This week was mostly work, but I was able to get out a couple afternoons to search for Swallow-tailed Kites. My primary quarry was missed but I did find some decent consolation prizes.
Mississippi Kite - Flying very high in Northwest, NC.
Acadian? Pewee? This bird was mute. It had fairly long primary projection but just was not sitting like I would expect a Pewee to sit so I think it was an Empi. Anyhow it will remain unidentified unless anyone has any strong feelings about it.
I jammed down to Sunset Beach one night to get Wood Stork and dipped again!!! Maybe this gator ate them all.
Green Heron.
This next bird was sitting high up on the edge of the lake and it was getting dark so pardon the poor quality. It's been a long time since I saw a Brain Bird. A bird that just confuses you so much that you don't know how to explain it.
At first glance I knew it was an Osprey, but then I had to do a double take. The white area above the eye line was entirely too big for a normal Osprey. In fact the whole head was just too big for the bird.
When it looked down it became evident that this bird had two huge bulbous white areas separated by a dark line down the middle. It gave it the appearance of having two huge cartoonish eyes. Its beak was kind of dwarfed and hidden by the top of it's head whereas on a normal Osprey the beak is big compared to the rest of the head. Also it appears to have a very long right wing but short left wing, but this may have been an illusion in how it was folded.
Anyway the photos do not do it justice, but I believe this was some kind of deformity. Maybe Mad Fish Disease or something. If someone heads down that way, look out for this weird bird. Maybe it was just getting late and I was tired. It never did fly off its perch and I was running late for heading to Lee Buck Rd for nightjars. I did hear multiple Chucks but the Whips eluded me again.
Canada Goose - Greenfield Lake
Saturday morning I was helping on a bird survey at North Topsail and saw a gannet looking bird but it just looked different. I know immature gannets can be seen quite late. My buddy Greg always says if you see something that looks like a gannet in the Spring/Summer/Fall you should look carefully as it may be a Booby.
It was chocolate brown which is not a color I am used to seeing on immature Gannets. Also the bill was quite yellowish which you can almost see in this heavily cropped photo. If I did not know better I would have called this a Brown Booby.
The wings had dark edges in patterns that I am not used to for gannets although they can vary greatly.
Bill is quite yellow.
Anyone want to support a Brown Booby diagnosis?
Great times.
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