a national web page affiliated with the Hawk Migration Association of North America. Education is a second purpose.
Daily numbers are written on a large dry erase board, and there is an
accompanying display with photographs of several raptor species and other pertinent information. Both draw a lot of interest from casual tourists on Little
Pinnacle, and they in turn become the targets of a low-level campaign to impart details on raptors, raptor migration and raptor conservation. Volunteers are al-ways welcome to help in this effort. Consider joining us next year. |
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STARMOUNT FOREST/ BOG GARDEN
9/27/08 By George Wheaton It was a gray and misty morning (with one brief shower) as nine members of the PBC began their bird walk at Starmount Forest. (Five continued on to the Bog Garden for a quick walk along the boardwalk.) The lighting was difficult but the wind was calm enabling us to spot movement in the foliage and to iden-tify some good birds. Species diver-sity was low (only 33 species) but there were numerous warblers. Of special note was a Golden-winged Warbler, my personal first in Guil-ford County. Others were a couple of Chestnut-sideds, a small flock of Magnolias, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Hooded and an American Redstart. Other sum-mer birds were Chimney Swifts, Eastern Wood-Peewee, Red-eyed Vireo and a Scarlet Tanager. A newly-arrived Ruby-crowned King-let was spotted, signifying the coming of winter. |
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MUSHROOM WALK
10/4/08 By Louise Brown Since the PBC/TGPA Field Trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last minute, an alternate was offered in the form of a “Mushroom Walk” at my place in Randolph County. After all the recent rains, the most interesting mushrooms and fungi have been appearing. Nine people came; most of them members of both organizations. No one was disappointed. While none of us was very knowledgeable about mushrooms or fungi we were quite impressed with their abundance, and variety of colors, shapes and sizes. There were some that were like tiny orange fingers, poking up out of the leafy detritus in the woods, some very small red-capped mushrooms, and lots of bigger ones of all colors. |
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COUNTRY / BATTLE-GROUND MILITARY PARK
10/18/08 By Susan Weimer It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Competition from the marathon was
minor and luckily the runners did not follow the trails we did. Nine hearty
souls, ten including the trip leader, Susan Weimer, showed up to brave the
chilly day. We were treated to early morning fog rising from the lower lake at
Country Park. We saw the normal ducks and geese and had a Green Heron pose for
us at the end of the trip. We started at the Orman Street Parking Lot and headed
for the Veteran’s Memorial because the “Hidden Trail” is located behind the
Veteran’s Memorial. This trail is where an owl has been heard and was glimpsed
briefly by Cal Weimer. We did not get to see it on this trail, but an owl-like
bird was spotted later on the trip flying in the vicinity. We concluded that it
probably was a Great Horned Owl. The “Hidden Trail” is a connector between
Country Park and Battle-ground Park. We ended up at a large, grassy, open area
that yielded sightings of a Junco, Pine Warblers, Golden-crowned Kinglets,
Northern Flickers, Towhees, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a Hairy Wood-pecker. As
we cut through the lower open field, we spotted a large hawk. The consensus of
the group was that it was an immature Red-tailed Hawk. At a rest stop on the
wooded trails, a Hermit Thrush, some Blue-headed Vireos and Ruby-crowned
Kinglets provided some interesting viewing for those of us who do not usually
get to see these birds. On our way back, we returned via the “Hidden Trail”
hoping that we might stir up the owl, but he or she remains a mystery. As we
drew close to the lower lake at Country Park, a Kingfisher let made its presence known. While
gathered at the parking lot, Henry Link spotted a Palm Warbler and with this we all headed for home.
This excursion produced 45 species. The trip leader is satisfied that the trip was a successful experience despite
the coolness of the day. A few sunny spots provided a reprieve where we could warm ourselves up. |
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Miller Park Trip Miller Park brought ten
participants together on a particularly beautiful sunny day. Trip leaders Ann
and Chester Robertson were joined by eight PBC and TGP Audubon members. There
was not much bird action when the group started out, but as the sun rose, the
general population of birds came out in full force. We spotted Carolina Wren,
Red-bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, and Tufted Titmouse. |
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We had a nice group of a
dozen people meet at the Bog Garden, mostly PBC members but also a couple of TGP
Audubon members. Many of the regular winter visitors had arrived, the
Yellow-rumped Warblers, White-throated Sparrows, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Out
in the middle of the lake, a flock of over a dozen Ring-necked Ducks was
resting. A stalwart Great Blue Heron stood in the shallow water not far from the
boardwalk, unperturbed by us and other people there. |
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Thanksgiving Trip Thanksgiving PBC trips are
fun and frequently produce the unexpected. On Thanksgiving Day, one of our most
informative stops was on a dirt road between farm fields as we approached Lake
Mattamuskeet. Thousands of Snow Geese were grazing in the stubble corn fields.
From a distance the flocks seemed to rise and fall slowly like a billowing white
cloud. On close inspection there was a wide mix of Snow, Blue, hybrid Geese and
different aged birds, giving us a great opportunity to study plum-age
variations. On the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge abundant bird life
included adult and immature Bald Eagles, Kestrels, a Cooper’s Hawk, and Northern
Harriers. Tundra Swans by the thousands, Ibis, White and Glossy, Great and Snowy
Egrets, and Great Blue and Tricolored Herons filled our binoculars. Three dozen
Avocets, two Marbled Godwits, several Greater Yellow Legs, a Palm Warbler and a
Eurasian Wigeon were special finds. As we left the Refuge on the causeway going
north, we encountered a flight of hundreds of Tree Swallows coursing very low
back and forth across the roadway feeding on multitudes of insects.
Unfortunately, some did not escape fatal impacts with vehicles. |
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Alamance County trip |
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