Longleaf Pine habitat loved by the formerly endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Birding the North Carolina Research Triangle
Generally, I’m not a big fan of academic conferences. On the plus side, they can be inspiring and essential. But they’re too often marked by self-importance, careerism, and inconsequential knowledge. (Stick with me for a minute. I’ll get to the birds). The Immigration Law Teachers and Scholars conference is one of the great ones. Every year, awesome professors come together to share ideas and help make America the place of equality, dignity, and welcome that it should be.
This year’s iteration was held at Duke Law School. North Carolina is where I first whitewater kayaked thirty years ago. But I wasn’t a birder way back then. And there were some potential lifers in the area in June. So when I wasn’t in conference sessions, I snuck in some birding.
The on-campus birding was pretty good. Just 5 minutes from my hotel was a swampy area with some trails. It didn’t hold any lifers, but it was full of eastern songbirds like Red-eyed Vireo, Tufted Titmouse, Pine Warbler, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, and American Robin. I also saw three different kinds of woodpeckers (Hairy, Downy, and Red-bellied). A reclamation pond on campus got me views of Gray Catbird and the southeast special Brown-headed Nuthatch. I needed a rental car to chase lifers.
In search of a Kentucky Warbler
Once the conference was over, I picked up a rental car. My first target was Kentucky Warbler. These yellow songbirds with a black mask and yellow eyeline like to hide in the understory in damp areas. There had improbably been a Kentucky Warbler in San Diego back in Nov-Dec of 2025, but I never made the trip down to chase it. Just 20 minutes from campus was the Seven Mile Creek Nature Area. The spot is notable for its large stand of southern sugar maple, hackberry and swamp chestnut oak. More importantly for me, Kentucky Warblers had been regularly reported there.
Seven Mile Creek – Kentucky Warbler habitat
I drove over before sunset and took the trail straight to the creek. As I arrived, a warbler hidden in brush along the creek was making a loud, metallic “chip” that sounded good for Kentucky Warbler. It took me 10 minutes, but I eventually got quick glimpses of a Kentucky Warbler. It was walking around, occasionally jumping up to snag bugs off vegetation. I pished, and the bird flew into a tree just 20 feet above me and started singing. It stayed there, giving great views, singing away. Sadly, I had left my camera at home for this trip.
Blurry cellphone shot of a Kentucky Warbler that perched 30 feet from me for almost 10 minutes
I spotted some other nice birds at this great spot. At least one Ovenbird was calling “teacher, teacher, teacher” from the forest. A couple of Wood Thrushes were singing, but I never got eyes on either. A Louisiana Waterthrush (just my second sighting ever) was bobbing its tail as it walked along the creek edge. While I was watching it, a Hooded Warbler came in to drink at the creek.
I had hopes of seeing or hearing a Yellow-throated Vireo at Seven Mile Creek, but had no such luck. It would’ve been my first U.S sighting, having seen them previously in Costa Rica and the Yucatan.
In search of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker
My next life bird target for the trip was a bird species that used to be endangered: Red-cockaded Woodpecker. It was listed as endangered in 1970. They nest only in living, mature pine trees, and breed cooperatively. Thanks to recovery efforts, including man-made nest holes (it can take them 2-3 years to dig out a nest hole from a tree), numbers have recovered. From below 10,000 individuals in the 1970s, the population now nears 20,000. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified Red-cockaded Woodpecker as threatened in 2024. Still, the birds are a southeastern speciality. They’re found in patches of pine forest, with their range stretching from eastern Texas to southern Virginia.
I had to drive about an hour south from Durham to Carvers Creek State Park for the nearest reliable spot for these rare birds. In my first pass down the Longleaf Pine trail at the Sandhill access area, I saw plenty signs of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. There were literal signs with Red-cockaded Woodpeckers on them. And there were nest holes in many trees, easy to spot thanks to the sap that flows down the trunk around the nest holes. The sap is the tree’s responses to the birds pecking small holes around the nest opening. Apparently, the sap creates a slippery barrier that helps to keep raccoons and climbing snakes out of the nests. Despite all the evidence of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, though, I didn’t see or hear any in my first hour on the trail.
A lucky spot
Man-made nest
Doubling back on the trail, I lingered in the areas where the nest cavities were. My patience eventually paid off when I heard the distinctive high, squeaky “peek” calls of this species. At the tops of the pines, I saw three smallish black-and-white woodpeckers flying over me. I followed in their flight direction. I could still hear calls, but I wasn’t getting any visuals. After some frustration, I got one in my binoculars. It looked a little bigger than a Downy Woodpecker, with a big white cheek patch.
With my target found, and some time before I had to get to the airport, I went to another nearby hotspot. It was also in Carvers Creek State Park, this time at Long Valley Farm. There is a century-old Rockefeller estate on the site, and a pond surrounded by Cypress trees. That’s good habitat for Yellow-throated Vireo. To my delight, calling loudly and repeatedly at the dock that juts out into the pond, was a Yellow-throated Vireo. That was my third ABA-area lifer of the trip. Also in the area was a sharp Prothonotary Warbler and a grunting Anhinga. The Prothonotary Warbler is the only one I actually saw.
Calling from these cypress trees was a Yellow-throated Vireo and a Prothonotary Warbler
it was a short but productive 24 hours of birding before I flew out of Raleigh-Durham Airport. Can’t believe I didn’t bring my camera.
