Friday, August 29, 2014

Last Push for August 2014 (28Aug2014)

Yesterday I made my last push in August to get a couple birds for my big year effort.  Luke's Bday is today and my mom is in town so I need to pull back a little on the birding.

I started out at the Voice of America Site B and followed some coordinates John Fussell gave me for where he saw/heard Henslow's Sparrows in the Spring.  I got there at first light and thoroughly birded the area for an hour with no luck.  The habitat looked awesome (brushy field near creek with plenty of wet spots)  but there was not Henslow's.  My hearing sucks so maybe they were there but I just couldn't hear them and they certainly were not showing themselves.  This was actually a road near the VOA but not technically part of it.  The actual VOA site was recently mowed and was down to stubble so I doubt any Henslow's were in there anymore.

Next stop was American Turf in Roper.  There were birds everywhere!!! I had never birded the turf farm early in the day and boy what a difference.  Immediately I started seeing Upland Sandpipers all over and they were in the turf which to me was strange because usually they are found in the higher grass in the back of the farms.  I scanned from right to left and saw at least 23 right off the bat.  I ended up seeing many more, probably close to 40-50 by the time I left.

But the icing on the cake and the real reason I came was this beauty pictured below.



Black-bellied Plover on left and American Golden Plover on right.  Note the BB Plover has a white vent  and under tail coverts.  The AG Plover had black feathers all the way back through the under tail coverts although it was patchy.  The bird was starting to lose its breeding plumage.


AG Plover - keep in mind these pictures are heavily cropped, this bird was a good 75 yards away.  However with binoculars the difference was striking.  A much more golden color to his back and his cap was much darker and well defined than the nearby BB Plovers.




Here is an uncropped photo so you can see how far he was.


Horrible photo but posted so you can see black feathers extending all the way up.


Upland Sandpiper - most were far out but I had a few close enough to take pictures.


Upland SP - I liked this photo because I have not gotten to see many in flight.


Horned Lark.


Horned Lark and a peep.

There were a ton of swallows perched on the weeds at the edges of the sod fields. Lots of Barn and Tree Swallows.


I little closer look revealed one (second from left in below pic) that had a dark line across the chest.



Horrible Photo but trust me this was a Bank Swallow.  I was happy to see this bird because the last one I photographed was kind of borderline.


Bank Swallow - dark line across upper chest with a bit of a T formation where the "necklace" meets in front.


This Uppie came right up to my truck and I managed to snap this picture before I had to jam on the accelerator, a large sod truck was coming up behind me and was not slowing down so I could look at birds, understandably.

Next stop was the old Coast Guard Station at Pea Island to get the previously reported Lark Sparrows.  Right when I pulled into the parking lot I found them really quickly.  However they did not let me get to close, they flew off their snag before I could get a decent photo.  The below pictures are diagnostic but lighting was bad.  Largish sparrow with chestnut markings on face and "stickpin" on clear breast.



There were tons of other birds in this one dead tree - Baltimore Orioles, Cowbirds, House Finches, a Towhee and a Prairie Warbler.


Common Yellowthroat.

The Lark Sparrows disappeared before I could get a better shot and I figured I would try some other spots on Pea Island and come back when the sun was behind me.


Marbled Godwit with half a left leg.  Birds with missing legs is actually very common.  Its a big dangerous world out there for a bird and they don't have doctors helping them when they get an infection.


As usual Pea Island had plenty of Avocets, Snowy Egrets, Dowitchers and Black Necked Stilts.


Although at the time I was not thinking it, now looking at my pics one of the Black Terns looked suspiciously like a White Winged Tern, a rarity from Europe.  See little bird on right had side of frame. Bad pic but his wings were definitely very light colored for a Black Tern.


Here is a cropped picture showing normal dark winged bird on left and lighter on right.


However, in the end I am just calling it a Juvenile Black Tern.



Juvenile Least Tern.


The Black-necked Stilt was the noisiest bird in the area.


There were upwards of 20 Black Terns here.

And the peeps were everywhere.  I was having a real challenge identifying all of them, and was really looking for a White-rumped Sandpiper.


Just look at the above picture, they are all different sizes and plumages.


Cropping the photos a bit more you can see a Sanderling in upper right of frame and I think most of the other birds are Semi-palmated Sandpipers.  The one a little right of center was larger than the rest of the peeps and I was hoping for a WR SP but I think in the end it was a Western SP.



Semi-palmated SP I think.


Western SP on left and Semi-palmated on right.

