Outing #22 - Lake Crabtree County Park

11/05/2016

As usual, I consulted my BirdsEye App to find out which bird species had been spotted nearby over the past week. The obvious destination this time around was Lake Crabtree County Park. Several species had been spotted over the previous two weeks, including Tennessee Warbler (#171), Merlin (#166), Blue Headed Vireo (#137), Wilson's Snipe (#135), Herring Gull (#112), and American Coot (#82). It just so happened that the park was doing its monthly Birding With Vernon walk, so I decided to join up and see what we could see.

We started at the first parking lot. This is the one with the big grassy area separating the unpaved parking area from the lake (see photo at left). The first thing we managed to see were Hooded Mergansers out on the lake. These weren't new (I'd seen them back in February), but it was nice to see them again. We spent quite a bit of time out on the grassy area with the spotting scopes, and also watching sparrows popping up for short periods before diving down into the underbrush again. Then we saw a bird land in the cluster of trees you see in the photo at left. I got my scope on it, but it was partly hidden by leaves. It looked like a small hawk, and at first I guessed it might be an American Kestrel. I moved the scope to try to get a better look, and managed to get a good view of a heavily streaked breast.  It seemed like too much for a Kestrel.  Then it took flight and I got a good view of its gray-blue back and striped tail.  It was my first Merlin ever in Wake County, and a new species for the Wake County Project list.

129) Merlin

Later on the walk, we spotted a cluster of birds swimming in the distance. A quick look through the scope confirmed that they were American Coots!  I still don't know how I missed these last winter, but they were one of only two species left on my Top 100 Frequency List to be checked off.  Having seen them now, all that is left on the Top 100 list is Pine Siskin.

130) American Coot

My plan for the next outing was Mid-Pines Road, which I actually did this past Sunday with very good results.  I'll report what I saw in my next entry, coming soon.