Local Birds with the family (23Feb2014)

On the way to Luke's soccer game today, I drove by the retention pond on Shipyard Blvd like I always do in hopes for a Cackling Goose among all the Canada Geese.  No such luck but got a couple easy birds to add to the big year effort.

Ring-necked Duck - not sure why they call this duck a Ring-necked, they should call it Ring-Billed Duck due to the white band on the bill tip.

American Crow - it was standing next to a Ring-Billed Gull and was about the same size.  A Fish Crow would have generally been smaller.  Also this ones legs are longer than your typical Fish Crow. But the definitive diagnostic was the typical crow call.  A fish crow has a different sound and also when you hear the two-note call you know its a Fish Crow.  Fish Crows also have a longer tail and wings. They say Corvids are the smartest birds.  In fact Nature did a great special on Crows.  Apparently they can recognize human faces and will sound alarm calls for a specific human that they know has done them wrong once before.  There are Corvids in SouthEast Asia that have learned to use tools and can problem solve using multiple steps.

After Luke's game, I took the family to Burnt Mill Creek for a walk and some birding.  Burnt Mill Creek is a great creekside trail near down town Wilmington that a lot of Wilmingtonians don't know about.  Amy and Kevin McLane turned me onto this spot a couple years ago with their posting of Barred Owls sitting in the trees overlooking the creek. Good people and great place!  The creek is a little polluted but otherwise the scene is idyllic.  Huge Bald Cypresses and other hard woods line the creek and the birds love it.  I was hoping for a Purple Finch as this is where I saw them last year.  But as is usually the case you end up seeing something other than what you are looking for.

Brown Creeper - Luke found this elusive little bird. Last year I only saw a handful of these birds and the Redbuds are already blooming here so my winter birds will be headed to higher elevation or farther north soon.  Of course George's (younger son) favorite joke is "Dad I see a Brown Creeper, it's coming out of your butt".  Anyway apparently he got his mother's sense of humor, it definitely was not from me.

Pied-billed Grebe - I love these birds for the way they can submerge without diving.  They literally just sink into the water like a submarine.

I got carried away with this pair because the water reflection looked cool.

Finally I thought why not end the day with a bang and took a walk to Amy and Kevin's to see if they were outside.  Amy was enjoying the beautiful day doing some yard work and graciously invited us to wait on their resident Rufous Hummingbird which has been around since November.  It took a little while and I was getting nervous that the kids would break something, but before long "Mary" made her appearance.  Only Mary is getting quite colorful including some rufous starting to show on her back.  So as Amy suggested she might have to start calling her Murray or Maury.  I think Susan might be around to confirm soon, but in my opinion this is definitely a Rufous and not an Allen's due to some rufous on back.

Rufous Hummingbird.

Yellow-Nosed Albatross (22Feb2014)

As mentioned in the previous post, I gifted myself a pelagic with Brian Patteson and crew (Kate and Jeff) for my 38th B-Day.  The day actually started out very slow but eventually went down with a huge bang.
As seems to be the case with many pelagics, the birding can be pretty slow with bursts of excitement.  This first burst of excitement, for me at least, came with some sightings of Manx Shearwaters.  These little black and white missiles are extremely fast yet graceful. I can see why Mr. Patteson is so taken with pelagic birds and has pretty much devoted his life to them.  They hardly ever have to flap their long wings, using slight wind speed differences on the surface of the water (due to friction with water) to glide effortlessly along the ocean in search of food and seemingly for fun.

Manx Shearwater - Ok this is the worst photo ever but my camera sucks and it kept giving me error messages all day.  But beggars can't be choosers, so thanks to the people that are letting me use the Frankenstein camera set up I have (Lauren and Steve thank you!).  Some of you may say, why are you counting this bird in your photographic big year?  Well because it's my big year and I make the rules, I am not trying to beat any records.  I am pretty sure I will not get a better chance this year for this species.  There is good reason why I will probably never get good cracks at species like these, I always spend the most time looking with my Binocs and then only pick up the camera after I am satisfied with my looks.  And these birds are so fast and far by the time I do finally pick up the camera they are just a dot on the horizon, at least with this camera.

