Outing #21 - Schenck Forest, Prairie Ridge Ecostation and E. Carroll Joyner Park

10/22/2016

It's getting harder to add new species to the Wake County Project list. Most of the birds I've not yet seen are fairly uncommon, and many of them are trickier to identify than most that I've already listed. As I planned my birding outing for Saturday, October 22nd, I checked the BirdsEye App, as I often do, to see where the unusual species were being found. As had been true for the previous two weeks or more, Schenck Forest seemed to be the hotspot. Reports during the previous week listed Black Bellied Plover (#203 on the frequency list), Gray Cheeked Thrush (#173), Cape May Warbler (#159), Magnolia Warbler (#119), Black Throated Blue Warbler (#105), and Scarlet Tanager (#113). Most of these hadn't been seen for several days, however. There was also an American Bittern (#155) reported at Prairie Ridge Ecostation, which is only a short drive from Schenck Forest. So I decided to bird just part of the Schenck Forest, then to head over to Prairie Ridge to see if I could find the Bittern.

Unfortunately, the trip did not turn up any new species. Probably the best sighting was of three Palm Warblers, which I saw back in March, but which are birds that I haven't seen often here in Wake County. The American Bittern also failed to appear at Prairie Ridge Ecostation.

If you read the comment on my previous blog entry, I was advised by a fellow birder to try going out to see warblers in the afternoon rather than the morning. So the next day, I went back to Schenck Forest, this time arriving closer to noon. Someone had spotted and photographed a Vesper Sparrow there on Saturday (which I managed to miss), so I thought it might be worth going back just to try to get that one, even if I didn't see any warblers.

I was very glad that I went back. Although I didn't find the Vesper Sparrow, I did manage to see a Black Throated Blue Warbler!  It is a beautiful bird.  Dark blue on top, a black throat, and a little white spot on the otherwise blue wings. It landed in a tree less than 10 feet away from me, so I could identify it without the binoculars. It was also one of the first birds I saw after arriving.

127)  Black Throated Blue Warbler

The following Saturday I decided to join a Meetup bird walk with Wake Audubon. The walk was at E. Carroll Joyner Park in Wake Forest, and during the previous week, birders had reported seeing a Merlin there as well as a Swamp Sparrow, neither of which were on my Wake County Project list. I had never been to the park, and wanted to see what it had to offer.

There is a nice pond here (see photo at left) but it was strangely devoid of birds. According to eBird.org, ducks are rarely sighted there, and herons are only occasional visitors. So it's a nice body of water to look at, but definitely not teeming with wildlife.

The busiest area of the park for birds is on the other side of the pond where a set of poles and power lines is found. This area had a lot of different species including Eastern Bluebirds, American Goldfinches, two warblers (but nothing new for the list) and several sparrows. Among these sparrows was a Swamp Sparrow (#61) which is a new species for the Wake County Project list! The Swamp Sparrow was one of only three winter birds on the top 100 list that I had not yet recorded. That leaves only Pine Siskin and American Coot to round out the list of the 100 most commonly reported birds in Wake County.

128)  Swamp Sparrow

Next time around, I'd still like to try to find that American Bittern at Prairie Ridge Ecostation, and there have been a number of Red Breasted Nuthatches sighted in several places around the western side of Raleigh. A friend tells me that there is a pair of them in Baileywick Park that might be easy to find. Perhaps I'll head up there and see if I can see them.

Outing #20 - Schenck Forest

10/16/2016

I was out of town for two weeks in late September and early October, so I missed most of the last of the warbler migration - or so I thought. But when I got on eBird.org to decide where to go birding over the October 15th weekend, I was surprised at all of the unusual species that had been seen at Schenck forest just two or three days before!  Species that were not yet on my Wake County list, such as Philadelphia Vireo (#204 on the frequency list), Tennessee Warbler (#171), Cape May Warbler (#159), Black Throated Green Warbler (#149), Blackpoll Warbler (#148), Hooded Warbler (#122), Magnolia Warbler (#119), Loggerhead Shrike (#109) and Red Breasted Nuthatch (#108). I was pleasantly surprised to see so many species that I needed for my list all identified in one place. So I got up early, arrived at the Schenck Forest by 7:20 AM, and spent more than three hours there hoping to see some new species.

