More Local BBBBBBRRRRrrrrrrding.... (23Jan2014)

Very cold today, so where else should I go other than the beach at dawn.  Turns out it is true that cold temps can produce good bird numbers especially when shore birds are involved.  At Masonboro Inlet there was tons of activity including a flock of gannet within 20 feet of shore.  A couple Long-tailed Ducks feeding off the jetty but too far for pictures.  No alcids that I could see but none the less it was good times.

                                                     Sanderling.

                                                  Northern Gannet

Usually Gannet are fairly far offshore feeding past the breakers in the ocean.  However these were actually feeding inside the intracoastal waterway.

                                               White lightning!

                                                Red-breasted Merganser

                                             Red-breasted Merganser family unit.

                                           Handsome devil.

Forster's Tern - Any other time of year these can be more difficult to separate from other terns.  However this time of year they are the only ones with a black oval around the eye.

More Local Birding (20-21Jan2014)

Monday after work I took an evening trip to Wrightsville Beach to see if I could scare up a Red-necked Grebe.  The South end jetty did not produce anything interesting mostly because there were a bunch of SUPers out and a couple fisherman on the jetty.  So I headed to Johnny Mercer's pier to do some ocean watching.  Things were pretty slow, lots of common loons as usual but not much of anything else.  I was about to split when I saw a jaeger come out of nowhere like they usually do.  It banked and flew directly at the end of the pier.  I fumbled with my camera but unfortunately I had it on manual focus and  the bird was so quick and flying right at me that by the time I focused a second later it was already out of focus.  However, who knows if I will get better pics of this bird so here they are.

Jaegers are the wall street hedge fund managers or maybe personal injury lawyers of the bird world.  Another bird's misfortune is a jaeger's fortune.  They hassle other birds into giving up their meals.  However where I think this is ugly in humans, I think its a beautiful thing when it comes to birds.  Jaeger's can out maneuver almost any gull which is no small thing considering that gulls and terns are also expert fliers.  This particular jaeger banked gracefully in front of me and then went into hyperdrive and chased a bunch of gulls near shore for quite some time before disappearing.  Based on the proximity to shore, the extended chase, the rapid wing beats and the intermediate size (slightly smaller than Ring-Billed gulls it was chasing) I am calling it a Parasitic Jaeger.  However, I am no Jaeger expert, so I welcome any dissenters.

Maybe I should take my appreciation for jaegers and translate it to admiration for hedge fund managers and personal injury lawyers.  They are just trying to make a living and improve the chances that their offspring will prosper like any critter.  Right?

On Tuesday I made an early morning trip to Fort Fisher to again try for my nemesis the American Bittern.  No luck in that department. However I bagged some random common birds.

                                              Eastern Bluebird.

Yellow-rumped Warbler aka Butterbutt - These guys are under appreciated this time of year because there are so many of them.  In the summer I always think to myself it would be nice to see a Yellow-rump and then in the winter I wish they would just go away or at least stop distracting me from other birds.  As I have poor hearing, I have to rely on my peripheral vision for detecting small movements which help me find birds.  However 9 times out of ten the movement tends to be a Yellow-rump.

Bufflehead - a gorgeous bird when it appears as black and white, but when the sun shines on them just right, they become even more beautiful with iridescent colors.

Not including this one on my list because I am not sure if it's a Greater Scaup or Lesser Scaup.  If I did not see the green sheen I would have said Lesser due to overall head shape and lack of a prominent nail on bill.  However the green was really prominent in multiple angles. Some field guides confirm that even Lesser Scaup which normally would have a purple sheen can have a green sheen in certain light.

Here is another shot showing the green, however its head has the little peak or crested look which tells me Lesser.

                                           Yet another.  What do you think reader?

Cedar Waxwing - has to be one of the most beautiful common birds we have.  This particular flock at the aquarium was 200-300 strong.

Great times.