As planned I went back to the old CG station and the lighting was better but the Lark Sparrows were still skittish.  I got great looks of them while they foraged in the grass but never could get a focused shot.


Here is a bad shot but I wanted to show the white tail feathers which is very apparent when they fly.


A better head shot showing nice pattern on face.  He was facing away from me so the picture looks a little weird.


On the way home I stopped at Mattamuskeet and drove around Wildlife Drive as well as the big impoundments further in the park but it was totally dead.  The water was really low and it was hot.

Overall I was really pleased with the trip.  Great times!

Saturday, August 23, 2014

I am so Sora (22-23Aug2014)

Yesterday evening I went to Ft. Fisher after work and birded the first mile or so of the Spit on foot.  There was thousands of shore birds but I couldn't turn up anything rare.


This silly Pelican was just walking around in the middle of the road.

I have signed up for an Ultra marathon in December so I have been trying to get back into running.  However, birding so hard the past 8 months has rendered me a little more plump than I usually am and my knees and joints are not liking the running due to the extra weight.  So even though Saturday was my morning (Melissa is running Sunday), I had sore knees and decided to go birding instead.  Its that easy changing my mind when it comes to birding!!

Periodically I go to the Battleship in Wilmington to try for rails first thing in the morning.  This morning (Saturday) I happened to wake early so I figured I might as well check if the migrating rails are back. After walking the reed line back and forth I flushed this Sora who was obliging but unfortunate the low light made for a horrible picture.


Sora - see yellow legs and short stubby yellow bill. Not an ideal picture but diagnostic and good enough for my photographic big year.


I stopped at Greenfield Lake on the way home to see if the warblers were starting to show up but it was slow.  However, I did get this nice Red-tailed Hawk.


Great Times.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Ft. Fisher Madness (18&20Aug2014)

The past couple bird outings have been to Fort Fisher both to "The Spit" and also to the monument area.  There has been a really outstanding number of shorebirds lately.

Monday after work was the first Spit trip with Harry and Greg.  As usual we had a grand old time and saw some really nice birds although nothing new.

This bird gave us some ID trouble from far away but once we crept up it was identified.


Red Knot - see pinkish wash under breast.


Picture with Laughing Gull for perspective.


Groups of several hundred birds were periodically found throughout the drive.  The above group was mostly Semi-palmated Plovers but there was peeps of three kinds and Dowitchers.


We had good numbers of Black Terns, mostly fly by birds but some perched on the beach.


Ruddy Turnstone and Black Tern.


There were hundreds of BB Plovers which we checked for a possible American Golden.


7 species of birds in above picture including American Avocet, Royal Tern, Caspian Tern, Black Skimmer, Sandwich Tern, Laughing Gull.


Marbled Godwit and a gaggle of Oystercatchers.


We checked every godwit for a possible rarity but no such luck.


Caspian Terns and Black Skimmers.


The little guy in the middle was probably a Common Tern.


Forster's, Sandwich and Common Terns.


This guy was confusing me, bill seemed too red to be a Forster's but the tail was longer than the wings.  Perhaps a Roseate??? Probably not.


Black-necked Stilts were a nice surprise.


Piping Plover!!! and some Semi-palmated friends.

Wednesday morning I checked out the athletic fields at Fort Fisher to see if the rains brought any Hudsonian Godwits but no luck there.

However, I stopped at the monument area and found the Great Horned Owl where I have been seeing him all year.  Unfortunately I only got this horrible picture of his rump before he flew off.


Great Horned Owl rump.


Prairie Warbler - oh boy, here comes the confusing Fall plumage warblers.


Cooper's Hawk.


Bad lighting but you can see the long tail and red eyes.

And the I finally got another photographic year bird!!!!


Yes it's true, I did not have a Pileated picture all this time.  Or at least not a decent one.


Pileated Woodpecker.



After work on Wednesday we went on another Spit journey.  After the tide came in the birds started pouring in.  We had even better numbers than on Monday minus the Black Necked Stilts.


At Crossover 3 in amongst a sea of Dowitchers a Black Tern was hiding.


I could have spent hours searching through all the birds.


Peeps, Dowitchers, Whimbrels, Skimmers, Terns, Gulls, Godwits and Turnstones galore.  However, no rarities.


Lesser Yellowlegs amongst the other waders.


Least Sandpiper.


Large numbers of Semi-palmated SPs and some Western mixed in for good measure.


Some of the Dowitchers still had nice colors.

Great times.