Mostly, I was disappointed. I saw a lot of the more common species that I would usually expect to see at Schenck Forest. And I got a decent photo of an Eastern Meadowlark (see photo at left) through my spotting scope, but when it came to warblers, the only ones I saw were Pine Warblers.

Turns out, though, that the one species I did see from this list was actually the least common of them all! During the first hour, I was on the little access road that leads past the big, mostly leafless tree, past a derelict house and onward to a gate. Standing near the front of the derelict house, I saw a yellow breasted bird land in a large bush. My first thought was that it might be a vireo. It had a yellow breast, a distinctive eye stripe, no wing bars, and a quite short, pointy beak. On closer inspection I could see that the yellow color was also present on the vent. This was not one of the vireos I had identified before.  It turned out to be a Philadelphia Vireo, a lifer as well as a new species for the Wake County list!

125)  Philadelphia Vireo

I had to skip the Richland Creek part of the trail because Hurricane Matthew had caused it to flood and the trail was still very muddy. That meant I wasn't able to visit the small lake across Reedy Creek Road where a Black Bellied Plover had been recently identified. But on the way back up through the park to my car, I did catch a glimpse of a little brown bird scooting up the trunk of a tree, and it turned out to be a Brown Creeper (#90)!  It must have been on the leading edge of those returning to the area for winter, because mine was the first sighting of this fall season for Schenck Forest, and one of the first sightings of the season for the entire county!

126)  Brown Creeper

Once again I'll check eBird.org before my next outing to see what new species might be about. I know that Prairie Ridge Ecostation has had several sightings of an American Bittern.  I tried to find it last winter, but to no avail. Maybe I'll have better luck this time around!

Outing #19 - Harris Lake County Park & Umstead Park

09/10/2016

I haven't been to Harris Lake County Park since May. There's something about this park that I like a lot, despite the long drive. Maybe its the mix of maintained and minimally maintained areas that attracts me. The maintained spaces around the main parking area seem to have a lot of birds in the early morning hours. When that begins to die down, there is still some activity to be found on the minimally maintained trails. This time, I came hoping to find at least one of several species that had been recently reported: Blue Headed Vireo (#137 on the Wake County Frequency List), Yellow Throated Vireo (#136), Yellow Breasted Chat (#129), Magnolia Warbler (#119), and/or Yellow Billed Cuckoo (#106).

I arrived around 7:45 AM and started birding near the open field by the volleyball net. Saw a number of good species here, including four Red Headed Woodpeckers (see photo at left), three Summer Tanagers, and a Hairy Woodpecker. There were a number of little yellow-breasted birds flitting around the trees, most of which were Pine Warblers. Several of them came down to the grass, which had been recently mowed. They seemed to be both chasing insects and wetting their feathers. But I kept checking out the ones in the trees as they would make an appearance, mostly trying to count them, and finally got lucky - olive green back, yellow breast, white belly, two white wing bars, and a more elongated body that would be hard to confuse with a Pine Warbler.  A closer look showed the yellowish spectacles around the eyes that extend forward toward the beak. A Yellow Throated Vireo! There may have been two, but I at least saw one of them well enough to identify it. A lifer for me, as well as a new species for the Wake County Project list.

123)  Yellow Throated Vireo

Around 9 AM I decided to hit the Peninsula Trail and see what I could find. The entire trail is 4.6 miles, so I only walked part of it, then followed some vehicle access roads (unpaved) to get back. The last time I was here there was a Northern Waterthrush out there, but I didn't end up seeing anything new on this day. I might have seen a Common Yellowthroat - some kind of yellow bird with black on the face, anyway - but the glimpse was fleeting and I couldn't identify it for sure. I did see two Eastern Wood Pewees, a bird I was desperately trying to see about a month ago. Otherwise, though, nothing new on the trails.