North River Farms and Local Birding (18-19Jan2014)

This weekend started out with some afternoon birding on Saturday.  Oleander Gardens Cemetery was the first stop.  I thought for sure I had a cackling goose among the 100 plus Canadas just based on size.  However, after looking at the pictures closely I decided it was just a really small Canada.  In fact I was so upset I deleted all the pics so unfortunately I cannot share them.  Next up was Airlie Gardens.  We have a membership and so I try and take advantage as much as possible. It's a wonderful place, but I always get frustrated with the staff driving around in the landscaping vehicles ruining the peace of the gardens.  I think I am slowly becoming my father, increasingly getting annoyed with any mechanical noises.  But if I had to pick someone to become, my father is not a bad choice.

                                  White-throated Sparrow.

                              Hooded Merganser - one of my favorites when I first started birding.

                Mute Swan - interestingly enough, he did not say a word.

              Black-crowned Night Heron - Airlie frequently has 20-30 of these in the trees.

Sunday I made the trek up to North River Farms to bird with John Fussell, Jack Fennell, Chandra Biggerstaff and friends.  The best find was right after entering, a Peregrine Falcon.  Although the light was still poor, I managed a couple recording shots.

There was a Harrier in the ditch below.  Most likely the Peregrine had been hassling him before we got there.

 I never really appreciated the birding guidebooks descriptions of wing beats as a diagnostic until I saw a Peregrine.  They really do look powerful when you see them.

Horned Larks are not easy to photograph, at least not with a hand me down 300mm.  However, these birds were fairly accommodating.    With a good camera they would have been excellent.  I saw more Horned Lark today then all year last year.

These Lark were calling to each other from across the road.  John has amazing ears and can pick out birds easily from long distances.

 This Orange-crowned Warbler's head was so gray I almost thought it was a Nashville for a sec.

Here he/she is calling.  Unfortunately this is not a frequency I can hear.  Count your blessings if you can hear high frequency bird song.  And if you go to concerts, put in ear protection.

It was a good day, we got looks at Snipe, Clay-Colored Sparrow, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Tundra Swans and a bunch of other goodies.  John tried his best to scare me up some Ammodramus Sparrows but North River has not been producing them this year.  Maybe in Feb.  Thanks for trudging through the fields and getting wet John!

On the way home, I drove through Oleander Gardens and looked for interesting geese.  Nothing unusual.  However, even Canadas look gorgeous if you don't take them for granted.

Great Times!

12 hours plus driving for a looks at a Pigeon's butt?

Yes, I made a pilgrimage of over 12 hours driving to see a pigeon yesterday.  The crazy thing is 3 others nuts (Greg M., Harry S. and Danny) came with me.  We started the day in thick fog at Mattamuskeet.  I got good looks at a bittern but the photo was horrible.  I have saved it in case I don't get a better one later.  Lots of ducks which allowed close looks due to poor visibility, however the lighting was horrible so I will not post any of those pictures.  Next we headed to Alligator to get Greg and Danny the continuing Ash-Throated Flycatcher at Milltail Rd.  It did not take long to find it and everyone got good looks and pics.
Just before lunch the fog cleared for good and we made it to our destination of a home in Manteo, NC where the Band-Tailed Pigeon has been located for over a week.  I was able to find it pretty quickly in the Live Oak tree in front of the house.  However, it offered poor looks due to its position in the tree.  We all managed decent shots of the pigeon's butt, and some diagnostics shots of the bicolored bill, red eye, greenish nape and white band across the back of the neck.  It looked like it was content to stay like that all day so we did not waste much time waiting for it to move.

                                           Bicolored orange/black bill, red eye.

                     Greenish ruffled nape patch with white band above.

                     Also visible is the bands on tail.

Since we were up there, we decided to make a couple more stops.  In Wanchese a nice Glaucous Gull was being reported.  So we tried our luck but were not able to find it.  However, there were plenty of more common gulls and so I snapped a few pics good enough for my year effort.

