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Ebenezer and OHVF, Jordan Lake, NC



Hi C-birders,

Norm Budnitz suggested the other day that this might be our last really 
nice weekend before winter rolls in, so we took advantage and went 
birding this morning. Another Norm, new Duke Botany grad student and NM 
immigrant Norm Douglas, came along, bringing his dog Tahoe.

On the way down 751, we spotted two separate raptors flying across the 
road. Both looked like large accipiters, probably Cooper's Hawks. Then, 
at one point where a creek crossed under the road, a HUGE raptor circled 
over it and landed in a tree. Bald Eagle! An immature bird. Norm snapped 
a photo before it took off and left the area.

We arrived at Ebenezer Point shortly after it opened, and started 
scanning the area immediately. The first thing we noticed was a late 
Forster's Tern perched on one of the pilings around the swimming area. A 
bunch of Ring-billed Gulls and two Killdeer were loafing nearby on the 
beach. Shortly afterwards we had sightings of Doug Shadwick and an 
unidentified birder, who later identified himself as Bob Perkins. Doug 
wandered off after making sure we had seen the tern, while Bob joined us 
for a while.

We scanned the water thoroughly, but found no sign of any loons, grebes 
(other than a lone Pied-billed), or non-Ring-billed gulls. Not a single 
Bonaparte's Gull yet. A lone American Coot was probably our only 
waterbird. An adult Bald Eagle did fly in off the lake and give us 
beautiful views, and we later spied a distant younger eagle across the 
water. A few landbirds wandered in and out, primarily Yellow-rumped 
Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A flock of chickadees over near the 
picnic tables yielded four woodpecker species, which for westerner Norm D 
included his lifer Red- bellied and second-ever Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Bob followed us across the street to the ponds, which were utterly 
duckless. No Bufflehead yet, not even a Ruddy! Another mixed insectivore 
flock wandered by, including a Golden-crowned Kinglet. Bob left us after 
that, heading east for Lake Wheeler and the nearby ponds, while we drove 
north to Old Hope Valley Farm.

I took a slight detour on our way up to show the Norms where Horton's 
Pond was, as neither had ever been there. The big grassy field on 
Horton's Pond Road turned out to be a hot spot, as we spotted a female/ 
immature type Northern Harrier on our way through, then an American 
Kestrel on our way back! Also on the way back, we saw a raptor perched 
low on a snag at the edge of the field; it was slim and long-tailed, and 
looked very pale underneath. It took off and flapped rapidly into the 
woods. We debated whether it was the Harrier again, with its underside 
looking paler than before due to the angle of the sun, or whether it was 
a Cooper's Hawk, as its flight into the woods and quick wingbeats seemed 
to indicate.

OHVF was a slightly scary place to visit today, as there were a number of 
hunters around. Fortunately, all were bow-hunters, who seem to be a 
little more responsible and less reckless and alcohol-prone than many of 
their gun-toting bretheren. Maybe arrows cost more than bullets. One of 
them warned us that next week is muzzle-loading shotgun season, and that 
the real guns are allowed the following week; better bird that area only 
on Sundays for a while... This same hunter said he was at OHVF last year 
when one hunter was shot and killed by another one. We made sure to keep 
the dog really close to us, and stayed out in the open.

Once we got used to our archerous company, we had a good time. The 
powerline cut was soggy with sparrows! Virtually all Song and Swamp, with 
a few clusters of White-throated, Field, and Dark-eyed Junco thrown in. 
Very few warblers, although Norm B. spotted a Palm, and we heard a Common 
Yellowthroat chip from a patch of cattails. At one point, a Sharp- 
shinned Hawk flew out over our heads and circled several times, giving us 
beautiful views and chances for a few photos; the sparrows went abruptly 
and completely silent for several minutes after that... The water itself 
was pretty quiet, just several Great Blue Herons, a pair of Coots, and a 
scattering of Double-crested Cormorants. Lots of American Goldfinches - 
another lifer for western Norm - were pigging out on the seeds of Trumpet 
Creepers along the old railroad bridge. While sitting on the end of the 
bridge, we watched a kettle of mixed Turkey and Black Vultures form and 
disperse.

No dragonflies, but tons of butterflies! Common Buckeyes all along the 
trail, and a couple of (Clouded?) Sulfurs, and one very faded Fritillary 
of some kind. One patch of large purple Asters was especially busy, with 
several Pearl Crescents and a myriad of skippers of at least three 
species present; someone who actually knows something about skippers 
might want to check them out... Lots of bees were in the same patch 
competing with the skippers and butterflies, a few different species of 
these as well.

Maybe the highlight of the trip, though, came shortly before we reached 
the water. I spotted a clashing patch of green in a stand of dark brown 
dead weed stalks. A Green Treefrog, Hyla cinerea; common enough on the 
Coastal Plain, but much less so up in the Piedmont. The Norms and I spent 
several minutes tromping around in these dead brown weeds, taking photos 
and noting how terrible the frog's green coloring was for camouflage in 
the brown weeds. However, when we stopped to admire it again on our way 
back uphill, Norm D. spotted a second one, then Norm B. spotted two more, 
right in the weeds where we had been tromping around to get better looks 
at the first one! Guess that camouflage isn't so bad after all...

Good birding, and more!

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/