It Has Begun...

It’s getting to be that time of year – birds breeding in the north are starting to meander their way down, stopping every so often before heading for tropical climes. Included among these migrants are some of my favorite birds, the shorebirds. I look forward to shorebirding season every year once the water levels at the major reservoirs drop low enough for expansive mudflats to form. But it’s still early in the season, and the mudflats haven’t quite formed yet, so James and I decided to check out the next best thing – the drying beds at the local water treatment plant.

After receiving permission to lift the huge metal gate, we began our drive past large vats of what I can only assume is water being treated (for what, I’ve got no idea). Despite the expanse concrete, we found plenty of birds – a Blue Grosbeak sang from a nearby field, and a huge mixed flock of European Starlings and Brown-headed Cowbirds of all ages whirled and whipped around as they foraged along the roadside. Barn Swallows and Purple Martins dipped low over the water hunting for various insects, but I tried to push them out of my mind. Those weren’t the birds we were looking for. Then I heard a couple of high-pitched screeches pierce the air. Shorebirds!

At first I could only see a small flock of Killdeer, vocalizing loudly each time they took to the air. But then I began to notice a couple smaller birds with them, and once they landed on a nice concrete ledge, I found myself looking at my first true migrant of the season: a nice Solitary Sandpiper, and then a second, working their way down the line, looking for prey down below. Between them, pumping its short tail the entire way, ran a smaller Spotted Sandpiper, already bereft of its namesake breeding plumage.

If they're called Solitary Sandpipers, how come I'm always finding them in twos and threes?

Both of these species are easy to find during both migrations, and the seasons last so long that it seems there’s only a couple weeks out of the summer where I can’t find one of these sandpipers. James and I were searching for those exclusively fall migrant shorebirds, the harbingers of the year’s end. While I was getting an eyeful of an extremely cooperative Solitary Sandpiper, I noticed a head pop up behind tufts of grass that grew between cracks in the concrete ledge. There’s no way I could mistake it – I see hundreds, if not thousands, each shorebirding season. The Pectoral Sandpipers were back in town!

And still as aggravating to photograph as ever....

We inched the car closer, trying to keep it in neutral so we could use it as a photography blind. But the Pecs weren’t having any of it. Before we got too close, they took off with a couple of Killdeer and headed for one of the drying beds on the far side. You won’t find two more skittish shorebirds than these, and pretty soon they’ll be the bane of my shorebirding, taking huge flocks of birds with them when they flush a hundred feet away from you. For now though, I’m just happy the shorebirds are back. Here’s to three fruitful months of poring over peeps in worn plumage, trying to check the leg color on far-off pipers, and exploring the minutiae between specks in the distance. Here’s to shorebirding!

What’s Up Migration? Long Time No See!

So, I don’t know about you, but through the end of last week and over the weekend, migration kind of snuck up on me. Not shorebird migration, mind you, but rather that most coveted of birder seasons, warbler migration. I went out a couple times to see what I can find, but between bad weather and forgetting my camera, I’m going to have to recycle some shots here. Ready? Here goes!

Saturday was the first time I thought to head out specifically for migrant flocks. People throughout the region have been reporting good warbler numbers and more than a couple Empidonax species, so I was a little behind on the ball. The local greenway held a Magnolia Warbler and a vocalizing American Redstart, but not much else. At the nearby Herman G. Wilson Park, I came upon a flock of Parids that responded well to my feeble attempts at pishing, but no warblers were to be found – instead a little Ruby-crowned Kinglet flew in, my first of the season and a little early by most regards. Down near the slow moving Bolin Creek, I could hear a Northern Waterthrush vocalizing its clear familiar chips.

Except that this pic was actually taken at Mason Farm last August.

