8/20/2016
As I reported last time, there was only one common summer bird left on the Top 100 list of the most commonly reported species in Wake County that I hadn't yet seen. My nemesis? The seemingly elusive
Barred Owl (#98 on the Wake County frequency list). I'd heard it a couple of times this year, but hadn't seen it. A birder friend of mine told me exactly where to go to have the best chance at it (East Fork of Mine Creek Trail, aka
Bent Creek Trail, at the pedestrian tunnel), but the three times I tried to see it I struck out. Apparently, fourth time's the charm! I was there by 8 AM and got a good look at it.
The photo at left is not the greatest owl photo ever, but if you look in the bottom quarter of it toward the middle, you'll see the Barred Owl. I was relieved to finally get a good look at it. Then, about a week later, I was doing an exercise walk in
Umstead Park and saw another one! This one flew across the path about 50 yards in front of me, and looked like it landed in the leaf litter maybe 100 feet off the trail. When I got closer, one of the branches of the
Sycamore Trail happened to lead down to where I thought I'd seen the owl come to rest. As I headed down it, I saw the owl fly up and perch on a limb about 15 feet in the air. I think it had grabbed something from the forest floor, which it finished off as I approached slowly down the trail. No binoculars with me, so I wanted to get close enough to be sure of the ID. It let me walk right up underneath it, we checked each other out for maybe a minute, then I started backing away and it decided to fly off deeper into the woods. Although I've only seen it there once, it may have a territory that overlaps with this part of the park. I saw it at the place where Sycamore Trail crosses the Graylyn multi-use trail, just a little ways south of the
N Turkey Creek trail. The Graylyn entrance is off of Ebenezer Church Road but parking can be tricky to find. Interested birders might have better luck with the Barred Owl at East Fork Mine Creek.
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Barred Owl
After the owl, I decided to try my luck at
Lake Crabtree County Park. I hadn't been there all summer, but my
BirdsEye App reported a couple of species that I hadn't yet seen, such as
Caspian Tern (#151),
Broad Winged Hawk (#184),
Scarlet Tanager (#113) and
Tennessee Warbler (#171). I, however, did not manage to see any of them. I think maybe I arrived too late in the morning, but I'm also less knowledgeable about these birds and don't necessarily know where to look. It seems that I have my work cut out for me now that I've seen most of the more common birds on the Wake County Project list!
A few days after this I went on a bird walk with
Wake Audubon to
Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve. I had heard of the place but never been there, so wanted to check it out with people who knew what they were doing. I'm really glad I did! Although the morning started out slowly, sometime after 9 AM the insects picked up and we started to see quite a few different bird species all clustered together. We saw and heard a total of 38 species, and I picked up a couple of new ones for the Wake County project list, and one new one for my lifelist! The new species were
Prairie Warbler (#111) and
Cliff Swallow (#147). We also saw a House Wren, which I struggled to find for several weeks of the summer. Is it odd that I have my best luck with the rarer birds when I'm not actively looking for them anymore?
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Prairie Warbler
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Cliff Swallow
September is just a couple of days away and that means we should start getting a lot of migratory birds coming through soon. One of my Wake Audubon friends said I should go birding as often as possible in September. I'll have to see if I can manage at least two outings a week rather than my more typical single outing.
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