I finally picked up a Yellow Billed Cuckoo as well, but not at Harris Lake. I was out walking with my wife along the Graylyn Trail at Umstead Park, around 6 PM Sunday when I saw a bird land on an exposed branch about 15 feet into the forest. Long bird, brown upper parts, white below, yellowish beak and the white from the throat seemed to ride up on the neck a bit. I couldn't see the pattern under the tail because of shadows. I was pretty sure, but had to wait until I got home and checked for other possibilities before I was certain. I've heard this one several times over the summer, but this was my first look at it. So now I can add it to the list.

124) Yellow Billed Cuckoo

Several warbler species have already been reported this past week that I haven't seen yet. There's been one report of Black Throated Green Warbler here in Wake County at Schenck Forest. Magnolia Warbler has been spotted in three places:  Harris Lake, Shelley Lake, and Lake Lynn. And Worm Eating Warbler has been reported at Schenck Forest. I don't yet have Baltimore Oriole, which has been seen in three places recently - Lake Crabtree, Meredith College, and Durant Nature Park. Two reports of Bobolink have come through at Prairie Ridge Ecostation and Lake Crabtree Southport.  A Scarlet Tanager was reported at Wilkerson Nature Preserve Park. Red Breasted Nuthatches have been reported at two private locations within the County, and a Philadelphia Vireo at Baileywick Park. No real clustering to be found here, except that Lake Crabtree and Schenck Forest show up twice. Lake Crabtree has also had recent reports of interesting waterfowl, such as American Avocet, Semipalmated Plover, Marbled Godwit, and Stilt Sandpiper. I'll keep an eye out the next couple of days and then decide where best to put my birding energy as I try for species number 125! 

Outing #18 - Schenck Forest

09/05/2016

September is warbler season. Already this month, there have been reports of several migrating warbler species in Wake County, including Cape May Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut Sided Warbler, and Canada Warbler. On Labor Day morning, some friends and I decided to give Schenck Forest a try to see if we could spot any early migrating warblers.

The birds were strangely quiet when we arrived at 7:30 in the morning. I saw one or two species flitting about, but nothing like the typical burst of activity. It was a little cooler than normal, which might explain the slow start, but we also noticed some new construction taking place at the intersection of Reedy Creek Rd. and Edwards Mill Road. Quite a bit of the open field area to the southeast of Schenck Forest has been plowed and leveled, and this may have disturbed some of the Eastern Meadowlarks and other birds that are usually common there. The strangest thing was the absence of any birds on the power lines that run through the field. Normally we would expect to see at least a couple of species perching there. Hopefully the construction will not permanently impair the birding conditions.

Unfortunately, the day did not turn out to be a great one for warblers. The only warblers we identified were Pine Warblers, which are here year round and not unusual in forests with a healthy pine component. They are the 24th most commonly reported bird species in Wake County. We did, however, manage to see three new bird species for the Wake County Project list.

The most exciting find of the day happened toward the end of the walk. We were birding our way up the Reedy Creek Greenway Trail, which runs just outside Schenck Forest, when one of my friends spotted a large shape in one of the pine trees within Schenck Forest. At first, it was out in the open, and a quick look through the binoculars confirmed it was a Great Horned Owl (#130 on the Wake County Frequency List). I got my spotting scope out for a closer look, then tried to use my Phone Skope attachment to get a photo. Unfortunately, the owl moved before I could get a clear shot. The photo at left was the best I could manage.


The other two species we added to the list were a Veery (#152), who was flocking together with two or three Wood Thrushes, and a Broad Winged Hawk (#184) that seemed to be chasing after two Red Tailed Hawks for some reason. I wouldn't have been able to identify the Broad Winged Hawk without support from my fellow birders. I suppose the Broad Winged Hawk should have been the most exciting find of the day because it is relatively rarely reported in Wake County, but seeing the Great Horned Owl out in the open sun was a nice treat.

120)  Great Horned Owl

121)  Veery

122)  Broad Winged Hawk

Thinking about my next outing, it looks like Shelley Lake has been a good place for migrating warblers so far this September. Both Magnolia Warbler and Canada Warbler have been reported there, according to ebird.org. I feel like Lake Lynn might be another good option, and perhaps even Harris Lake County Park in the southwestern part of the County might be a good option.

