Venture to Cowan's Ford, McGuire Nuclear Plant and Mary Buckle's House, Charlotte, NC
January
24, 2004
Despite the impending weather, it turned out to be a very nice day in the Charlotte area with blue skies and very little wind - we could have even had our "gourmet" picnic out in the open air. Ducks were the order of the day this morning and we had great scope views of at least 8 species on the lakes at Cowan's Ford. The biggest surprise was a pair of Northern Shoveler and three Greater Scaup. We had a good discussion about the identification features of both scaup and then had superb views of about 50 Lessers (mostly male) on the thermal ponds at McGuire. As the grasses were so high this winter, the sparrows were not particularly easy today and we only ended up with views of Song, Savannah and Swamp. A surprise was the single Palm Warbler on the split rail fence on our way out. After a good lunch in Davidson we spent the last few hours of the day at Mary Buckle's house waiting for the Western Tanager to appear. Alas, we were not so lucky and we had to be happy with a very brief fly-by. However, some compensation (!) appeared in the form of a Red-shouldered Hawk, Great Blue Heron and Pine Warbler. All in all we had a very nice day with a good representation of our winter avifauna.
| Birds | |
| Pied-billed Grebe (2) | Blue Jay |
| Great Blue Heron (1) | American Crow |
| Black Vulture (10+) | Carolina Chickadee |
| Turkey Vulture | Tufted Titmouse |
| Gadwall (4 females) | White-breasted Nuthatch (1) |
| American Wigeon (1 female) | Carolina Wren (Heard) |
| American Black Duck (1) | Golden-crowned Kinglet (1) |
| Mallard | Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1) |
| Northern Shoveler (2) | Eastern Bluebird |
| Green-winged Teal (10+) | Hermit Thrush (2) |
| Ring-necked Duck (10+) | American Robin |
| Greater Scaup (3) | Northern Mockingbird |
| Lesser Scaup (50+) | Brown Thrasher (1) |
| Bufflehead (30+) | European Starling |
| Hooded Merganser (3) | Cedar Waxwing (25+) |
| Cooper’s Hawk (2) | Yellow-rumped Warbler (5+) |
| Red-shouldered Hawk (3) | Pine Warbler (1 male) |
| Red-tailed Hawk (4) | Palm Warbler (1) |
| American Kestrel (2) | Western Tanager (brief views by John and ST!!!) |
| Wilson’s Snipe (4) | Eastern Towhee (Heard) |
| Ring-billed Gull (4) | Chipping Sparrow (1) |
| Mourning Dove | Field Sparrow (2) |
| Rock Pigeon | Savannah Sparrow (10+) |
| Belted Kingfisher (2) | Song Sparrow |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker (5+) | Swamp Sparrow (1) |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (1) | Northern Cardinal |
| Downy Woodpecker (1 heard) | Red-winged Blackbird (1 female) |
| Hairy Woodpecker (1) | Eastern Meadowlark (10+) |
| Northern Flicker (4) | American Goldfinch |
| Other Critters | |
| Gray Squirrel | White-tailed Deer |