Sunday was much more fruitful. After reading a report online, I bolted down to the always-bountiful Falls Lake with Scott of Birdaholic – remember, just last week we were down at the very spot watching a rare Parasitic Jaeger, but this time we saw a different wayward bird. Just past the remains of a derelict flat-bottom boat sat a seemingly content American Oystercatcher, a bird that’s common enough on the coast but strangely scarce anywhere inland. The pied shorebird seemed completely out of place during the time of year when you’re trying to examine the minutiae of drab little peeps, but hey, I’m not complaining!

Er, just pretend that instead of Oregon Inlet, this was taken on
a random rocky island in the middle of the lake!

On a tip, Scott and I headed down to the nearby Ellerbe Creek mudflats, where we found another Magnolia Warbler hanging out along the railroad tracks and a drab little Palm Warbler perched on a dead snag. We quickly scanned the mudflats and ascertained that, aside from a mess-ton of Lesser Yellowlegs and the continuing pair of American Avocets, there wasn’t a whole lot of action on the shorebird front. But we weren’t there for the shorebirds – a large flock of Chimney Swifts and swallows flew back and forth over the grassflats, darting and diving with agility and grace, catching insects on the wing. We pegged each swallow as it flew past – Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Barn Swallow. Tree Swallow. Then Scott noticed a raptor being pursued by a crow out among the clouds, my first Northern Harrier of the year. A cool bird, but not my quarry.

But it was pretty much like this one we found at Mason Farm last winter.

The swifts and swallows began to circle closer over the railroad tracks, giving us good looks at every species except, apparently, the one we were looking for. Suddenly, Scott announced he had it, just for a second, but it flew behind a tree and vanished. With a massive push the swallows flew closer than they had ever been before, and as swifts streamed overhead I noticed a small bird flash across my view, totally unmistakable in my binoculars – our target, a Bank Swallow! It’s a life bird for me, a state bird for Scott, and a bird I totally didn't expect to find while out twitching late on a Sunday afternoon. 

And that was the end of our birding day, as we both had to head home. Honestly though, I don't think I could come up with a better way to end my first weekend of full-on fall migration!

They Call Me The Jaeger-meister!

In birding, you just never know what’s going to happen. You think you’ve seen almost every bird there is to see in your area, and after many years they’ll still surprise you. Such is the case with my Durham county bird list. There are some egregious misses on it, stuff I’d expect to see at one point or another – Forster’s Tern, both Scaups, and Worm-eating Warbler rank chief among them. So today’s sighting from Falls Lake totally blindsided me, and immediately I knew I had to give chase.

On the way to the local boat ramp, I remained in close contact with Scott of Birdaholic. He had his scope already trained on the bird from his vantage point of the Cheek Road bridge, and the bird, apparently, was just lounging around in the middle of the lake. Couldn’t be easier, right? Right? Of course not, as soon as I showed up the bird took flight, and began to fly towards me, with Scott following it the whole way. Only one problem: I couldn’t find it.

It flew somewhere between the lake and the clouds, and for one reason or another I just couldn’t get my binocs on it. So Scott, now having lost the bird in an endless expanse of sky, joined me in looking for it from the boat ramp. After about a half hour, he had it again, floating against the breeze, and I got my first looks. In a flash, it was gone again. And just as suddenly, it reappeared, this time resting on a muddy peninsula next to an early Ring-billed Gull. I managed a digiscope, but it’s really so garbage that I had to include labels - however, that doesn’t change the fact that, snoozing on the far shore next to an unsuspecting gull was a very rare inland Parasitic Jaeger!

Not only Durham county bird #201, but my first in the United States!

Content with my views (which were far better than my awful digiscope would have you believe), I headed to the nearby Ellerbe Creek mudflats, a place that really deserves to be visited every day. On my way down there, I met a bird photographer from Wisconsin who had never visited the flats before – boy was he in for a surprise! The birding started out slow – no more than Killdeer, Pectoral Sandpiper, a couple Lesser Yellowlegs, and a mountain of peeps. A flock of the peeps flew in and landed right next to us, giving nice looks at a couple Least Sandpipers and a single Semipalmated Sandpiper.