   Greater Black-backed Gull.  Note pink legs which is an easy way to differentiate from the Lesser Black-backed.  Also, it is pretty much the largest North American gull.

Herring Gull.  Not much smaller than the Black-backed and way bigger than the Ring-Billed.

On the way back home we stopped back at Milltail Rd. in Alligator to try for the Short-Eared Owls and perhaps a Woodcock.  Well we bagged both although the looks were not great due to increasing dark.  The owls took the field after 5pm and replaced the many Harriers.  It was easy to pick them out by their moth like flight and lighter colored wings.  I managed an extremely poor pic that is not even diagnostic so I will not be using it.  The highlight for me was the woodcocks peenting in the field ahead of us which I could barely hear due to my poor ears and a couple looks at silhouetted woodcocks flying just in front of us with their erratic flight.  Of course, I was not able to get a pic.

Great times.

Three Easy Pieces (Jan 10 - 12, 2014)

I picked up three easy birds of the to end the week.  I debated whether to add them at all or try and get better pics, but I want to make some progress so here they are.  The first bird was on a Friday evening foray to try and get the continuing Western Kingbird at Fort Fisher and of course my nemesis bird of the American Bittern.  The Kingbird was no where to be found and the bittern flew up briefly from the marsh but did not allow good looks and certainly not a photo op.  So I had to settle for this Song Sparrow at the rocks.

Next up was a morning trip to Airlie Gardens with the boys while Melissa took her run.  There was tons of waterfowl including large numbers of Gadwall and some American Black Duck and American Wigeon. Also, the big Live Oaks overlooking the pond were loaded with Black-crowned Night-Herons. However, the pics came out terrible.  The only one worth posting was this Red-Headed Woodpecker.

Last bird of the trifecta was on Sunday morning before my flight out for business.  I finally got the Western Kingbird.  Although the pics are not the best, they clearly show the kingbird with yellow belly.  The second picture clearly shows the white outer tail feather which distinguishes it from similar looking Kingbirds like the Cassin's Kingbird which has a white tipped tail.  Who knows when I will see this bird again.  To think that in Costa Rica these guys were one of the most common birds and caused us to be desensitized to any bird sitting on a telephone wire.  However, here in NC, its always good to double-check the wires.

Snowy Owl in South East North Carolina

Last night I got an email through the listserv from John Ennis that a Snowy Owl had finally been seen in South East North Carolina at the East end of Sunset Beach.  Although I had conference calls lined up for the morning, I resolved that I would see this bird before it potentially flew the coop.  So I got up at 5am and drove the 1.5 hours down there.  I pulled into the last community on the island and parked. Before even turning off the engine, I spotted in the gloaming (been waiting a while to be able to use that word) a ghostly apparition fly by 20 yards in front of me over the dunes. Of course I was unprepared and fumbled with my camera and it was too dark anyway.  It was gone as quick as it came.  So I went after it, driving towards the houses.  After 15 minutes or so I located it on top a McMansion and again fumbled with my camera and it was gone again.  It seemed to be very alert and in hunt mode.  I drove around for another half hour or so and then decided to check the dunes on foot at the point.  There I met another birder/photographer Keith Green.  He had not seen it.  After walking around the whole point we came up empty and we split up, him on foot and me in the car.  On the way back towards the bridge, about half way in the middle of the island there the bird sat on top of an upper level summer home deck.  I snapped a couple hundred pics and soon Keith found me and he was able to get great pics too. Great times!

                            Here was one of the first shots where he/she was weary of my presence.

 After a while he/she ignored me and went back about her/his business which included mostly preening,  although in this shot it looks like he/she is having a good cough.

 She/he even was practicing a little Yoga, not sure if this is downward dog or what.

            Here she/he is posing for a glamour shot.

 I was watching the bird so long the weather actually changed and it became sunny.

 Thanks to Keith who let me take some shots with his lens.  However, I am not sure which ones were his.  He also gave me some good pointers on shooting with manual settings.  I definitely need to learn more about photography.