We also saw Razorbills, Red Phalarope and at least 2 different Great Skua.  Unfortunately due to my camera problems and the relatively short and distant sightings I cannot add these species to my list.

Gulls - This is what we were looking at 95% of the time.  Kate was busy chumming up the gulls with beef fat, Menhaden and and other yummy treats. Luckily no one got sick on this trip.  Last trip I went on 75% of the boat was throwing up but this time even with the smell of chum everyone seemed to be totally fine. I think the cold air is what kept things kosher.  The gulls comprised of mostly Herring Gulls, with some Ring-Billed, Great Black-backed and a surprising number of Lesser Black-backed.   It was hypothesized that some of the gulls were hybridized with Glaucous but nothing stood out as a pure rare gull.

Herring Gull - Most common sight of the day unless you count the million Cormorants upon exiting and entering the inlet.

There were plenty Northern Gannet too.

Northern Gannet taking off.

But the real show was on when this guy showed up about 7-8 hours into the trip about 3 or so miles from the Avon shore.

Yellow-nosed Albatross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think it was Jeff Pippen that shouted out Albatross and suddenly there was a mad dash to the side of the boat.  Instantly the whole boat was full of excitement and laughter.  It was an electric feeling, to see what is probably only the **Correction** fourth recorded sighting of this species in NC waters.  And this bird did not disappoint, it hung around for at least half an hour offering close looks right by the side of the boat, having kerfuffles with the gulls.  We had to leave only because we were running out of time.  The bird ended up following us for miles.

Are you kidding!  Absolutely amazing bird.

This guy's wingspan is about 2 meters which is over 6 and a half feet for you metrically disinclined folks.

The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross is normally a denizen of the Southern Atlantic and breeds on small islands in the middle of the ocean (Gough Island is one).  Luckily they are world travelers and hence this rare but not unbelievable sighting.

They have such huge wings that they have to take off much like a goose using their feet to get a running start on the water.

One more step and he's off.

I could keep posting these pictures all day.

He dwarfs these Great Black-backed gulls which is no small feat considering they are the largest gulls in the world.

Ummm, probably the most amazing bird I have seen.

Thank you Brian, Kate and Jeff!  Truly an awesome experience I will never forget.  If anyone has hesitated going on a pelagic because of fears of seasickness or maybe expense, then maybe this will prod you into taking the plunge.  It was worth every penny and hours of staring at the horizon.

Great times!

Mattamuskeet and Jockey's Ridge (21Feb2014)

My 38th B-Day was this week and my present was a Brian Patteson Pelagic on the Outer Banks.  For those of you non-birders, a Pelagic is a birding trip on a boat out in the ocean to see Pelagic species of birds.  So rather than drive up and sleep in the marina parking lot which is what I have done before, I took Friday off from work and drove up the day before with some birding stops on the way and treated myself to a night at the luxurious Cape Pines Motel in Buxton.  All sarcasm aside, for $65 it was excellent and I highly recommend it.  Although the decor seemed like it was from the 80's, it seemed to actually add to the appeal instead of take away from it.  It was also very clean which is always a plus for a cheaper Motel.  It brought back nostalgia for a simpler time and in fact I feel this way about the OBX in general. The people there seem to be happy to be cut off from the rest of the hustle and bustle.  They enjoy the simple pleasures like fishing and walking on the beach.  But I digress, the birds is what this trip was all about.
Friday morning I arrived at Mattamuskeet bright and early to a beautiful sunrise.  I know what you are thinking, why don't I have a picture?  I need to remember to start taking pics of things other than birds. Target birds were Bitterns (American or Least) but I dipped on both.

                     Black-Crowned Night Heron

Turkey Vulture - vultures are usually regarded as ugly things, but really in flight they are gorgeous.

American Black Duck - white under wing, much darker than Mottled.  The male on the right really lives up to his name and has an almost black body.

