[EMAS] Mills River area: New and continuing RN Grebes, House Wren... - 3/21/14
- From: Steve Ritt <stevenmritt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: emas <emas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:26:07 -0700
There was a House Wren on private property in the Mills River Valley this
morning. Given the habitat, date, and the birds behavior, I have a very
strong hunch that this bird overwintered here.
While poking around the valley, I realized that there are still very good
numbers of Swamp Sparrows, mediocre numbers of White-throated, very few
Savannah (about 15), and only one White-crowned Sparrow. I could only spend
from 10 am - 1 pm there, never even hit the good spots around the library,
and the birding was incredibly slow. Still, I get the impression that the
overwintering sparrows are slowly moving out.
Other birds of mild interest in the valley included:
Barn Swallow (my eastern FOS)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (possibly overwintering)
Brown Thrasher (probably overwintering)
The Wastewater Treatment Pond had:
Red-necked Grebe - 1 continuing
Greater Scaup - an extremely quick estimate of about 15 (but only 3 males,
indicative of departure)
Lesser Scaup - about 5
Redhead - 3
Ring-necked Duck - 1
Bufflehead - 3
Kelly Hughes had three continuing Red-necked Grebes at Lake Julian Park
this morning. She also astutely noticed that the patch of habitat near the
Mills River Library that supported a Clay-colored Sparrow, Dickcissel, and
a few Orange-crowned Warblers last fall has been destroyed. Sigh.
One Red-necked Grebe was in the pond just SSE of I-26 x 191. Unfortunately,
there is no access to view this pond except while driving 65 MPH westbound
on I-26.
I forgot to mention that I had one Chipping Sparrow at Enka Lake yesterday.
I rarely find these in the French Broad River Valley in the winter (I only
had one other this winter), and I'm curious if anyone knows of any good
spots for wintering Chippies. They increase dramatically as you drop down
out of the mountains, but I'm just curious about their exact status here.
Thanks,
Steve Ritt
Asheville, NC / San Diego, CA
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- » [EMAS] Mills River area: New and continuing RN Grebes, House Wren... - 3/21/14 - Steve Ritt
