Outing #8 - Harris Lake County Park

4/29/2016

It's been over a month since my last outing here in Wake County. I did manage to spend a day birding near Asheville on my way home from a work-related trip, but no progress so far on the Wake County Project in April. Tomorrow is the last day of the month, and I plan to spend it at Harris Lake County Park hoping to make up some ground.

I've never been to this park. It is located near the southwest corner of the county, beside Shearon Harris Reservoir. I've been wanting to check it out for a couple of months now, and this week the BirdsEye App gave me reason to - a Least Bittern was reported there on April 23 and 24, and a King Rail (#245 on the frequency list) on April 23. The Least Bittern is so rare that it doesn't appear on the historical list of 310 species ever reported in Wake County (the one that I saved from eBird in January).  On the most recently updated eBird list for the county, it is number 129 (due, presumably, to the six or eight sightings from last week). Least Bittern is also apparently very cryptic, so my chances of actually seeing it are low, and the requirements for identification in this project are visual sightings only. Aside from these relatively rare birds, the other two notable species reported in the last two weeks were a Red Breasted Merganser at Bond Park in Cary, and a Clapper Rail at a private address. With two notable species and several others I haven't yet seen for the project, this seemed a good time to check out this park. Eighty-eight (88) species have been identified in the park over the last 10 years during the month of April.

4/30/2016

Harris Lake County Park was pretty quiet when I first arrived. I followed the signs to the restrooms, and parked my car in close proximity (just in case). On the other side of the parking lot was a pond with a green layer floating on top (see photo at left). It looked like an accumulation of pine pollen, though it seems a little late in the season for that. The pond is separated from Lake Harris by a narrow berm. Because of the green layer, I didn't expect to see many birds around this pond, but was pleasantly surprised when a Fish Crow (#34 on the frequency list) began calling from one of the trees, and then a Green Heron (#83) flushed and flew in the direction of the lake. Both of these are new species for the project.



Next I moved onto the berm to see if I could see anything out on the lake, and was surprised to see two Eastern Kingbirds (#70) perched on a tree by the lake's edge. I tried to get a photo through my spotting scope, but the Kingbirds wouldn't stay still long enough. These are apparently not uncommon in Wake County, but somehow I've never managed to see one here before. Not sure how that happened, but I was glad to see one today.  I also saw an Eastern Phoebe (#30) hawking for insects in this area.

74)  Fish Crow
75)  Green Heron
76)  Eastern Kingbird
77)  Eastern Phoebe

After the pond and lake, I moved in the direction of the restrooms, which had an area of tall trees with pine needles beneath them on one side, and a nearby open field. I saw a Common Yellowthroat (#52) in the bushes around this area, as well as two Blue Grosbeaks (#73) out in the open area beneath the pine trees.

One of the best finds of the morning for me was two Orchard Orioles (#95), an adult male along with a juvenile male with yellow feathers and a black throat. I thought I had sighted this bird once before, but didn't get a long enough look to be certain, so it turns out to be a new one for both the Wake County Project list and for my lifelist! See photo at left... it was the best I could do through my spotting scope. The burnt-orange breast and black head are visible to the left of center. The Orchard Oriole is surprisingly common in Wake County. It appears on about 3% of reported checklists. Given its frequency, I'm not sure why I never spotted it before, except that I am usually out of the country for most of the summer, so have done the majority of my birding in fall and winter.

78)  Common Yellowthroat
79)  Blue Grosbeak
80)  Orchard Oriole

Next I moved away from the parking area and started following the Peninsula Trail. There, I met a birder named John who has been birding this park for years. He asked me to join him, and we eventually went off-trail, following one of the unpaved service roads that intersects with the Peninsula Trail and runs toward the north. We spotted an Ovenbird (#97) singing up high in a tree, and John pointed out to me which call belongs to the Ovenbird. Now that I know what to listen for, it seems like they are everywhere, making me wonder why I've only spotted them a couple of times before. He also recognized the call of the Summer Tanager (#72), and we ended up seeing five of these on the day.

We came to a very small pond with a muddy bank surrounding it, and this seemed to be a hotspot for bird activity. We first noticed a Gray Catbird (#43) hopping through the branches of a tree near the pond. Next we heard a Great Crested Flycatcher (#54) up in a nearby tree, then I was very excited to see a Black and White Warbler (#92), which I've only seen once before in Wake County. But the highlight of the day was a bird that I might not have been able to positively identify without John's help - a Northern Waterthrush (#145)! It was heavily streaked, sort of off-white in color on the rest of the breast and eye-stripe, and bobbed its tail constantly as it walked along the muddy edge of the pond. It is very similar to the Louisiana Waterthrush, but I had no guess as to what family it might belong to when we were watching it. Without John's help, I might have just written down distinctive features and hoped for a later identification, but due to its similarity to the Louisiana Waterthrush, I probably wouldn't have been certain of the identification.

81)  Ovenbird
82)  Summer Tanager
83)  Gray Catbird
84)  Great Crested Flycatcher
85)  Black and White Warbler
86)  Northern Waterthrush

During the last part of our walk along the access road, as we neared the parking area, we spotted two more new species for the Wake County Project list:  Indigo Bunting (#57) and American Redstart (#89). This brings the total new additions for this one outing to 15 species! Two of these were new ones for my lifelist as well. A very good outing.

In addition, earlier in the month I took some visitors out to the State Farmer's Market, and while there, I spotted several House Sparrows (#84). These were also new ones for the Wake County Project list.

87)  Indigo Bunting
88)  American Redstart
89)  House Sparrow

If I can spot just one more species, it will put me at 90 since beginning this blog in January. That would put me halfway to my goal!

I didn't end up seeing the Least Bittern or King Rail, but as I look at the eBird map after the fact, I realize that the place where these were spotted was a bit outside the park boundaries. Oh well, maybe next time. As neither of these species were reported over this last weekend in April, it may be that they have moved on already.