On my way out, I got this immature Bald Eagle and bunch of ducks at Twin Lakes.

Day 6 (January 6, 2014) - Back to Work

Unfortunately I am back to work for real.  The Holidays honeymoon is over.  However, Still managed to try early this morning for the Bittern at Ft. Fisher.  No dice, but the Common Goldeneye was there.  In the afternoon I went to pick-up the wife and kids from the airport and saw a shrike on the wire at the airport.  I just had to stop and photograph it. Did not want to break my streak of at least one photographed bird per day.

Day 5 (January 5, 2014) - Southport CBC

Hello birders, Today was the Southport CBC and we were assigned the Ft Fisher Spit.  Captain Harry Sell was at the wheel which is only appropriate as he is a Captain. Greg Massey and Shun Endo were in attendance as well.  Greg was in first Mate position with myself and Shun in the backseat.  We had a great time except Greg wouldn't stop signing an old song from the 60's - AlleyOop by the Hollywood Argyles.   I had to check it out when I got home to see what all the hype was about.  Apparently it was a hit in it's time, but Greg never seems to have let it go.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz6IpmmYSXA.  By the end of the car ride we were all singing it right along with him.
As for birds, Greg and Harry got the only really interesting bird (Razorbill) sea-watching while Shun and I were getting the three salt-marsh Sparrows (Saltmarsh, Nelson's and Seaside).  However, what we lacked in species we got extraordinary numbers.  Shun and I had at least 70-80 Seaside sparrows in a pretty small area.  Dunlin numbers were ridiculous, in the thousands.  Also good numbers of Dowitchers and Western Sandpiper with a few Red Knots and other usuals.
My nemesis bird for over a year now has been an American Bittern.  Shun has located one in a little honey hole by the aquarium in the past week.  So we checked in the morning on the way out to the spit with no success and then decided to check on the way in.  I started a little ahead of the group hoping that if it would be flushed that I would be the one to flush and see it.  Unfortunately as I was heading onto the path, the group decided to go another way and flushed it before I got there.  Oh well, at least I know where it is and we were able to add it to the count.
Unfortunately we were not able to relocate the Common Goldeneye or the Western Kingbird.  Here are a few of the better pics from the day.  I will have to go back out for Nelson's b/c my photos all came out poor due to light/distance.

Saltmarsh Sparrow - The buff on breast and sides was much lighter than face whereas on Nelson's the breast buff was almost same intensity as face.  Thats the field-mark I have found is most helpful.  However, there are others such as bill is proportionally longer, and streaks are more defined/darker.  I have found that the Saltmarsh Sparrows are also much more bold.  The Nelson's are difficult to photograph.

                                             Seaside Sparrow - these were all over.

                                                                 Ring-Billed Gull.

Black Scoter - Picture is poor due to rain, but I had to add it just because its not often you see a scoter sitting on the beach.  We thought he might be injured but probably he just walks funny b/c he is not designed to be on the beach.
Great times!

Day 4 (January 4) - Wilmington CBC

Hello Birders, today was the Wilmington CBC.  To be honest this was kind of slow for us in the Northern Brunswick Country group (Greg Massey, Shun Endo and myself).  However we did get a few good birds.  A male "Gray Ghost" Harrier put on a great show off Lee Bucks Rd although my picture did not come out great so I am not counting it in my tally.  Then we had a Bachman's Sparrow off of Dawes Creek Rd.  This one gave use great looks although it turns out the pics were not as crisp I would have liked, probably due to poor lighting.  We had gray skies most of the day. However we had a really good time, and I am looking forward to tomorrow when we drive the Ft. Fisher spit with Harry Sell.

                                                             Bachman's Sparrow

                                                                 Hermit Thrush

                                                           Golden Crown Kinglet

                                                              Northern Mockingbird

                                                         Eurasian Collared Dove