That's the Semipalmated on the right - he kind of towers over that Least!

On the far peninsula I spied the bird we were after, so I made the executive decision to try the treacherous path to the far flats and hopefully end up next to the birds. Even though the flats were extremely low, deep mud and high sedges made it one heck of a hike. Finally, after getting a leg-full of chiggers (er, excuse me, chegroes), we found our quarry – a nifty pair of American Avocets that had been frequenting the flats for some time now. I know, it’s the same birds from my last post, but honestly who could tire of these awesome shorebirds?

Not I, said the birder.

After watching them sweep their recurved bills back and forth, picking up tiny invertebrates as they fed, we turned our attention to the other bird I’d spied from across the creek channel – a pair of fantastic little Red-necked Phalaropes, no doubt from the same stock that I’d seen from Granville county a month or so ago, but this time I was able to get much closer and get awesome views. One of the phalaropes flew off as we arrived, but the other seemed quite content to run around in a circle like a child’s wind-up toy.

Luckily it showed up in Durham this time! Durham county bird #202!

As if that weren’t enough, there were times when the two sets of feeding birds would cross each other’s path, leading to some very interesting photographic opportunities. With the Red-necked Phalarope in the foreground, the Avocets behind, and hundreds of blazing-white Great Egrets dotting the lake in the distance, it’s hard to believe that we were birding in the middle of North Carolina, scant miles from major urban centers. But I guess that’s birding for you. Even after so many years of the hobby, there are still so many surprises to be had.

Avocet, Avocet... Phalarope! C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!

I left the photographer to his subjects, and as it was getting late, I had to be getting back. I tried to walk through the sedges to flush one of the previously-reported Virginia Rails, but no luck – I just ended up with more chegroes attempting to burrow themselves under my skin. With the sun at my back, I had time to reflect on finding so many great birds in such a short time, and in Durham of all places. I don’t know what it is that keeps me coming back for more in this hobby, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I Don't Always Go Shorebirding... but When I Do, I See Dos Avocets!

So, Tropical Storm Lee made his way through Louisiana and broke up over the southeast, but even still we got a lot of rain around here. A lot of rain, actually, it raised the water level of Falls Lake by a whole four inches, which can mean death to mudflats. Still, Mark K and I decided to head down to the Ellerbe Flats to see what we could find.

The rain did something I never expected. Of course, the mud was gone, but the flats really didn’t decrease in area at all. Instead, they’ve become covered in a field of grasses and sedges, and apparently the birds love it! We saw almost 1000 birds (maybe more, it was hard to count them!) all in the grass and on the grassy shores. A bunch of them frequented a little puddle in the middle of the field, including a bunch of Stilt Sandpipers and a couple of Short-billed Dowitchers. All of a sudden, our best birds of the day flew into scope view – a fantastic pair of American Avocets, truly a special bird this far inland!

Oh, and did I mention the Avocets were Durham County bird #200 for me?!

The shoreline abounded with so many birds I would have assumed I was on the coast if we didn’t travel a scant twenty minutes from home. We found both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs in good numbers, with plenty of peeps of all kinds to go around. In fact, I saw over 60 Semipalmated Sandpipers, which is by far the most I’ve ever seen in one location. I think they even outnumbered the Leasts out there!

They also let us get closer than any other Semipalmated Sandpipers I've ever seen.

Poring through the remaining shorebirds led to many White-rumped Sandpipers, clearly visible by their long primaries and teardrop shape. I counted almost ten definite White-rumpeds out there, including four in one scope view towering over the surrounding Leasts and Semipalms. A good thing too, as the White-rumpeds were lifers for Mark, and a bit of a nemesis at that, apparently. At that point, he announced an interesting pair of birds along the far side of the lake, a pair of nice American Golden-Plovers, both of them in a very cool plumage, and bringing my total up to three for the year.

You know what's awesome? Getting these guys in the same scope view
as a flock of Wild Turkeys. Yeah, that totally happened.

