11/11 - Green River Game Lands - Big Hungry Road
The principal objective of this trip was to scout out some very nice territory that harbors numerous breeding warblers in several types of woodland habitats. Dave Minnich and I met up with SC birders Michael Robertson and Gary Harbour early on the 11th, and after a short drive were in mixed pine/hardwood forest, often with a thick rhododendron understory, with deep ravines, streams, and steep mountain sides. Beautiful habitat. Then we spent some time in more open woodlands that had been burned some years ago as part of local forest management practices. These areas had young saplings and grassy undergrowth that looked ideal for either Blue-winged or Golden-winged Warblers. I can’t wait to get back here in April and May next year to see what is around.
As we neared one roadside brushy area we came upon a nice flock of sparrows so we got out to look. Just the normal White-throats and Songs at first. Then we all almost simultaneously spotted a yellowish-green bird skulking in the brush. At first I thought it was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet but then got a better view – an Orange-crowned Warbler. We all got several views of the bird off and on as it foraged in the brush, before it took off back over the road out of view. That’s a species that I spent a lot of time looking for in New England, with only occasional success. I know it’s not nearly as rare here in western NC, but it was still a nice find and an addition to my NC list.
My statebird map for Orange-crowned Warbler is inserted below – solid shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species; cross-hatched states are those where it is regular but I haven’t yet seen it. I still need it especially in a number of eastern states where it is a lot less common than out west. And I’m particularly proud of having found it in 5 of 6 New England states as a rarity.
11/20 – Hooper Lane
The sod farm at Hooper Lane is becoming one of my favorite birding spots – and it’s just 25 minutes from home. I’ve already had some great birds on my multiple trips there, and have heard stories of even better birds at the sod farm over the years. One such story was of a long-staying Short-eared Owl this past winter, so that one was on my radar screen as we got into the colder months. And then on the 19th I got an eBird Needs Alert with a Short-eared Owl at Hooper Lane. The post came across late afternoon, and I initially thought about heading to the site at dusk to watch for it to be flying around. But I had other commitments and couldn’t make it.
Plan B – head to Hooper Lane the next day in the late afternoon, look for it for a while in the daylight, and then if I don’t find it, stay till dusk to hopefully see it flying around feeding. The problem was that the eBird report didn’t include any details on the location of the bird. It was likely roosting in the daytime in a ditch at the site, but there are many miles of ditches there. I exchanged texts with SC birder Michael Robertson about the bird, and he mentioned that he had contact info for the birder who found the owl – Wayne Forsythe. It turns out that Wayne is an excellent local birder who knows the area very well – a good person to know. So I contacted Wayne and he told me where he had the bird. It turns out it was indeed roosting in a ditch, and specifically the first one north of the maintenance buildings east of Hooper Lane. (I’ve been trying to promote naming the ditches so that birders can understand exactly where birds are being seen. But that’s for the future.)
So now it was it was time to implement Plan B. I arrived at Hooper Lane at about 3 PM and headed right to the ditch mentioned by Wayne. But despite walking the entire length of the ditch, the best bird I found was a Snipe. So I continued to walk other nearby ditches east of the road and again came up empty. I ended up briskly walking along more than 2 miles of ditches without any luck. It was now 4:30, and I decided to head to ditches west of the road. But first I scanned the fields to see if the bird might have come out to an exposed roost a bit early as they often will do. With my binoculars I started to scan across a recently plowed dirt field and spotted a slightly lighter brown “bump” in the distance in the field. I got out the scope and sure enough I had the Short-eared Owl. Here’s a phonescoped photo of the bird in the distance without cropping.
And here are two heavily cropped photos.
I got the word out that I had re-found the Owl, and was able to show it to 2 other birders. I stayed with it until after sunset hoping that I might get a chance to see it in flight. But it stayed still in the field the entire time, only moving its head to check out vehicles moving by.
NC was my 24th state for this species – still many to go for this widespread species.
11/25 – Ecusta Pond, Pisgah Forest
On the 22nd I received a Needs Alert for a pair of Common Mergansers seen at a location called Ecusta Pond in Transylvania County. The eBird Hotspot name included the word “Private” so at first I figured it was not a site I could access. Then I noticed there was another checklist from later that day that also included the Mergansers – I guess it couldn’t be that private. I looked at the site on GoogleMaps and it looked like the pond was surrounded by a berm so that the water would not be visible from roads around the perimeter. I had the contact info for one of the observers, Michael Plauche, and asked him for suggestions to bird this site. Michael got right back to me, mentioning that the church on the north side of the pond had given birders permission to stand on the second floor fire escape of the sanctuary, from which most of the pond was visible. That’s certainly a unique viewing spot… So armed with that great information, my plan was to head there the next morning to give it a try.
The morning of the 23rd was a wet one, with rain which was heavy at times. But I could still bird the lake with a rain suit and umbrella. When I arrived there was a lull in the rain, and another birder was there looking through the waterfowl in the lake. The birder was Frank Porter whom I had met on an earlier walk. As I arrived he gave me the bad news – no Common Mergs that morning, though a couple Red-breasted Mergs was a nice consolation. We were later joined by Michael, and despite lots of scanning we couldn’t scare up my target birds. Michael commented that maybe the Mergs were still in the area, going back and forth from the pond to the nearby Davidson River. And sure enough, later that day Michael texted me that the Common Mergs were back in the pond. But it was too late for me to chase yet that afternoon.
Hmmm…. Would the Common Mergs stick around? I was planning to be out birding on the 25th, so I decided to swing by there to give them a try again that day. This time the weather was much better, and Frank was once again at the fire escape when I arrived. As I got up to the landing he said he just had the Common Mergansers right in front of us. So I quickly set up the scope – but there we no Mergs. Though there was an adult Bald Eagle sitting on one of the aerators right in front of us. Did it scare off my targets? I continued to scan but with no luck. Then I looked to the east and found quite a number of waterfowl, though viewing was tough in the distance and with a difficult sun angle. But finally I spotted a Merganser, and then a second. And with just a couple seconds of study we ID’d them as Common Mergansers. Finally! Nice to get this species in my first southeastern state where the bird is much less common than farther north - it truly is "Common" in most other parts of the country. Hopefully I can add it to more nearby states over the next several winters.
That gave me 3 new species for my NC list in November, bringing my total to 273. And 2 were eBird rarities, though not particularly unexpected. As for my yard list, I only had 2 additions in the month – Common Grackle and Purple Finch, bringing the total to 94. And my feeder is loaded with all the regulars – sparrows, chickadees, titmice, etc. Not to mention squirrels. So far no visits by bears though I’m taking the feeders in every night just in case.
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