About these hotspots
Four eBird hotspots around the Triangle of North Carolina, each with its own database of historical observations.
Sandy Creek Park
Sandy Creek Park is a nature preserve in Durham, NC, featuring diverse habitats including hardwood forests, creek corridors, and open fields.
Brumley Nature Preserve--North
Brumley Nature Preserve is a protected area in Orange County, NC, offering excellent birding opportunities with mixed habitats.
Flat River Waterfowl Impoundment
Flat River Waterfowl Impoundment is a managed wetland area near Durham, NC, known for excellent waterfowl viewing and diverse waterbird species.
Jordan Lake Ebenezer Church
Described as "the best spot in the Triangle to look for rare water birds," this Jordan Lake hotspot offers commanding views of the reservoir and attracts diverse waterfowl, loons, grebes, and other waterbirds.
Lake Betz
Lake Betz is a small lake in Morrisville, NC, with a paved loop trail and wooded edges that draw waterfowl, herons, and woodland songbirds.
Falls Lake--Will Suitt Rd. RR Grade
The Will Suitt Road railroad grade runs out into the upper end of Falls Lake in Granville County, NC, giving open views over shallow water and the mudflats exposed when the lake is low.
Falls Lake--Ellerbe Creek RR Grade
The Ellerbe Creek railroad grade crosses the Ellerbe Creek arm of Falls Lake in Durham County, NC, with open views over shallow water, mudflats and the wooded shoreline.
Falls Lake--Will Suitt Mudflats
The Will Suitt Mudflats are the flats exposed at the upper end of Falls Lake, south of the Will Suitt Road railroad grade in Durham County, NC, drawing shorebirds, terns and wading birds when the lake is drawn down.
How to read this site
Everything here is built from complete eBird checklists submitted at each hotspot. A few notes on method:
- Detection rate means the fraction of checklists (or days) on which a species was reported — a measure that accounts for how much birding effort happened, not just raw counts.
- Phenology figures (arrival, departure, migration timing) use first- and last-of-year dates per species, fit with a robust Theil–Sen trend that resists outlier years.
- Harbingers are species whose arrival reliably precedes another's, used to forecast what's coming next.
- 2015 is excluded from trend work because coverage that year was partial.