Not too much to say about Mattamuskeet, you really have to see it to believe it. Its really amazing seeing all those birds in such a relatively small area. The birds are mostly concentrated in the impoundments, whereas the lake itself is pretty empty. At least it seemed that way to me. However those impoundments have tens if not hundred of thousands of birds. Ducks, Swans, Geese, Raptors etc.. I did not see anything rare, but the shear numbers made it really impressive and worth while. I saw one tree that had 3 bald eagles in it. Nothing like Alaska where I saw up to 20 in one tree but impressive none the less. Here are a few pics and the first birds to add to my photographic big year.
The real stars of the show at Mattamuskeet are the Tundra Swans. They are big and make a really curious sounding racket yet are extremely elegant. There are thousands of them in the impoundments and of course flying by.
The next stop was an agricultural field off route 64 near Creswell, NC where a Say's Phoebe was reported over the previous several days. Well he was right where he was supposed to be and of course doing what a phoebe does which is flick his tail and flycatch. Although it is really rare to see one in North Carolina, I have seen tons of these out West. So I did not spend too much time here. I also tried scoping the adjacent fields to pick out a Cackling from all the Canadian, but they were too far and although I could make out some smaller birds, none of them had a convincingly small/stubby bill like the cackling I recently saw in San Diego.
Say's Phoebe - Peach colored belly, Black tail which is flicked constantly like his Eastern cousin.
Then last stop for the day was Alligator National Wildlife Refuge. Now this place is amazing. Not many people know that there are big black bears in Coastal North Carolina not to mention Red Wolves. In fact the bears here can get bigger than any bears in the mountains because they don't waste their time hibernating. Last time I was here, I had a monster cross the road in front of me and get up on his hind legs and rub his backside up against a long leaf pine. It was a big tree and he had the whole thing shaking. This time I did not see any bears which is good because I was walking around quite a bit. My target birds included an Ash-Throated Flycatcher that had been seen over the past week, as well as Woodcock, Short-Eared Owls, American Bittern and if I was really luck a Golden Eagle that had been seen the day prior. I ended up 2 for 4. Although I did see Snipe which is always fun. No luck photographing those sneaky birds.
Ash-Throated Flycatcher - rufous tail, gray/brown crest, wing-bars and much more subdued yellow than Great Crested or other Myiarchus flycatchers. Also call is distinctive and this guy was calling quite a bite. It helps that a bunch of other birders found and confirmed this bird ahead of time.
The Short-Eared Owls were too far off and it was getting dark so photographs would not come out, however I got great looks with binocs. They were much bigger than I thought they would be and kind of floated around like huge moths. When they came out the Harriers left the fields. The poor small mammals in the fields have no respite. First the Gray Ghost (light morph of Harrier) and his kin hunt them all day then the Owls take over for the night shift.
Although I missed some target birds, I did get all the rarities so I was content with my first day of the New Year.
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