Outing #17 - Lake Crabtree County Park - Southport Entrance

09/03/2016

It's September - time to start looking for migratory birds and the first of those winter visitors coming back from their breeding grounds. This past week on Friday, there were a number of reports of less-common birds having been sighted at Lake Crabtree County Park - Southport Entrance. This trail is across the lake from the main park facilities and is probably of little interest to anyone who is not a birder. It gets a little mushy after it rains, and the trailhead is very tricky to find the first time.

The main park facilities are bounded by Interstate 40 to the North, and Aviation Parkway to the west. The main park entrance is at 1400 Aviation Parkway.  To get to the Southport entrance, you must drive south from I-40, past the main entrance, past the lake itself, and then left onto Southport Drive. Continue down Southport Dr. until you come to a wide spot in the road.  In front of you there should be a low, curved white wall with the name of a business on it. Instead of entering the parking lot for the business, turn right onto the little side street. This will lead into a parking lot behind a big building. It looks all wrong, but keep going through the parking lot until you come to a place with a sign and an entrance to the trail. As you enter the trail, veer to the left. I turned right my first time and walked a long way before I realized I was moving away from the lake.

Some people prefer to enter the trail near a red fire hydrant if it's been raining, to avoid the worst of the mud. Either way, when you come to the area with large, vertical concrete pipes, keep watch to your right.  Hopefully the sand bar will be visible. It is right next to a large stump that should be visible even if the sandbar is not. See photo above. If the sandbar is visible, there may be a number of different bird species running around there.

Prior to the holiday weekend, birders had reported the following species at the Southport Entrance: Glossy Ibis (#267 on the Wake County frequency list), Red Necked Phalarope (#263), Stilt Sandpiper (#232), Short Billed Dowitcher (#208), Common Tern (#211), Pectoral Sandpiper (#169), Caspian Tern (#151), and Blue Winged Teal (#134). Any of these would have been new birds for the Wake County Project list, and several would be lifers for me. I was feeling pretty optimistic about this outing, and for good reason, it turns out.

There were several other birders already present by the time I arrived around 1 PM. It had been raining quite a bit that morning as the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine passed through the area, so some birder friends and I waited until the weather improved to make our way to the trail. Also, the sun is in a bad position for viewing birds on the sandbar in the morning, so afternoon viewing is better.

As you can see from the photo above and to the left, the first species I noticed once I set up the spotting scope was Caspian Tern. There were five of them altogether, and they stayed out on that sandbar for most of the time I was there, except when a Bald Eagle passed overhead and made them take flight. Caspian Tern was a new one for the project list, but the more interesting bird was the little one to the right of the Caspians in the photo at left. That is a Common Tern (#211), which, despite its name, happens to be less common here in Wake County than is the Caspian (#151). This one is not in its breeding plumage. The Common Tern is also the first species I've seen on this project that is less frequent than the 180th bird. Given that my goal is to see 180 species, I either need to pick up some species that are less common than 180th on the frequency list, or else I have to manage to see every single species on the list up to the 180th, which I think is unlikely to happen. So picking up my first species that is even more rare than the 180th species bodes well for the future!

115)  Caspian Tern

116)  Common Tern

A small group of us spent a lot of time watching the shorebirds running around on the sandbar, hoping to spot the Red Necked Phalarope. It had been reported on Friday, and someone said it had been seen again on Saturday morning. We saw one bird that might have been it, but were never able to confirm an ID. We did, however, see several new species for the Wake County Project list, including Greater Yellowlegs (#164), Lesser Yellowlegs (#153), and Pectoral Sandpiper (#169). It was nice to have both the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs to compare size.

117)  Greater Yellowlegs

118)  Lesser Yellowlegs

119)  Pectoral Sandpiper

My next outing will hopefully net some migrating warblers. Sometime this month, I'd like to head to Yates Mill County Park and see what might be lurking there, and a trip to the northern end of Lake Lynn might be productive for spotting warblers on the move.

Outing #16 - East Fork Mine Creek Trail and Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve

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.

112)  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?

113)  Prairie Warbler

114)  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.