Of course, all the grass around meant that Mark and I were looking for a very specific shorebird. Sure the nine Ruddy Turnstones running around in a tight group were nice, but if you go to coastal North Carolina, you can find one at any time of the year. No, we were looking for a bird that’s considered a nice find wherever you go, the kind of bird that makes even the most seasoned veterans salivate. While looking at a nice White-rumped Sandpiper, Mark yelled out “Woah – Buff-breasted Sandpiper! Right in front of us!”

You know, every Buffy I've ever seen has been at these very flats,

Not just one, although that would have been enough, but actually a pair of them! Truly one of the coolest shorebirds out there, and with the extensive grass, I expect several more of them in the near future.  Having gotten several great birds for the state, Mark and I turned home, but not before seeing a Broad-winged Hawk fly over the old railroad tracks, and hearing a couple of Caspian Terns screaming their way across the local boat ramp. The sun started to set and it was getting late, so we turned in for the day, but what a day! I can’t wait to get back there as soon as possible!

Public Service Announcement: The Dangers of Shorebirding

It’s early September, which means it’s that time of year when any birder worth his salt will be checking the local mudflats each weekend to find those coveted birds: the Scolopacids, the Charadriids, the Sternids, and if you’re lucky maybe a Recurvirostrid or two. There’s the poring over of esoterica to differentiate one Calidris from the next, the hope that a rare coastal bird will somehow find its way inland. I’m talking, of course, about shorebirds (duh), and there’s a certain amount of personal safety you need to exhibit while you’re searching for them.

Shorebirds, as they have evolved over these millennia, enjoy probing through mud. That’s just their prerogative. So, naturally, a birder must venture into the very mud his quarry calls home. For the birds, it’s easy – the largest North American sandpiper (the Long-billed Curlew, if you’re wondering) weighs little over a pound, hollow bones and all. The average birder weighs a hundred or two times more than that, so while the mud might well support a little Least Sandpiper, it will not support a grown man.

This is the problem I ran into last week while I was birding the Granville county side of the Falls Lakes mudflats (which may or may not still be there tomorrow, thanks Lee). After having gotten distant looks at a Wilson’s Phalarope, Ali Iyoob and I headed back to our birding party. One wrong step later, and I was a foot and a half into the mud with both boots planted firmly beneath the surface and the suction of that highly viscous semi-liquid keeping me there indefinitely.

That ground seemed like it was going to be so stable!

That’s why I highly recommend the buddy system whilst shorebirding. Had I been there by myself, who knows if I would have ever gotten out. Maybe they’d be dredging the lake a week later only to find a couple of vulture-cleaned bones sticking out of the lake. I mean, yeah, I probably would have escaped, but I’d’ve gotten really muddy in the process (awful, I know), so it’s lucky Ali was there to help fish me out, and it's lucky Mark was there to photograph our hilarious attempts to wrench me from my silty prison.

Just let this be a lesson to all you birders out there: walk the ‘flats with a birding buddy, or prepare to get a little muddy! And hey, it even rhymes!

Here I Am... Birding Like a Hurricane!

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there was this little thing called Hurricane Irene that rolled itself on through North Carolina over the weekend. While in the Triangle Irene seemed little more than a whimper, apparently it did some major damage farther east, including ripping a new inlet right through Hatteras Island. But for us Triangle birders, a hurricane means a chance to find birds that are otherwise rare inland.

I met Mark K and Ali Iyoob really early in the morning, because we had an epic day planned, which meant hitting up the local reservoir, Falls Lake. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who had the same idea – we met birders Audrey Whitlock and Nick Flanders before we even got to the meat and potatoes of our birding! The only real storm bird we found that day was a little Least Tern (Durham bird #191!) fluttering its way off the causeway, and that was just the beginning.

