Sunday, March 30, 2014

Carteret County Bounty (30Mar2014)

I headed up to bird with John Fussell and friends today up in Carteret County.  It was super windy and pretty chilly for this time of the year, but the birds were around.  

First stop on the way to the meeting place was the mouth of the North River estuary.  Here I got a nice comparison of the Eastern and Western subspecies of Willet.  The Eastern Willet is the smaller one with darker plumage in the middle.  The Western Willets are flanking the Eastern.


After meeting up with the rest of the group, we started birding at the Cedar Island ferry terminal and picked up some nice birds including 4 swallow species (Martin the Belgian, Purple Martin, Barn and Northern Rough-Winged), Merlin, Piping Plover and some other of the usual suspects. The highlight for me was a nice size comparison of a Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.  Ok Martin the Belgian is not really a swallow, he was a nice birder from Belgium that we picked up on the side of the road and absorbed into our group.  He was a chemical engineer in town for a meeting with Corning and is an avid birder.  In fact he has over 4000 species!  You definitely meet some interesting people when out birding.


Least Sandpiper and Dunlin. If you look closely you can see the yellowish legs of the Least Sandpiper which distinguishes this "peep" from the similar Semi-palmated and Western Sandpipers.


Lesser Yellowlegs - when not standing next to another bird, its really hard to differentiate the Lesser and Greater.


Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs - Here the difference is obvious.

On the way to North River Farms, we stopped at "Davis Impoundment".  Here we scored some great birds including Black-necked Stilt, Peregrin Falcon, American White Pelican and a bunch of waders.


Black-necked Stilt.


American White Pelican.

At North River Farms we spotted a Short-eared Owl (sorry no pics), a Grasshopper Sparrow, 5 Clay-colored Sparrows and some of the regulars like Snipe, Teal and Harriers. The Grasshopper Sparrow was extremely frustrating and only one of the group got good looks but it was definitely an Ammodramus and the habitat fit for Grasshopper.


Clay-colored Sparrow.


Note gray nape and clear breast.

After North River Farms, John lead some of us unto North River Marsh to look for Rails (Yellow, Black and other more usual species).  We got good and wet/muddy to no avail.

Martin needed a Bachman's Sparrow for his life list, so John gave us good instructions for one that is a regular at Croatan on Pringle Rd and I lead the way with Martin following.  John had marked the spot with colored tape and sure enough the Bachman's showed immediately.  After chasing the bird through the grass he finally popped out and sang for us.


Bachman's Sparrow



"Since you know my buddy John, I will let you have some nice shots."

Finally I ended the day by slamming on the brakes when I spied this clucker on the side of the highway.


Wild Turkey.

Great times.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Red-Shouldered Bonanza (26Mar2014)

I went back to Burnt Mill Creek before dark to look for owls and was treated to an extremely tame Red-Shouldered Hawk.


Not a hawk you say?  Well you are correct my reader, but this Pied-billed Grebe was begging me for a picture.


Here is the Red-shouldered Hawk swooping down for what I think was grubs or beetles.


Handsome devil was patiently awaiting whatever it was hunting for and did not mind that I was about 10 feet away.


The setting sun highlighting the red colors.




Got one!


Some tasty morsel, not sure if its a grub or beetle.


Yuuuuummmm!  Made me so hungry that I went home and ate some of my home grown collards that my beautiful wife cooked up for me.

Great times!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Burnt Mill Creek (24Mar2014)

Took a trip to Burnt Mill Creek before work today to try and get the Yellow-crowned Night Heron that Amy McLane reported.  No dice on the Heron, but I did get great looks at a Great Horned Owl being chased and harassed by an American Crow.  Not fast enough with the camera to get a good shot.


The owl somehow managed to fly down into this broken off tree trunk and the Crow sat on top doing his best to annoy the heck out the owl.


Red-Shouldered Hawk - always plenty of these here.


GBH - always a gorgeous bird.


Two Cooper's Hawks were chasing each other, most likely a pair.


A bit blurry, but here you can see the long rounded tail and the largish head.


Seeing that these birds need to make their living by mostly catching other birds, they need to be fast and that they are.


Osprey.


In the afternoon during George's soccer practice, I took Luke back to Burnt Mill to try again for the owl.


Beautiful day so Luke and I played Pooh Sticks in the creek and with the ultra slow current it took a while but Luke won both games.

While chasing (walking very slowly) my Pooh stick, I noticed what looked like an extremely small Great Blue Heron from the back.  As I got closer, I knew it was my original target bird from this morning.


Yellow-Crowned Night Heron.


The Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers were everywhere.


Great Times!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

West Side Story (23Mar2014)

First off I am not a fan of musicals.  The title is in reference to the West Side of Holly Shelter Wildlife Management Area.

I started my birding today at Burnt Mill Creek from the Cross City Trail in Wilmington.  I spent way too much time scrutinizing a goose that looked good for a Greater White-fronted Goose, but after much deliberation I finally decided was a domestic Greylag.  Talk about wild goose chase.  Picked up some easy birds I still did not have photographs of:


                  Red-Shouldered Hawk.


