Thursday ended up being a really bad day for the Adams family. George had been sick earlier in the week but on Thursday it caught up to Melissa and Luke, with both of them throwing up pretty much at the same time. In the afternoon I started to feel ill and pretty soon all of us were down for the count. So when Friday dawned and we all felt better, I took the opportunity to get out and bird for an hour or two before work.
Sherry met me at Lee Bucks and although we saw pretty much more of the same birds, we got some really good looks. We had 7 warbler species with Swainson's, Worm-eating, Yellow-rump, Pine, Hooded, Prothonotary and Sherry heard Parulas.
Swainson's Warbler - pretty much the best looks you could ask for.
Cattle Egret - there was about 50-60 of them in the pastures.
On Saturday the boys and I dropped Melissa off at the airport for her Boston Marathon attempt. We are hoping the stomach bug will be 100% gone by Monday. After doing some work I headed out with the boys past Riegelwood to try for some shorebirds at Oakland Sod Farms. The farms turned out to be really birdy but nothing special in terms of species. There were loads of both Yellowlegs, Cattle Egret, Chimney Swifts and Geese.
Chimney Swifts are notoriously hard to photograph because unless you have a chimney and a good flash you will only see them flying high and they are small to begin with. Peterson I believed coined the description "cigars with wings".
Greater Yellowlegs.
On the way back I stopped at Lock and Dam 1 to see if the Swallow-tailed Kites were back. No luck in that department but I got some good looks at some Wood Stork. I think eBird flags them as rare because they typically do not come far into NC. However I see them at this location quite regularly.
Wood Stork.
Purple Martin - there was 4 types of swallows here with Tree Swallows being the most common, then Purple Martins, Northern Rough-wing and Barn Swallows.
I would love to have a Martin home set up in my yard but probably I don't enough open land to attract them. And who knows what the home owner association would say.
As I was pulling onto the highway, here was a Wood Stork on the roadside ditch.
After birding for a couple hours I had to make it up to the boys and took them bowling. Luke won two games and George the last.
Great times.
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