Our next stop involved walking down the old abandoned railroad grade off of Will Suitt Rd. The old grade meanders itself through the woods before terminating at a large mudflat just across the lake from the Hickory Hills Boat Ramp. Immediately we found several interesting birds, including Stilt Sandpipers and a Short-billed Dowitcher. Then we saw a large shorebird moving left – a wholly unexpected Willet (192 and counting!) Oh, and you know what the best part of birding with a group is? If you ask real nice, they’ll let you use their pics on your blog!

This one's thanks to Ali - the dude has a ginormous lens!

As odd as the Willet was, I’d seen plenty of them on the Outer Banks recently, so while it was cool to see, it really didn’t pique my interest like this next bird. While scanning the flats next to the bird, we found this nice American Golden-Plover, a bird I don’t often get to see. Plus, it hadn’t quite molted out of its breeding plumage, leaving just a little bit of black belly. Ali and I snuck up on him and he managed this nice shot!

So much more lithe and graceful than its Black-bellied cousin.

As we were watching the birds, a little Black Tern (193!) rolled into our scope views, and began as series of acrobatic swirls as it hunted along the shallow lake, before landing on a rock right in front of us – definitely my best ever views of this bird. And thanks to Mark’s digiscoping rig, he managed this shot of it – a little better than trying to photograph it from a moving boat, eh?

No picture can represent the amount of fun we had watching this acrobatic little guy!

Behind it, a little Piping Plover (194) ran along side its Semipalmated brethren. It’s a very rare bird as far inland as we are, and like most of the birds from the Great Lake region, it was banded – one leg had a red band on it, the other leg had a green one. It’s not quite obvious from this pic, but it sure looked green when viewed it in good light. I’ve emailed a couple of Piping Plover researchers, so perhaps we can figure out where this guy came from!

The fact that there's a green band is actually a matter of some debate - but I recall it so clearly!

Then, Nick announced that he’d found an odd bird. We pored over its leg color and its wingtip length before realizing that we were just too far away to call it, so decided to move closer. Upon doing so, its black legs became clear, a nice buffy hue became evident, and its long jet-black wingtips were absolutely unmistakeable – it was a juvenile Baird’s Sandpiper, a lifer for me and Nick, and a county bird for everybody else (including myself – Durham bird #195!). Luckily, Mark managed this long-distance digiscope of this my life bird.

Er, it was a bit more obvious in the field... but a Baird's Sandpiper nonetheless!

With that, we decided to head on to the next mudflat, but not before spying a dumpy-looking gray shorebird that turned out to be a nice Red Knot, a great bird inland and Durham county bird #196 for me. But we soon moved on to the northern Falls Lake railroad grade, or as it's called in the birding community, the Granville flats. Immediately I came upon a duo of herons standing near the tracks, and they were completely unmistakable – juvenile Tricolored Herons! The county lines do wonky things along that old railroad grade, but luckily those two herons were pretty firmly in Durham, meaning they were county birds #197.

What, you don't see it? Zoom in for God's sake!

Other birds on the flat included an odd looking Greater Yellowlegs along with all the usual stuff. Ali and I waded onto a muddy peninsula, and across the lake we noticed an oddly pin-headed bird running along a rocky shoreline. We concluded it to be a Wilson’s Phalarope, but unfortunately a bird in the wrong county (damn you Granville county government!). Still, a nice bird, and we tried to get everyone else on it, but on our hike back to a better vantage point, I got stuck in the mud in a major way. Thankfully, Ali was there to bail me out, otherwise I probably would have ended up a poor skeletanized birder, as Mark so gleefully put it. We couldn't ever refind the Phalarope, but on the nearby rocks Ali and I found a Northern Water Snake feeding on a Bluegill. It spooked when we showed up, and dropped the fish, which was still alive!

How often do you find a living fish on land?!

