[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

NHAS trip to Brickhouse Road



Hello All,

Yesterday afternoon, seven birders trekked through a few of the many
sections of the Butner Gamelands off Brickhouse Road in northeast
Durham. It was a cold and cloudy day and we birded from @ 2-4:30.

First to greet us was a kestrel perched on a power line. It was there
most of the day, giving us plenty of good looks (double entendre
acknowledged). The beaver pond lacked ducks and visible beavers, but
gave us C. geese, kingfisher, great blue heron, and red-headed
woodpecker.

To quote Edith Tatum, one of our group, there is a "healthy population"
of red-headed woodpeckers in the swamp area. We heard and saw them many
times, always a treat. A nice surprise in the swamp area was a common
yellowthroat.
As we came up the road back to Brickhouse, we startled a turkey who flew
up and away! We had seen turkey tracks all along the swamp road.

Other species seen:

mockingbird
starling
crow
ring-billed gulls
song sparrow
red-winged blackbird
white-throated sparrow
goldfinch
towhee
bluebird
white-crowned sparrow
phoebe
turkey vulture (it was flying very low and we came upon an opossum
carcass, the    presumed vulture snack)
wood duck (many)
winter wren
downy woodpecker
yellow-rumped warbler
golden- and ruby-crowned kinglets
chickaee
titmouse
robin
yellow-bellied sapsucker (in quite a physical dispute with a red-headed
woodpecker)
red-bellied woodpecker
flicker
cardinal

Things had definitely quieted down by 4:30, so we stopped then, but have
decided to do a spring trek to Brickhouse. Stay tuned for details!

Carol Williamson
Durham, NC
carolw@sandler-recht.com