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A good Saturday in the Triangle area



Thanks to directions provided by Steven Shultz and Josh Rose, among others,
I made good use of my last possible 1999 birding trip to the Triangle area.
I saw 35 species of birds, including three life birds.

I started my day at first light at the Farrington Road bridge on Lake
Jordan.  The highlight there was an immature bald eagle.  I spent most of
an hour at Ebenezer Church point and had the area to myself.  There were a
few horned grebes way out in the lake and lots of land birds, including an
eastern phoebe and a golden-crowned kinglet.  On my way out I stopped at
the waste treatment ponds and looked at the buffleheads.

Heading east I found my way to West Lake Road pond and spent considerable
time looking at the canvasbacks, ring-necked ducks, gadwalls, and American
wigeon.  If my memory is correct, the "cans" were the first I have seen
since I left Arkansas in 1969.  Whee!

I checked the mess at Greenview Pond and did find the tundra swans, along
with mallards and Canada geese, in the upper end.  Beautiful!  I also
stopped at Lake Wheeler and checked out the ruddy ducks in the upper end.

I went on to the NCSU dairy pond (found the right place this time!) and
spent time watching the northern shovelers (life bird), lesser scaup,
ring-necked ducks, and bufflehead.  Another birder, whose name I failed to
write down (so now I can't thank him publicly), relocated the kestrel that
we saw fly by so we were able to get a positive id.  He also pointed out
two common snipe (life bird) that were foraging along the edge of the pond.
As he and I were both starting to leave, a northern harrier flew in and
landed in a tree, giving us lots of opportunity to study it through our
scopes.  And no, I didn't try to sort through all of the blackbirds at the
barns!

I checked 1010 pond on my way home.  A great blue heron was in residence
but no ducks.  I also stopped at the pond on Rte. 55 outside Angier.  It
hosted ring-necked ducks and gadwalls, both of which have been there since
October.

Bob

--------------------------------------------------
Robert C. Perkins, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Methodist College, Fayetteville, NC 28311
910-630-7037     rperkins@methodist.edu