Ali and I decided to cross a small peninsula of briars and scrub to get a better look at some of the shallow islands that were forming around us. I got stuck by a thorn pretty good trying to avoid a Black Locust tree, and as I was nursing my bleeding hand on the flats, Ali noticed an odd bird fly up onto an old snag. I dragged my scope around to check it out and was totally surprised to find a Peregrine Falcon munching on a deceased shorebird. Holy crap, what a great bird! Not only was it a state bird for me, but it was also Durham county bird #198. Ali managed this digiscope by holding up his iPhone to my meager scope.

I really cannot express how cool it was to find this bird in basically my own backyard!

I spotted a nice Caspian Tern flying across the lake, but it was time to be getting back to the cars. We decided to leave the Falls Lake area and try for a Hudsonian Godwit at Lake Wheeler (failure), grab some lunch (great success!), find a Best Buy (mild success), and end the day at nearby Jordan Lake, where mudflats were beginning to form at New Hope Creek. Not much around, but we did manage to spot a flock of White Ibis foraging at the north end of the flats, far enough north that I was able to count them for Durham!

The Ibises were my last county bird of the day, #199. We started out early in the morning trying for storm birds, and while there were few to be had, we still managed to whip up a whirlwind, leading to a flood of new birds for the county like we were a damn hurricane. Now if only we could get one to drop off pelagic birds like Irene did in the northeast!

Everybody's Birding for the Weekend!

Oh yeah, that just happened!

In any case, it’s James’s last weekend before he has to head back to college, so I figured we’d hit the always awesome Ellerbe Creek mudflats on Falls Lake, just to see what was there, and as per the usual, we weren’t disappointed. As soon as we headed down the stone rocks from the railroad trestle, I spied three male Wild Turkeys making their way along the forest’s edge, and James manage to snap a shot just before they bolted for the woods.

It's a trio of tom turkeys!

The mudflats are getting pretty extensive, especially the ones closest to the railroad tracks – already they extend almost all the way to the powerlines that cross the twin peninsulas. So James decided to take off his shoes and wade out until the shorebirds were in good light, which led to this nice pair of Lesser Yellowlegs that decided to stick around after all the other birds had bailed because those blasted Killdeer spooked everybody with their incessant shrieking.

A little nicer than their much more larger cousins, IMO

At this point, we ran into another group of birders, consisting of Erla Beegle and her partners in crime, and we began to delve into that most hallowed of birder conversations – “Did you see anything good?” And we both had the same answer – “The usual stuff.” Peeps, Yellowlegs, and Pecs, nothing special. All of a sudden, we look up to see a bird soaring like a jet plane across the flats, its long tail and neck making it one hell of a distinctive bird. Erla pegged it right away: “Anhinga!”

A female, I think; and it's got a fish in its mouth!

An awesome bird that’s particularly difficult to find inland, though there’s rumors it breeds in small numbers at the larger reservoirs around here. It’s a lifer for James, as we haven’t gotten to the southern coast for a couple of years now, so it’s especially cool we found one so close to home. After finding our bird of the day, we made our way down the peninsula, finding this confiding Pectoral Sandpiper on the way. Pecs are notorious bailers, almost as bad as the Killdeer, so it was nice that this guy decided to stick around.

Still waiting for that perfect shot of a Pec!

The end of the peninsula was full of peeps and the like, so we decided to check it out for Semipalmated Sandpipers, a bird that we could honestly use a better picture of. No such luck (it’s those damn Killdeers again), but we did manage to find a trio of Caspian Terns, and James managed to Jackal mode himself up to this little Least Sandpiper. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

But pretty much the perfect shot of a Least Sandpiper!

Just as we were leaving, we decided to hit up the ol’ standby, the Cheek Road causeway that crosses the heart of the northern end of the lake. At first we didn’t see anything, then I spied an Osprey landed on one of the mudflats, which flew up to its nearby nest. And then, a huge bird flew out of the woods on the right, and began to soar over towards us. That Bald Eagle would be the last bird we’d see all day, but what a way to end the day!

First the Turkey, then the Eagle - two prospective American symbols on the same trip!