Ruddy Duck - have seen a ton of these but I can't seem to get a photo I am happy with.  At the risk of not getting one before the winter is over here is shot from today.


Brown Thrasher - this bird was so intent in flipping leaves in search of worms and other critters that it did not notice me sneak up on him/her.

I tried the ILM airport for possible migrant shorebirds but nothing of interest.  So I headed to my final destination - Holly Shelter Marina which is a trail that runs along the NorthEast Cape Fear River and then about a mile down opens up to a huge impoundment.


Yellow-throated Warbler


I was really looking for the Lincoln Sparrows that Sherry Lane saw a couple days ago but no luck.


Northern Rough-winged Swallow - swallows are very difficult to photograph so I will settle for this pic.  Uniform brown on topside.


Lighter brown on belly with almost white vent.

Great times.


Saturday, March 22, 2014

More Rusties and some other birds (20-22Mar2014)

Work has been crazy and Saturday I watched the kids soccer and worked in the yard to get my veggie garden going.  However, as usual I found some time to bird here and there.

Ft. Fisher was slow on Thursday after work, but even a bad hour of birding is better than rotting in the office.


Boat-tailed Grackle - yes I still have some easy winter birds left. In fact I still don't have a picture of a Blue Jay!


Laughing Gull - I have one already, but I had to take a picture because he is so handsome with his breeding plumage now.  And of course they were all laughing like the insane clowns they are.


Ring-billed Gull - have one of these too, but look how pretty when the head is clean white.

Saturday before Luke's soccer game, I went to the Battleship to see if the rails would be cooperating.  I heard what I think was a King Rail, but no dice on pictures.


Rusty Blackbird - Ok so last weekend I said I was having trouble getting pictures so I settled for a female.  Well this morning they were all over and I got me a male.


Common Yellowthroat - year bird although they can be had year round.

After the kids soccer we headed to Shelton Herb Farms to get salad for the garden and I took the scenic route through Lee Bucks Rd.  Nothing special but a beautiful day for a country drive.


American Kestrel - this is the female.  There was a male too.

Tomorrow I might go try for the Lincoln's Sparrows Sherry Lane reported at Holly Shelter Marina.

Great times.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Rusty Blackbirds (15Mar2014)

After watching the boys play their respective soccer games, I went down to Greenfield Lake to see if I could get a pic of some of the Rusty Blackbirds I frequently see there.  I walked around the entire lake and picked up a few birds for my effort.


This Anhinga was soaring way high up.  I never did see one close up today so I am posting this one.  Undoubtedly I will get better pics this summer, but I kind of like silhouetted pics as it helps to refine my ID skills. Anhingas have very long tails and the heads are almost snake-like, especially when swimming.


                        Common Grackle.


Rusty Blackbirds have been almost impossible to get a decent picture of this year for me, so I am settling with this female.  They are usually skulking in areas that have a lot of cover which makes for a bad picture.

Great Times.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Beaufort Cranes (14March2014)

I didn't think I would get this serious about my so called big year that I would drive 4 hours to see two birds that I have seen many times before in other states.  Sometimes when I wake in the night and start thinking about work my mind races and cant stop.  So instead of waking up the rest of the family, I hopped into the truck and hit the road, it was 4am.
John Fussel had confirmed that the Sandhill Cranes were still at Rachel Carson in Beaufort as of earlier that week.  I had tried earlier in the year at the Beaufort airport but the cranes were not there.  John confirmed that the best way to see them was to watch them fly from their roost on Rachel Carson at sunrise.  In case the reader does not know the name, John literally wrote the book on the birds of Coastal North Carolina. http://www.amazon.com/Birders-Guide-Coastal-North-Carolina/dp/0807844535
So when he posted his sighting I knew it would be a pretty sure bet, unless the birds decided to fly North before I could get there.  John said last year they were gone by this time.
I got to Beaufort at 6:30 and positioned myself at Front and Gordon Streets on John's advice.  Beaufort is pretty much the most picturesque town in all of NC.  We have considered moving there several times.  Surprisingly enough there were tons of people walking and running before first light and one group of ladies asked me if I was waiting for the cranes.  They told me they had not seen them in the past several days but that usually they flew straight over like clockwork at sunrise.  This made me worried that I drove all the way for nothing.  Then just as advertised at 7:15am exactly sunrise per weather.com, I heard the distinctive call or honking of the Sandhill Cranes!  It was still fairly bad light so I only got pics of silhouettes but they are certainly diagnostic.  Necks extended, hunched back and legs extended. Beautiful!


                                Sandhill Cranes.





I had time to kill before my first telecon of the day so I went to Fort Macon State Park to see if I could relocate the Swallow-tail Kite seen that week.  No dice on the Kite, but picked up a couple birds for my photographic big year.


Red-Throated Loon - bill almost always pointing up.  A somewhat "blank" look on the face and more slim than the other loons.




Mourning Dove - starting to build nests!  Spring has sprung.


House Sparrow - really a finch but House Finch was taken.


Fish Crow - smaller than American and this one and his colleagues were giving the characteristic two note calls which is diagnostic.

Great Times!