#20: Killdeer - Sandy Creek Park, NC

I have a love/hate relationship with Killdeer. On one hand, it’s really cool to live in a place where you can find this relatively large Charadrius plover almost anywhere, from mudflats to lawns to asphalt parking lots and the roofs of building. And objectively, they look rather cool – demarcated black and white banding, a nice red eye-ring, and even a nice rufous rump when they fly off. On the other hand, Killdeer are one of the most annoying birds in the world.

See, I really love shorebirding. It’s definitely my favorite season of the year! Heading down to the mudflats to find out what the winds dragged in, scouring flocks and flocks of peeps to find an odd White-rumped or a Baird’s, and then just as you find a potential candidate, one wrong step and – kiDEEEEEE!!! All the birds are up in the air because Killdeer spook more easily than any other bird I’ve ever seen and for some reason shorebirds feel the need to take flight alongside them. And that interesting sandpiper? Nowhere to be found. All because of a stinkin’ Killdeer.

Killdeer - Sandy Creek Park, NC; 06/29/2010

Which begs the question, how did James get such a good picture of this Killdeer at Sandy Creek? Why should it be any different? Normally the birds there will bail just as easily as Killdeer do anywhere else, but over the summer, as the miniscule mudflats continued to spread across the small pond, the Killdeer decided to breed. The reason we were able to get so close to this particular individual came down to a little ball of fluff and down – a baby Killdeer.

Cute kid, but just wait til he grows up. Not so cute anymore, eh?

With the baby there, the adult Killdeer couldn't take the chance of fleeing and leaving the baby alone. The two constantly called back and forth to each other as we neared the pond edge, always staying close together. Never again have we gotten so close to a Killdeer, and unless we happen to find them in the presence of babies, I doubt we ever will.

#15: Acadian Flycatcher - Sandy Creek Park, NC

Sandy Creek Park is really an old standby, and during the summer of 2010, James and I visited it on almost a daily basis. While the two large ponds are really the big draw of Sandy Creek, there’s also a greenway that runs along the creek itself. During large rainstorms, the creek will flood its banks, and when the waters recede the asphalt will become covered in large swaths of the very sand that gives Sandy Creek its name.

In any case, the greenway can be good for forest birds, Prothonotary Warblers, Northern Parulas, and Yellow-billed Cuckoos chief among them, but during the summer it’s home to a particular species of Empidonax flycatcher. Now, Empids love riparian environments, but they’re very hard to identify by sight alone. However, the season will narrow it down – during migration in the Triangle, you can see three species, Least (which I’ve seen on several occasions around here), Yellow-bellied, and Willow (neither of which I’ve seen in the Triangle). But during the summer, we only get one, and walking along the creek on any given day, you’re bound to hear the charming little pSEET! of an Acadian Flycatcher.

Acadian Flycatcher - Sandy Creek Park, NC; 06/06/2010

Unlike other Empids, Acadians prefer to hang out in the tree canopy, rather than down by the creekside, which is exactly what this little guy was doing. I’ve had birds that sound like they’re right above you, yet are impossible to locate because they’re small, the leaves are thick, and they really love to move around! So this shot, all things considered, isn’t the worst in the world. It’s not the greatest either, but it’s the only one we’ve got of an Acadian Flycatcher and I think it’s bound to stay that way.

#7 - Northern Parula; Sandy Creek Park, NC

By the time May 2010 had rolled around, I’d been birding in the greater Triangle area for over a year. I went to such far ranging places as Mason Farm (great place), the 17 Acre Woods greenway (migrant trap!), and the vast Jordan Lake. And yet somehow I’d managed to miss a little park tucked away next to the rat race that is 15-501, something I kind of regret.

Sandy Creek Park is always a nice place. It’s fairly birdy on any given day, and most importantly it was a grand total of three minutes from my house. I never found anything totally fantastic there, but I’ve been able to find a number of nice birds there with extreme regularity, stuff like Green Heron, Prothonotary Warbler, and Wood Ducks, which are kind of hit-and-miss at my other birding locales.

Northern Parula - Sandy Creek Park, NC; 05/19/2010

One of the birds I can always find there (and most other sites I visit) are the Northern Parulas. Walk along the greenway and you can’t miss these little guys buzzing and trilling at the tops of the trees along the river like they own the place. Apparently we were in this guy’s territory because he swooped in and started scolding us for being there. No matter, he let us get really close and James got a great shot. To this day, it remains our best shot of a Northern Parula, and it’ll probably stay that way for a long time!