Erratum: or, Those Darn Peeps!

They call ‘em peeps. If only they could be as brightly colored or come in pleasant shapes like those little marshmallow Easter candies. But if it was that easy, it wouldn’t be fun, would it? In any case, you may remember from last week when James and I visited Oregon Inlet and found a black-legged peep that I had identified as a Semipalmated Sandpiper because, well, it had semipalmations! Turns out, as often happens in birding, I was wrong.

The suspect in question - Oregon Inlet, NC; 08/11/2011

Being in central North Carolina, I rarely, if ever, see other black-legged peeps besides the Semipalm. Occasionally a Sanderling will turn up, but they’re bigger and pale, and easier to ID. So it never even occurred to me to consider other birds, and after consulting several of the top birders in North Carolina, it turns out this bird is actually a Western Sandpiper. Good field marks are a slight droop to the bill towards the tip and a pattern of chevroned streaks continuing down the flanks. Bad field marks include black legs and webbing between the toes.

Still, it’s the best look I’ve ever had at a Western Sandpiper, even when I saw them in California. All the Westerns I’ve seen in North Carolina have been especially long-billed individuals, or juveniles with nice rufous scapulars, so it was nice to be set straight and learn a thing or two about advanced shorebirding. So, I guess this next one goes out to all the confusing peeps out there: bring it on!

Pipers and Plovers and Egrets, Oh My!

As you may have seen from my earlier post about it, the Ellerbe Creek mudflats on Falls Lake is the place to be during fall shorebird migration. Last time, the twin peninsulas that line the mouth of the creek hadn’t yet formed, and little inlets of Falls Lake impeded our progress. However, this week, not only were the peninsulas fully formed, but they were already covered in grass!

First thing’s first though. The entire reason we were birding the mudflats when we were was to meet up with Scott of Birdaholic, as he was keen to see what was out there (as were we). But, due to his schedule, we couldn’t meet up til 10, which meant James and I had a little time to check out the Cheek Road causeway over the lake. Doing so netted us several Ospreys, a bunch of Canada Geese, and a ton of Egrets. Mostly Greats, but there were a few Snowys mixed in, and one revealed itself to have pale green-gray legs, and was in fact a juvenile Little Blue Heron, a new county bird for me!

Far-off Egrets, at the very edge of scope-view.

With that, we met up with Scott and headed for the railroad grade that crosses the lake, and immediately we were on the birds. Well, mostly Killdeer (do they really count?) and a couple of peeps, but there was a mystery Sandpiper that looked bigger than the peeps, had a longer, decurved bill, and was feeding deeper than anybody else. We couldn’t really refind it, but found a couple kind of similar birds that we decided were Western Sandpipers due to their size, and James’s far-off photo hasn’t really eased my conscience too much. Any ideas?

Mystery Sandpiper! Bad pic, but you can still see the long bill.

As we made our way down to the flats themselves, we flushed a distinctive adult Black-crowned Night Heron from the willows under the bridge, giving me my second county bird of the day – a great success to say the least! Not a common bird around here by any means. Thankfully, the flats next to the old fishermen’s trail had formed, meaning it was a brisk walk down to the peninsulas, and it netted us a Solitary Sandpiper and a couple of Spotteds to boot. A Belted Kingfisher swept past us, and all of a sudden, the shorebirds abounded!

Semipalmated Sandpiper - Falls Lake, NC; 08/04/2011

A quick scan yielded the Semipalmated Sandpiper seen above – not a bad pic considering it was all the way across the creek on the second peninsula, plus it was a life bird for James, and a bird he’d been looking forward to getting. There were shorebirds on our peninsula as well, but there were Killdeer too, and as anybody who’s shorebirded knows, Killdeer are huge chickens (er, not literally). But seriously, if you get within 100 feet of a Killdeer on the flats, it’ll let out its namesake shriek and all of a sudden every shorebird in the vicinity has taken flight and moved to the far peninsula.

