2 North Carolina Statebirds, February 2013

With a quick trip to central North Carolina I had only a little time for some local statebirding.  My NC list is pretty good at 249, so there aren’t a lot of easy gaps to fill.  But with a little research on e-Bird and the Carolinas listserve I identified 2 possible targets seen nearby recently – Rusty Blackbird including a recurring flock of 200 birds in a Durham office park of all places, and Mute Swan with a flock of 5 breeding in a lake in the Raleigh suburbs. 

Rusty Blackbird has been a bit of nemesis bird for me in NC, which is a pretty common wintering bird there.  I had a likely sighting of Rustys in a swamp 20 years ago but only got a brief view of the flock so decided to be safe and not check them off.  Little did I know that despite a number of winter trips to NC since that time I still would need them for my state list.  So it’s probably one of the more common birds I haven’t seen in NC. 

Mute Swan is a different story.  I remember seeing them on each trip to Chincoteague on the VA coast years ago.  But there are no Mute Swan reports on e-Bird there yet in 2013.  However there are small numbers of Mutes reported on e-Bird from the VA tidewater in 2013.  In NC there are some 2012 sightings on e-bird in the central part of the state and on the coast, but none in 2013.  Are they in decline in the region?  But just before my trip there was a report of 5, including immature birds, from a lake near Raleigh.  Needless to say it will be important to try to determine if they are wild birds.  In any case, certainly worthwhile to check them out.

My first birding stop was the large office park where the Rusty Blackbirds were reported.  When I got there I realized why the Rustys were hanging out there – the park was full of wet wooded swamps – perfect habitat for Rustys.  I drove around the park once without seeing any blackbirds.  But on my second lap I saw a distant flock of birds perched in some tree tops.  The entire group was Rustys – maybe 200 of them.  That was remarkably easy, especially given my lack of success in the past.  But in my state bird map below, it looks like I still need to have some similar success in SC and VA to get better coverage of this species in its wintering range.

A short drive later I was at Lochmere Lake where the Mute Swans had been reported.  The lake is a long, skinny manmade lake, more than a mile long and less than 1,000 feet wide, surrounded by suburban houses.  When I arrived at the dam I quickly found 2 adult Mute Swans, and 3 white farm ducks a short distance away.  Although the swans were not pinioned, they still could be dependent on homeowners for feeding.  But I then looked farther up the lake, and in addition to a number of Ruddy Ducks, I found an immature Swan at least ½ mile up the lake.  If all these birds were dependent on a feeder close to where the farm ducks were, why would a bird be a ½ mile away?  And the young bird was either born at this lake, or was part of a family group that bred elsewhere and flew into this protected lake.  The recent report at this sighting was of 5 birds, 2-3 being immatures.  I could only see the lower portion of the lake, so maybe the others were even farther from the dam that day, and even farther from those farm ducks.  Sure seems feasible to be wild birds, so I decided to count them.  I’ve now seen Mute Swans throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, along with a number of Midwest states.  

That gives me 251 in North Carolina – my 17^th state with at least 250.  And as is often the case with statebirding, I spent more time researching the statebirding potential than I spent in actually birding in the area.