Jordan Lake dam

Tag

By Osprey Sunrise

This morning as the sun rose over the Haw River at the Jordan Lake Dam, the ospreys began to fill the sky with graceful flights as they fished for their breakfast.

By Fisher Bird Breakfast Club

Quick survey of the breakfast flights at the Jordan Lake Dam tailrace riprap this morning. Just thought I would let y’all get a taste of how active the birds are being. At least three times I saw groups of 15 ospreys up in the air. There were 11 great egrets. 6 to 10 great blue herons. One green heron! If you get a chance, and even if you do not have binoculars or a telephoto lens, bring your chair and sit down at the riprap and just watch. The ospreys are fishing at the upper end of the river by the dam. I hope you get to go by and enjoy them.

Ospreys and Great Egrets

By 2nd Day with Leucistic Chipping Sparrow

Here is a much better set of photos of the leucistic chipping sparrow at Jordan Lake. I put the set out yesterday in a hurry because sometimes these oddly colored babies don’t have a long life … I wanted everybody to have a chance, if they could, to go and see it. The youngster was still there this morning so here is a brand new photo set. Hope y’all enjoy them.

portrait
parent feeding the youngster
feeding the youngster
feeding the youngster
parent looking for food
have they both spotted a bug?

By RARE Bird at Jordan Lake

Jordan Lake Visitor Assistance Center at the dam has a RARE bird. The light colored chipping sparrow fledgling is showing a leucistic pattern. Leucistic = white. Compare the youngster’s white areas to its parent’s dark plumage. This kind of plumage color abnormality occurs about 1 in 30,000 birds. I hope you can go see this cutie. Thanks Army Corps CESAW Jon Bannerman for the original sighting!

leucistic chipping sparrow