Pectoral Sandpiper - Falls Lake, NC; 08/04/2011

Which is how we never got a great look at a Pectoral Sandpiper even thought they seemed to be everywhere. They were always bailing to the other side with the other shorebirds, but even still, the sun shone bright over there, and that got us our best pic ever of these top-heavy sandpipers. Towards the end of the mudflats, I saw a couple of birds, and James went into stealth mode to try and photograph them.

Semipalmated Plover - Falls Lake, NC; 08/04/2011

However, it being the flats, there wasn’t much out there for James to hide behind, so he decided to do a little number that involved him “pretending to be a heron and hope they didn’t notice” (his words, not mine). Not his proudest moment, but it did net us this decent pic of a Semipalmated Plover, of which we had seen several along the flats. All in all, a pretty good day, despite it feeling like 105° degrees outside (in reality, it was a “cool” 99°). Oh, plus we found a confiding Least Sandpiper on the way back. Nice.

Finally a bird that resists the siren song of the Killdeer!

The End Is the Beginning Is the End

Get it? Like that Smashing Pumpkins song that was in that Batman movie?

Anyway, oh man, I’m excited. It’s getting to be my most favoritist time of the year! Summer is on his way out and he’s about to usher in autumn, and with autumn comes migration, and with migration comes the birds, and around here the birds are already starting to show up.

The number one spot to find shorebirds, for me anyway, is the Ellerbe Creek Mudflats on Falls Lake. It’s gotten me a whole bunch of life birds, mostly shorebirds like Lesser Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpiper, but also really sweet stuff like Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and even a Connecticut Warbler last October! Getting there is fun. You have to walk down a set of railroad tracks only to climb down a precarious flow of loose rocks leading down to an old fisherman’s trail. But man, how it’s totally worth it.

I've seen a train on these tracks just once... luckily I wasn't on that bridge!

The lake itself is a managed reservoir, so during the winter the water level is usually quite high and the fisherman’s trail is impassable, but during times of drought the water drops like a stone, and luckily this corresponds with shorebird migration. You can see why the fishermen use it during these times of low water – all around are gigantic invasive Common Carp that like to sidle their way up to shore and make a huge amount of noise splashing around if you get too close.

He really wants whatever's in that bottle! Maybe he's an alcoholic?

On the way down to the flats, you can see the Great Egrets that are starting to show up. On a good day on the flats I can see over a hundred of these guys at once, not bad for the middle of North Carolina.

Great Egret - Falls Lake, NC; 07/18/2011

And finally we get to the meat and potatoes of the whole thing. James and I scared up a pair of little Least Sandpiper, and he managed to get a decent shot of one before it up and flew off. Unfortunately, the flats haven’t fully formed yet, and the soon-to-be grassy peninsula has a couple of impassable channels across it, so the Leasts couldn’t be chased for a better pic, and the Pectorals stayed too far out as well. 

Least Sandpiper - Falls Lake, NC; 07/18/2011

I went back after this particular trip and found a nice Semipalmated Sandpiper at a decently close range, but as soon as I pulled out the camera for a shot, he too flew off into the wind. Too bad, too, as that would have been lifer for James… but he got two different lifers this weekend, so more on that later. James got a nice video of the ubiquitous Killdeer that're always hanging around the flats. Man he's got long wings!

Click through for HD Video!

If there’s one species I can always look forward to seeing around this area, it’s the Red-headed Woodpeckers. They seem to like the dead trees around the swamps here, and you can hear their wild shouts from all the way down the railroad tracks. We found this particular guy on the way back, and he gave us a decent shot by perching up on a branch.

Red-headed Woodpecker - Falls Lake, NC; 07/18/2011

That was it for today, but I’ll definitely be back in the near future, when the grassy peninsulas are fully formed and stuff like Pectorals, White-rumpeds, and hell maybe even more Buff-breasteds will walk within feet of you. To me, this is the epitome of birding.