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Fairfield NAMC
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu, slbrown@nations.net
- Subject: Fairfield NAMC
- From: "Donna S. Bailey" <dsbailey@conterra.com>
- Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 21:41:33 -0400
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
First of all, I am more than happy that at least most of us pulled through
the hurricane without any major damage. Here in Fairfield county, usually
well west of any hurricane damage, we continued our year-long record of
dodging hurricanes (Earl got us early last September, dumping at least six
inches of rain and higher winds than we had out of Floyd). My sympathies to
those in Horry County, SC and eastern NC who are flooded, as well as those
still dealing with Dennis' aftermath.
On a birdier note, Bob Ellis and I worked our part of Fairfield county for
the North American Migration Count yesterday. While we found the warblers
few and far between, we nonetheless had some excellent birds and in some
cases some amazing numbers. I was happy to find Tim Kalbach and some
friends at Broad River, having a much better warbler day than Bob and I.
Seeing as they had the warblers under control at Broad River, Bob and I
departed for points east and hit Lakes Monticello and Wateree for whatever
we could find. Among our more interesting finds:
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 (here in the Morris Creek creek bottom)
Pied-billed Grebe 1 (Lake Monticello)
Common Loon 1 (Lake Monticello)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 (in the yard here, probably eyeballing the feeders)
American Kestrels 2
Hooded Warbler 2 (singing! the alternate Hooded song and the Swainson's
Warbler imitation song)
The Common Loon was quite a surprise and Bob and I watched that bird for
some time, a little incredulous at our initial impressions. While the bird
was busily diving and feeding and was never completely in view at one time,
the head was seen many times from a variety of angles, giving us good looks
at the straight, charcoal gray bill, smudged white on the side of the head
and white chin and throat. As I understand it, Lake Monticello is a deep
(>200 ft.) and cold lake, attractive to loons, I would imagine.
Among the biggest surprises yesterday were the migrant thrushes. I had not
heard any thrushes since Saturday the 11th, when I heard a lone Swainson's
Thrush. The hour between 5 and 6 A.M. was kind of slow but I had ticked all
of the brown-backed thrushes except Bicknell's. Between 6:15 and 6:30 am,
however, the thrushes came in so fast and so thick I am embarassed to say I
simply stopped counting because I was unable to keep up with the birds. For
example I stopped with 10 Gray-cheeked Thrushes in the middle of a flock of
Gray-cheeks coming down somewhere nearby. There were more than ten
Gray-cheeks there but how many more I cannot tell you. A flock of Veerys
came down nearby. A flock of Swainson's came down nearby. And they came in
almost as fast as you can read those sentences. They just kept coming,
birds coming down and birds continuing to fly over. On a hunch, wondering
if thrushes were creatures of habit, later in the morning in the creek
bottom I checked a particular spot (I'll gladly furnish details on location
to anyone who requests them) where I had encountered a large flock of
thrushes in late September last year. There were thrushes there. We saw a
Wood Thrush, several Swainson's Thrushes, a Veery and heard more Swainson's
Thrushes and a Gray-cheeked. Oddly enough, the birds were still calling in
their nocturnal flight notes or at least notes quite similar to their
nocturnal flight notes.
All in all, another wonderful day to be out counting birds!
Donna Bailey
Winnsboro, SC
e-mail: dsbailey@conterra.com
URL: http://www.conterra.com/dsbailey
"Where are the Birds? Migration across South Carolina"
URL: http://www.conterra.com/dsbailey/audubon
"Columbia Audubon Society"