Oh no! A killer bee swarm?  Actually these are birds.  I counted all the dots in this picture, there is over 1000 and this was just a fraction of the sky.  Ok so I didn't actually count the dots but believe me when I tell you there was thousands if not tens of thousands of ducks in the sky and even more on the lake.

I sent this picture to the FBI, they are running an analysis for me to see if there is a Eurasian Wigeon mixed in the flock.

                                Blue-winged Teal

Wood Duck - I have better pictures but for some reason I liked this one. It almost looks like a watercolor.   In fact, I think I like it because male Wood Duck just look to darn perfect.  So a speed blur  kind of tones down the perfection if that makes sense.  Male on the right, and female on the left.  I actually like the females more.  Luke (my oldest son) hates wood ducks, maybe for the same reason I am not a huge fan but of course hate is a strong word.

House Wren - this guy was really upset when I used playback to get a closer shot.  He rattled at me and pumped his tail back and forth.  So I let him be after snapping a couple photos.

Snapping Turtle - Why did the turtle cross the road?

Sorry nothing witty to say.  I picked up a stick to see if they really are as aggressive as I have heard and he obliged by snapping the stick.  "Your finger is next if you don't leave me alone!" So I left him alone.

Northern Harrier - I am sure I will get a better pic later, but I need to make progress on my big year, so here it is.  Long tailed and long winged hawk, flip him over and you will see his white rump.  These birds patrol the marshes at Mattamuskeet taking their pick from the smorgasbord.

Eastern Phoebe - When I get nostalgic for summer and the abundance of flycatchers, all I need is a Phoebe to break the doldrums.  Pretty much the only flycatcher around in the winter here, probably because there is much less flies, especially this winter with all the cold. For you novice birders out there, the Phoebe is easily told by the constantly pumping tail.

Next stop was Jockey's Ridge State Park in Kitty Hawk for the Snow Bunting I dipped on a couple weeks ago.  This time I was resolved to finding them even if it meant me scouring every inch of that beautiful desert landscape. And that is what I ended up doing, walking the dunes for over an hour before I finally found them.

Snow Bunting - You would think this plumage would not work well to camouflage a bird in the sand dunes, but you would be surprised.  Although this bird is somewhat rare in NC, Jockey's Ridge is apparently fairly reliable.  Usually these birds frolic in the snow up North.  Perhaps these were on vacation.

Ok, not so camouflaged in the open sand.

But in the grass they blend right in.  Can you count how many there is in this picture?

This one was trying to distract me from his hidden family unit.

Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey.  And you thought the 7 dwarfs were cute.

Ok last bunting pic I promise. Its not every day you see these birds.

After Jockey's Ridge, I headed to Bodie Island (no pics worth posting) and then the old Coast Guard station at Pea Island.  The Harlequins were there again but I am focusing on new birds.

I have seen all these birds many times this year, but this pic was what I was waiting for to show the size differences.  Herring Gull on left, Great Black-backed Gull in back, Lesser Black-backed Gull in front of the big guy and Ring-billed Gulls in foreground.  For the novice birder its good to get such size comparisons.

Another size shot - Lesser Black-backed are smaller than Herring Gulls.  Great Black-backed are much bigger, in fact the largest gull.

The other diagnostic mark - Yellow feet.  The Great Black-backed has pink feet.

Brown Pelican - No less beautiful then his bigger White cousin.  Some may say even more attractive.

Love the feathering detail on these gorgeous birds.  They look clumsy when walking on land, but so graceful in the sky.

Bonaparte Gulls - I was trying to make one of these into an exotic like a Black-headed Gull, see the feet of the one bird has much darker red legs. But after studying these birds, I quickly learned that they were all Bonapartes.  The size would have given it away if it was a Black-headed also the bill would have been bigger.  Once I see a new species it always makes me wonder how I ever second guessed my diagnosis on other birds earlier.  The differences become obvious after some study.

Bonaparte's Gull - Love this transitional plumaged head.

Laughing Gull in back, Ring-billed in front - soon all the Laughing Gulls will be as beautiful as this one, but in February this one really stood out.

Ever wonder why birds almost always face into the wind?  "All this wind is giving me a bad hair day"

Great Times!