Outing #15 - Schenck Forest

07/23/2016

I'm into my seventh month of the Wake County birding project during which I'm hoping to see at least 180 species in Wake County over a three year period. This summer, I've been working to knock as many of the Top 100 most frequent birds from my list as possible. Among those birds that are normally encountered in the summer, I had just three left as I considered my last outing in July - House Wren, Eastern Wood Pewee, and Barred Owl. I'd heard Barred Owls at least twice this year, and a House Wren at least once, but hadn't gotten a visual identification, which is one of the requirements of my project.

A birding friend read my previous blog post and suggested that the best place to see the Eastern Wood Pewee (#91 on the frequency list) is Schenck Forest. That's also the only place I've ever seen one before, so it seemed like advice I should follow. Schenck Forest is also a place where the Yellow Billed Cuckoo (#106) has been reported recently, and a Great Horned Owl (#130) was identified there earlier in the summer. 

A few days prior to heading out to the Schenck Forest, I was out for a morning exercise walk in Umstead State Park when I caught a glimpse of a small bird down on the ground at the edge of the forest. It turned out to be a House Wren (#75)! It was a lucky find. I also saw a Pileated Woodpecker that day, a species I had struggled to find earlier in the year, and had just picked up for the first time this year back on July 9th.

109)  House Wren

Along with two birding friends from Wake Audubon Society, I arrived at Schenck Forest a bit after 7 AM and started birding along the main gravel path just off of Reedy Creek Road. There was a lot of bird activity - mostly very common species - but then we got a glimpse of a raptor over the open field and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was a Northern Harrier (#142). We all three got a decent look at it, and agreed it was a Harrier with its distinctive white rump patch. Using the Species Maps tool on eBird.org, I have since checked for other sightings and found that Northern Harriers had been spotted in Raleigh twice during the month of May. One of these reports was made on the far side of the small lake that is located just outside of Schenck Forest. Perhaps this Northern Harrier just decided to stay in the area for the summer rather than migrating north.

110)  Northern Harrier

After spotting the Harrier, we headed for Reedy Creek Road and decided to walk along the Reedy Creek Trail that follows the road and leads past a lake just across the road from Schenck Forest. The day was predicted to be very hot, so we wanted to get the roadway part of the walk out of the way while it was still somewhat cool in the early part of the morning. We didn't see anything new for the list along the Reedy Creek Trail, but we did see a couple of nice birds nonetheless - birds such as Indigo Bunting, Ruby Throated Hummingbirds, and an Eastern Kingbird.

After checking the lake for new species, we headed back into the forest at a little entrance that follows Richland Creek. The path was very muddy from some recent torrential rain, and we didn't see much there, perhaps because we were too busy watching our feet to make sure we didn't fall in the mud! It wasn't until we angled away from Richland Creek back up into the woods that we began to hear a number of calls. The one that got our attention the most was the call of a Yellow Billed Cuckoo. We spent a pretty good amount of time trying to spot this one, but I was unsuccessful in the end.

A little further up the trail, we entered the part of the Schenck Forest where a whole grove of trees has been grafted at the trunk. We were still keeping an eye out for the Yellow Billed Cuckoo when we got a very quick glimpse of a raptor flying from one tree into another at the far end of the clearing. We only saw it for a couple of seconds, and it was flying away from us with only its back visible. None of us got our binoculars on it, and nobody recognized it merely by shape, but we thought there was a chance it might have been a Great Horned Owl. There wasn't enough evidence to count it, however, and after waiting to see if it would show itself again, we had to move on and leave it off of our list for the day.

On the last leg of our walk, we entered a section of trees and heard the call of an Eastern Wood Pewee. One of the things I love about birding with Wake Audubon folks is that so many of them have really good ears for bird calls. Once we knew the Pewee was near, we kept looking until we finally saw it. It flitted around quite a bit for awhile, then it seemed to lose its fear of us and ended up landing in a branch less than 20 feet away. I got a really good look at it, and added one more bird to the Wake County Project List.

111) Eastern Wood Pewee

The last of the common summer birds that I need to see is the Barred Owl.  I know where to go, and should be able to pick it up if it's still around.  I just have to find the time to get out there and get it added to the list.  Maybe I'll try to record this one this upcoming weekend.