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.
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