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Apr 27, 2005
Bald Eagles (and more) at Jordan Lake
Top right: Geoff helps Kelly spot the very grand bald eagle perched in a tree about a half mile across the lake. Center: Kaudie trains her field glasses on a yellow-bellied pic-snapper.
Did you know that bald eagles live among us here in the Triangle? Mm, hmm. Yes, they do. If you'd like to see where to find them, as well as a great blue herons, the occasional white ibis, and even seagulls*, just zip on down to Jordan Lake.
I have many birding friends but I'd never joined them until recently when I discovered that long drives with hiking/kayaking/adversity are not always needed to see some beautiful sights and birds that I typically only read about. Jordan Lake** has many sites accessible by car with a short hike. A few clicks around CW Cook's Triangle Bird Guide got me to an indexed map of birding sites at Jordan Lake, including details about the Indian Creek site pictured here.
Added bonus for this site: according to the guide, Indian Creek is "reputed to be a good place to see frolicking naked men, so consider yourself warned."
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*Phil: Ooh! Ooh! What's that one? That black one way over there?
Kaudie: That's a seagull.
Phil: Oh.
**Just to be clear, Jordan Lake is almost entirely in Chatham County, not Durham County (as one might incorrectly guess from this blog's "Destination Durham" tag. But let me assure you that it's close enough. The Indian Creek site is just over the county line, on Highway 751 just 7 miles south of I-40.
12:38 AM in Destination Durham | Permalink
Comments
Well, those of us who live in Chatham think we're a little too close to Durham ...
I actually had to ride to RTP yesterday for the first time in many weeks (and RTP is almost entirely in Durham County). On the way I took Andrea's commute and unfortunately passed a turkey hen dead in the middle of the road.
It was right where she had mentioned seeing a turkey several times on her way to work. I called her later, and she said she didn't see it that morning (she left after I did).
Driving back home, sure enough someone had picked up the bird, and it was not to just move it off the road. As I was scanning the shoulders for signs of the body (I just couldn't handle a "Southerners be 'a eatin' roadkill" joke) I saw three more hens, and a tom - feathers fully out, just like in the pictures from elementary school about what a turkey should look like.
I just bring it up because a) it was the first tom I'd ever seen, and b) Ben Franklin wanted the turkey for our national bird over the bald eagle.
Posted by: Tarus | Apr 27, 2005 4:42:40 PM
I love Jordan Lake! I grew up about 1 mile from there. The occasional blue heron can be found in my parents front yard. I didn't know about the bald eagles though!
Posted by: Di | Apr 28, 2005 7:34:45 PM
Awwww, Phil goes birding!
BTW, you *can* actually see eagles in Durham. There are 3-4 nests on Falls Lake, one near the mouth of Ellerbee Creek.
Posted by: Josh | Apr 28, 2005 8:31:28 PM
When I lived in the Triangle, Indian Creek was my site for several years' worth of the Jordan Lake bald-eagle count. I would get up early on assigned Saturday mornings, go to that wooden platform on the edge of the lake, and record how many bald eagles I saw per hour. Often it was zero, often more; often I was cold and sleepy.
That's not to say I was never rewarded. One morning an Osprey failed to notice me standing there on the platform and came in for a landing not ten feet away. I could hear the rustle of its feathers as it settled in, and I could almost feel its shock at noticing a big smelly (cold-looking) human almost within fish-regurgitating distance. It flew away, leaving me fairly agog.
Another morning, just after dawn, I saw for the first time a Prothonotary Warbler. Its yellow-orange color was so hypersaturated that I had a powerful sense of my own visual system letting me down.
I never saw any naked human frolicking, though. Heh. Pretty cool that, when I moved to San Francisco, the Triangle seems to have moved with me.
Posted by: Brian Rice | Apr 29, 2005 11:35:53 PM
Wow, the Osprey and the Warbler are awesome. I might just have to get out more often. Kaudie saw some osprey while we were driving home from DC last weekend. Alas, I had to stay focused on the road.
Posted by: Phil | May 5, 2005 1:48:12 AM
Update, October 2008: this spot is now closed to observations.
Excerpt from News & Observer article:
Birders lose out to cruisers
Observation spot drew sex seekers
Leah Friedman, Staff Writer Comment on this story
JORDAN LAKE - An eagle watching group is being kicked out of its observation spot on Jordan Lake because of sights birders don't care to see.
For years, men have used a secluded parking lot at the Indian Creek entrance off N.C. 751 in Chatham County for sexual encounters. And the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, which has jurisdiction, says it has been unable to stop the sex there despite the use of undercover stings.
So the commission has asked the New Hope Audubon Society, which has maintained a trail there for two decades, to move its eagle observation deck to another spot on Jordan Lake. And the commission has now opened the Indian Creek entrance to dove hunters.
"We're not really happy about it," said Robert Howes, president of the Audubon Society chapter. "We'd rather not move. We've had the trail there for 20 years."
The commission asked the bird watching group to move, Howes said, after the society made many complaints about lewd behavior at their site. Plus, their observation deck was destroyed in a storm a few years back.
Wildlife Resources Commission Sgt. Reggie Barker, who oversees enforcement for Chatham, Lee and Randolph counties, said the commission has tried for years to stop the sex at that Jordan Lake entrance.
"It would become very frustrating," Barker said. "It's not something you can deal with every day, and it's a delicate situation to handle."
Posted by: Phil | Oct 7, 2008 3:05:59 AM
That is a very bizarre way to handle things. Men are hooking up with each other there so let's bring in the HUNTERS instead of the birders? A recipe for disaster if you ask me.
Nobody did, so oh well.
Since the observation deck was truly unusable and unsafe after that storm, birders haven't been going to that site all too often anyway.
Hm.
Posted by: stew | Jan 11, 2009 9:42:24 PM
