Date: 5/5/26 4:47 am From: Christopher Hill (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re: Attention Piedmont, NC, Birders: New HotSpots
Yay for new hotspots and for merging existing checklists. If you want to do what Noah recommends, here are the instructions for how to merge your personal list with the new hotspot:
If the link doesn't work for you here is the text of the instructions:
Merge a Personal Location with another location or Hotspot
Merging a location will permanently combine all of the checklists from one location with another. This is helpful if:
you have multiple redundant personal locations you wish to combine into a single location
you want to merge a personal location with an existing Hotspot.
Important: There is no way to undo a merge, so be careful!
This action is only available for personal locations created by you.
Go to My Locations <https://ebird.org/mylocations> from the My eBird page
Use the Search bar to find and select the personal location you wish to merge (i.e., the location you are sending checklists away from)
Select "Merge". The map will display:
nearby personal locations (blue icons)
nearby public hotspots (red icons with flames)
the location to be merged with another (green icon)
the number of checklists currently assigned to the green location (shown above the "Merge" button)
Click the personal location (blue) or Hotspot (red) you want the green personal location to be merged into.
The name of the personal location or hotspot selected to receive the green location's checklists will be shown in bold above the "Merge" button.
The "Delete after merging" box should be:
Checked if you want to delete the green location from your personal locations after moving its checklists to the selected blue or red location
Unchecked if you want to keep the green location after moving all of its checklists to the selected blue or red location (effectively making the green location an "empty" personal location with no associated checklists)
Click the blue "Merge" button to re-assign all checklists from the green location to the selected blue personal location or red hotspot.
A pop-up will ask "Are you sure?" click Yes to continue. Remember, this action cannot be undone!
If the merge was successful, you will see a yellow notification bar that says "Location has been merged."
Chris Hill, Ph.D.
Professor
Biology Department
Coastal Carolina University
Office: Douglas 207H
(843) 349-2567
email: <chill...>
> On May 5, 2026, at 12:46 AM, Noah Rokoske <carolinabirds...> wrote:
>
> Warning: Unusual link
> This message contains an unusual link, which may lead to a malicious site. Confirm the message is safe before clicking any links.
> Hello all,
> I have some good news to share! After working with the NC HotSpot coördinator, I have gotten three new HotSpots approved for Durham County. I know this is drudgery, but it would greatly please my OCD-afflicted brain if anyone who has birded these spots would merge their personal locations with the new HotSpots. I spent, of my own volition, several months scouring all eBird records and compiling comprehensive Google spreadsheets of every species, checklist, and observer at each of these locations, and I would love it if this information could be reproduced via Citizen Science on eBird itself! I will describe the new HotSpots below, and if you think you may have birded there in the past, pretty-please double-check and merge your locations.
> Yay citizen science!
>
> 1. Parkwood Water Treatment Pond (from outside the fence) <https://ebird.org/hotspot/L13316952>: This is a Durham County wastewater treatment plant in the southern county, right on Hwy 55 before the County Line at Apex. Address: 5926 NC-55 Durham, NC 27713 <https://www.google.com/maps/place/Triangle+Wastewater+Treatment/@35.8800301,-78.8947104,590m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x89acef0261ea352f:0xd24e0f7c6e3bce36!2s5926+Apex+Hwy,+Durham,+NC+27713!3b1!8m2!3d35.8798987!4d-78.8924475!3m5!1s0x89acef030486ae31:0xfd668740dcfb2085!8m2!3d35.8804169!4d-78.8932575!16s%2Fg%2F1w456gwb?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D>. This location is THE place to see a (or, likely, dozens of) Northern Shoveler in the county. And, in recent years, lesser scaup have become common too. Records from the late 1990s show an amazing array of shorebirds waltzing through in late summer, thanks to Magnus Persmark.
>
> 2. Lake Winds Golf Course <https://ebird.org/hotspot/L13406704>: This is a golf course in the northern county, located at 1807 Moore's Mill Road, Rougemont NC 27572 <https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lake+Winds+Golf+Course/@36.2097851,-78.91018,703m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x89ad1bb8fb8322e5:0x4b67aacfe865d5db!8m2!3d36.2097852!4d-78.9053091!16s%2Fg%2F1tjtk43j?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D>. The ownership recently changed, and the course is in the midst of a massive renovation. Luckily for us, the new owners already appear to be amenable to birders (which is saying something because the old owner did not much like us scoping the pond), so I feel good about declaring this a HotSpot. Folks have been birding here since about 2012, and it has become known as one of the most-- if not the most-- preëminent place in the county for viewing overwintering waterfowl. This February, in the throes of the interminable ice storms, birders were reporting 35+ Canvasbacks in a small hole in the ice on Bollinger Pond.
>
> 3. McFarland Lake and Moore's Mill Fields <https://ebird.org/hotspot/L13938785>: This is a large area of cropfields surrounding a farm pond, across the road from the golf course proper and extending south to the gravel State Forest Road that transects NCSU's Hill Forest. There is no address, but if you look at your eBird locations and they say something like "1856-2252 Moore's Mill Rd <https://www.google.com/maps/@36.2138847,-78.9010938,1009m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D>," etc, you likely birded this HotSpot. It made a big splash in 2020 after 3 glossy ibis were reported there in April, and then it was birded pretty continuously for the next month until folks lost interest. Aside from attracting windblown waders with its marshy inflow streams, McFarland Lake is good for waterfowl (though not as crazy as Lake Winds), and the adjacent fields house the county's only known sustained breeding population of Horned Larks.
>
> If any of these sounds familiar, please please please review your checklists and merge your locations so we can have the most accurate data possible on eBird. I will also be adding information to the new About Pages on these HotSpots' eBird sites so that more information may be available to prospective birders. BIG thanks and good birding,
> ~ Noah
