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Re: Red-necked Grebe -- Kerr Lake, NC/Other Piedmont Reports



I didn't realize that the red-necked grebe was quite as unusal a siting for this 
area as it appears to be. (One thing about being relatively new to all this is 
that I never really know which sitings I should mention, and which are just 
"situation normal". )

Anyway, two of us saw a red-necked grebe at Harris Lake in Wake Co., NC in mid- 
Feb. (I could probably pinpoint the exact date if it's important.)
Having just come back from a coastal trip with CHBC a few weekends before where 
another red-necked grebe was sited while we waited for the ferry, I didn't 
really think that seeing one at Harris Lake was any big deal. Anyway, we saw the 
lone red-necked grebe well off from an entire HUGE flock of Am. Coots along the 
Pennisula trail. We wound up dubbing this bird the "SS Bismark" since it was 
large and seemed to sink (dive) as often as I could get a scope on it. 
Nonetheless, it wasn't more than 100yds off shore at any given time and I did 
get it solidly in the scope several times long enough to be quite sure of it's 
ID. 

Mike Swaim
Orange Co. NC
miaim@mebtel.net


Quoting Russ Tyndall <fitzbew@redshanksoftware.com>
> 
> Early March is a "great" time to look for Red-necked Grebe in the NC
> Piedmont.  There have been at least 26 reports in the last 43 years.  13 of
> those occurred in Feb and March (a few of the grebes had wintered).
> 
> An amazing 6 Red-necked Grebes were observed in the Greensboro, NC area on
> March 3, 1994.
> 
> There are at least two unusual NC Piedmont reports:  a grebe present in
> Surry County Jun 8-15, 1960 and bird at Lake Brandt (also near Greensboro)
> on May 4, 1994.  All the other reports fall in the more expected late
> October to late March timeframe. (In Avendex, Surry County is considered
> Piedmont; in "real life",  I think Surry County is divided between Mountain
> and Piedmont.)
> 
> SC has at least 3 Piedmont reports.  2 from Lake Wateree, and 1 from Lake
> Greenwood. All single birds occurring from mid Nov to late Feb. (There is an
> Oct 15, 1984 report from the Columbia, SC area, which is close to the
> Coastal Plain/Piedmont border and could have been Piedmont).
> 
> There are quite likely other Piedmont Red-necked Grebe reports (from
> Christmas Counts and such) that are not contained in the Avendex source
> data.
> 
> -- 
> Russ Tyndall
> Wake Forest, NC
> www.redshanksoftware.com