Beach Birds (02-05Feb2014)

Sunday after the Woodcock Extravaganza I was planning to go back to Brunswick County to try and get some better pics of the Yellow-headed Blackbird but Greg called and wanted to go to the beach.  It was sunny and 70 degrees after all.  So off we went.  The south end of Wrightsville was packed like it would be in the summer.  You would think with all the people the birds would be minimal but we actually had a good showing.
Scoters were everywhere, we had all three species with very good close looks at White-winged Scoters.  We also saw a Pacific Loon and Great Cormorant on other side of inlet.  The Pacific Loon was too far for a photo and I am hoping to get a better picture of a Great Cormorant.  Even my scoter pictures were not very good, but they are diagnostic and I need to make some progress.

White-winged Scoters - This is considered an eruptive year for this species.  Usually quite scarce, we have actually seen more of them than the other scoter species.

These flew right over my head, but manual focus was on and I was not quick enough to get a good one.  Looks like the top two on left side are immature or female Surf Scoters which is evident from no white on wings and they both had quite a bit of white smudging on face and not in the right place for a White-winged.  The two on right I think are White-winged.  However, not definitive.
 

Here you can see an obvious White-winged on left, with two more non-White-winged.  The one on right hand side had white on back of head which was just right for an immature Surf Scoter.  I hope to post better scoter pictures later, but just in case all the scoters leave tomorrow I will have these for a clean sweep.

After the beach we stopped at Airlie and saw a bunch of ducks and then headed to Oleander Gardens and re-found the Tundra Swan, this time swimming with a Mute Swan making for a nice size comparison.

After work during the week I made a couple forays down to the North end of Wrightsville Beach to do some gull watching.

I found a nice group of 19 Red Knot that allowed me to get quite close.  Apparently these are on the endangered list now.

This one had a tag (two actually), so I reported it to the website that Gilbert from Sneads Ferry, NC forwarded to me.  Apparently this is the same one he reported a month ago in Topsail Beach.  Makes you wonder how many of the more rare birds we are seeing are really just reported over and over and the numbers really are low.

This pic shows a nice size comparison with a Sanderling.   Of course when you see birds mixed like this the ID is easy.  Otherwise you have to rely more on behavior and coloration and "jizz".

The island in the middle of the inlet has been chock full of gulls.  Ring-billed, Herring, Bonaparte, Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed. I estimated about 500.  And there were more on the other sandbars on the Figure 8 side.  With a scope, its easy to just sit there and check every one.

BINGO!  A completely white (cream color actually) bird, slightly smaller than the nearby Herring Gulls, way larger than the Ring-Billed and Laughing and most importantly completely white wings.  The underside was a little dingy but the back and wings and head were completely white.  A Glaucous would dwarf the Herring Gulls, so this must be an Iceland.  Completely black bill sealed the deal.  I saw him stretch and flap his wings a couple times but unfortunately missed the pics.

Another pic showing the size different.  Herring Gull to right a tad bit larger.  Ring-billed much smaller.

My kids were running up and down the beach screaming and playing but I was content to just sit and watch this bird for 30 minutes while the sun set.  Maybe I can get a closer shot later this week if he sticks around.

Great times!