El Nino? Yo soy mucho frio. 18-23Jan2016

Sarah Palin has a point, how could the planet be warming when it's so cold outside right now?  And did you see her endorsement of Trump?  Pure genius.

Winter birding is good birding, and when the thermometer dips really low the birds seem to whip up into a frenzy.

Here are some birds from the past week.

Redheads have all the fun.... Seeing Redheads in Wilmington is usually pretty rare, but this year I have already seen them in 3-4 different spots.  The above one has been hanging out at CB Lake for the past week.

Coots are evil, I have seem them really rip into each other for seemingly nothing.  You can almost see this bird planning his next attempted murder.

Northern Pintail drakes are dapper.  I am really racking up the ducks in New Hanover County this year.

Might as well get the House Sparrow out of the way for the year..

Lesser Scaups are truly the lesser of the two.  They are usually more "dirty" in plumage and just don't cut as nice of a profile as a Greater Scaup.  This particular bird almost looks as if he got into some oil.

Although the purple sheen is indicative, it can be a false positive because depending on the light the sheen can change from purple to green on both species.  The best way is to learn the head shape.  The head on a Lesser Scaup is more peaked and less round.

Savannah Sparrows abound at the Fort Fisher area.

This Song Sparrow had some interesting gray patches on his head.  Or maybe one of his buddies pooped on him.  They say its good luck for a bird to poop on you.  Does that mean it would be good luck for a human to poop on a bird?  An interesting question that might never be properly studied.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Bufflehead females are so cute.

Northern Mockingbird

Common Loon

One early morning at Wrightsville Beach it was a super low tide and the breakwall had Purple Sandpipers lined up all the way out to the jetty.   There had to have been 40-50.

Purple Sandpiper

European Starling

Drake Gadwall and female Canvasback - this was the Ft Fisher Aquarium pond this morning.

The spit was gorgeous today.  The strong wind blew out all the tire tracks and the beach looked untouched.  This Brown Pelican was enjoying it too, although I may have ruined his solitude.

Canvasback

Blue-headed Vireo - a good bird no matter what time of year.

This gull at Federal Rocks had me thinking Franklin's Gull for a little while. The hood was so well delineated.

However the bill didn't look right.  Too big.  So Laughing Gull it is.

Red-bellied Woodpecker - At CB State Park I finally ran into a nice flock of birds on the side of the road.

Dark-eyed Junco

Tufted Titmouse

Mrs. Downy Woodpecker

Mr. Downy Woodpecker

The Pine Warblers were everywhere and were not bashful.

White-throated Sparrow

At Ashley High School I found a Redhead pair (two right sided birds) and a Ring-necked Duck.

My card or software continues to stymie my efforts to edit the pictures.  For example the above picture would have benefited from a bit of lightening.

I don't think I will get to go anywhere exciting this weekend.  Kids soccer most of the day tomorrow.

Stay warm!

Hat Trick (16-17Jan2016)

On Sunday I decided to mop up the birds I missed last time I went to the Alligator and Mattamuskeet areas.  The forecast was favorable with a low chance of rain in the morning and clearing after noon.  Of course that's not how it happened. Spoiler alert, the light was horrible for photos and for some reason my card is acting up again.  It will not allow me to edit the pics at all.

Let's start with a couple pics from Burnt Mill Creek during my son's indoor soccer practice (sorry Luke, watching indoor soccer is like watching paint dry).

Double-created Cormorants are not the best looking birds but they have their moments.

Red-shouldered Hawks love this area.

Pied-billed Grebes make their home in the muck of this disgusting creek, but still come out looking cute.

Even on a cloudy day it's hard to not overexpose the white plumage of a Great Egret.

This Anhinga had something stuck in its craw and I waited and waited so I could get a better picture but he never got rid of it.

On the Drive to Mattamuskeet it was decent weather all the way.  Then as soon as I got there, it started to rain and pretty much rained the rest of the day.... Arghhhhh.....

Northern Shoveler

Ruddy Duck

Ring-necked Duck

Northern Pintail - a little lightening of this photo would have been nice.  I need to figure out what is going on with this card.... or is it my computer.  It just randomly decides sometimes that certain photos cannot be edited.

Blue-winged Teal

Then I spotted a group on the overlook with scopes pointed out in the deluge.  It was Ed C and Brian P (the triangle Brian P not the pelagic one) and their associated groups.  They quickly got me excellent scope views of a Eurasian Wigeon.  The groups took off and I stayed to see if the rain would let up so I could attempt some pics.  It never did, so I did the next best thing and positioned my truck and took some crappy documentation shots in the rain.

Eurasian Wigeon in center of frame - red head, creamy forehead, gray body.

Ed C had been looking for the Trumpeters for a year bird and I confirmed I had not seen them since a couple weeks back.  However, 15 minutes later on my way out I saw a bird on the grass that looked like a candidate although it was hard to be sure because it was all by itself.

I looked up close and could not see any yellow.  I would have lightened this picture to verify but unfortunately iPhoto is not letting me.  Maybe this is one of those Tundras that has no yellow on bill?

The bird just did not look big enough, but again that was hard to gauge with no Tundras nearby.  I took the above photo so you could see the area between the eyes does not seem to form a V which would indicate this is a Tundra?

Anyway, I picked up my target bird in the Eurasian so I headed to the next target and I did not have to wait long.  Steve H was already there in his car staring at something so I knew the Brewer's Blackbirds were probably there.

This shot shows the size comparison nicely between the Brewer's on the left and the two Brown-headed Cowbirds on the right.

This was one of the female birds.

These guys were kind of gross, feeding directly in the horse shit.  However, I guess if I had to pick one type of shit to eat from, a horse or cow might be a better choice than most.

This Eastern Meadowlark had no problem with the poop either.

Dear readers, can you come up with a good caption for this pic?

Alligator did not produce anything interesting, I did Long Curve and Wildlife Drive but to be honest the rain was relentless and I didn't stop much.

I did stop at River Rd to scan for the Ruff but only found some Dowitchers which I presumed to be Long-billed.  Here is a poor shot showing the tail.  Anyone care to comment?

At Weston Rd I thought I had the Western Kingbird but it flushed quickly as a car was going by and so I headed to Lake Phelps to see what was up.

Common Merganser!  The head was bigger and more red than on a RB Merganser and had a nice diagnostic white patch on the chin.

A little later she moved down to the pier and so I creeped through the woods hoping to surprise her.

Despite the sign expressly prohibiting it, she dove away as I got closer so unfortunately these are the best shots.  A continuing theme of bad photos of good birds....

On my way back to 64, I stopped one more time at Weston Rd and finally located the Western Kingbird albeit far away on the same wire next to the cemetery (private property).  Folks in this part of NC all have guns so I was not about to trespass.

Gray back and yellow belly just visible.

Poor fellow, his colleagues deserted him presumably for warmer weather.

Well the weather sucked and the photo ops were consistently crappy, but I managed to get all three of my target birds.  So the Hat Trick was completed and the drive home was tolerable.

Cheers.