Monday, September 8, 2014

County Big Year is Nearing the Homestretch

I've written before about my quest to see 200 bird species in Mecklenburg County for the year 2014. My race against time is in the backstretch now, with the homestretch looming begining Oct. 1. Yesterday I spent about four hours on a boat on Lake Norman looking for unusual migrating terns and gulls.
The day started with promise, with black terns and Caspian terns seen early on. And then we saw more black terns, and then some more, and then more. Same for the Caspians. Our count of 13 Caspian terns is likely a one-day record count for Mecklenburg County; and our conservative count of 26 black terns could actually have been well over that number.
But nothing else showed. I did add Caspian tern to my list, giving me 176 for the year. It's gonna be close come Dec. 31.


Caspian Tern by Jeff Lewis.

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