Clapper Rail - this part of the marsh is a great place to get good looks at Clappers.
Otherwise nothing remarkable.
After a great day with the family playing Corn-Hole in the back yard I decided to head to Ft Fisher at dusk to see if I could get a Common Nighthawk. I have not seen any this year yet, but usually I can see them Ft. Fisher or CB State Park.
Long story short, no Nighthawk materialized but I managed a semi-decent shot of a photographic big year bird:
Excuse me Mr. Deer, have you seen any Common Nighthawks?
You should have been here yesterday!
The past week has been kind of slow. Most of the migrants have moved on and now is my chance to get caught up on some local summer residents like the Nighthawk. It's just a matter of time.
In fact on the drive back home I saw what I think was a nighthawk fly over the road but it was too dark to know for sure.
Cheers.
What to do, what to do! Take the summer "off" from birding/photography? Or continue the often-fruitless quests to locate a Year Bird AND land a photograph of the find!
ReplyDeleteWhat we (you) really need is a list of TARGET birds - this is almost as important as the your list of what you "Have Already Photographed"!. Once we know what you are looking for, then you can send out a request for birders to let you know if a (nearly) reliable, cooperative target-bird is being seen.
Here's a technique that might help tighten up the parameters and increase your odds: it involves ebird. You probably know this, but you can click on "Explore data" -- "Bar Charts" -- pick a county (your own or wherever you might be willing to travel) -- then change the year and month to June and 2012 - 2014.... then look for birds you do NOT have already.
Why not focus only on birds seen in 2014? Think about it; some sightings are "one-day wonders" or other flukes, but many sightings describe creatures-of-habit. So if they were there in 2012 or 2013, they might be there in 2014. Plus, let's face it, we MISS a lot of birds, so relying simply on what someone else has seen AND reported on ebird for June 2014 isn't going to reveal a lot of results.
Look at these two samples of King Rails that I observed in Wake County in 2012: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10992201 and http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11026461 (both give detailed descriptions of where to find the King Rails). Not worth a drive to Raleigh, BUT, if you were sent out here for work, these places might be worth a shot.
I wish you luck in this endeavor - I know you already have the talent needed to set the bar high for a Photographic Big Year in NC!
Erla Beegle, of Wake Audubon Meetup.