Lightning Strikes Twice with Another Rare Wader at McAlpine Creek Park, NC, July 18, 2020

On June 25th I went to McAlpine Creek Park in the suburbs of Charlotte, NC to see a long-staying Reddish Egret – the first inland record for NC.  Amazingly, this bird spent 11 days in a beaver pond at the park, and I was lucky enough to not only be there on its last day, but to be in the group of birders who were the last to see it there. 

Then just 3 weeks later came reports of a Roseate Spoonbill not only in the same Park, but in the same beaver pond!  Amazing that yet another rare wader would show up in that same small pond.  Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the first posts from July 16, and only read about the sightings on the evening of the 17th.  Since I almost waited too long to see the Reddish Egret, I didn’t want to wait any longer to try for the Spoonbill.  In fact, I worried about whether overlooking the posts for a couple days had already doomed me to fail in my search for another rare inland wader.  However, always the optimist, I planned to head back to the park the next morning to give it a try.  On the bright side, given my recent trip to the park, I knew exactly where the pond was, so I didn’t need to do much research to prep for the trip.

I was out of the house by 6 AM on the 18th and started making my 2-hour trip to the Park.  I was about 30 miles away when I got a text from my local birding friend Bill Hooker that he heard that the Spoonbill was still there.  I was cautiously optimistic.  Luckily it was a Saturday so there was no rush hour traffic to deal with, and 30 minutes later I arrived in the parking lot.  Then after a brisk walk past the fishing pond I made it to the beaver pond and quickly scanned the lake.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see any waders, though lighting was challenging looking towards the morning sun so I tried not to be too worried.  I changed my angle a bit and sure enough there was the Spoonbill standing among the vegetation toward the east.  I moved to the other side of the lake and got even better and closer views.  Here are two phonescoped pictures of this most attractive bird.

 

And a picture without magnification showing the Spoonbill in the distance. 

As I watched the Spoonbill feeding it slowly made its way to almost the exact same spot where I saw the Reddish Egret a few weeks earlier.  Same part, of the same pond, at the same park, for two rare coastal waders.  Looks like lightning can strike twice.

It turns out that the Spoonbill was last seen at dawn on the 19^th.  So if I had waited another day to make the trip I would have missed the bird.  I guess it’s good to be lucky…

Roseate Spoonbill was #303 for my NC statelist.  In my statebird map below, I’ve seen this species in 3 states in its regular range (the blue shaded states), as well as three states as a rarity (tan shaded states) – SC, CT, and now NC.  Though I still need it in the 4 cross-hatched states in its regular range.