Monday after work was the first Spit trip with Harry and Greg. As usual we had a grand old time and saw some really nice birds although nothing new.
This bird gave us some ID trouble from far away but once we crept up it was identified.
Red Knot - see pinkish wash under breast.
Picture with Laughing Gull for perspective.
Groups of several hundred birds were periodically found throughout the drive. The above group was mostly Semi-palmated Plovers but there was peeps of three kinds and Dowitchers.
We had good numbers of Black Terns, mostly fly by birds but some perched on the beach.
Ruddy Turnstone and Black Tern.
There were hundreds of BB Plovers which we checked for a possible American Golden.
7 species of birds in above picture including American Avocet, Royal Tern, Caspian Tern, Black Skimmer, Sandwich Tern, Laughing Gull.
Marbled Godwit and a gaggle of Oystercatchers.
We checked every godwit for a possible rarity but no such luck.
Caspian Terns and Black Skimmers.
The little guy in the middle was probably a Common Tern.
Forster's, Sandwich and Common Terns.
This guy was confusing me, bill seemed too red to be a Forster's but the tail was longer than the wings. Perhaps a Roseate??? Probably not.
Black-necked Stilts were a nice surprise.
Piping Plover!!! and some Semi-palmated friends.
Wednesday morning I checked out the athletic fields at Fort Fisher to see if the rains brought any Hudsonian Godwits but no luck there.
However, I stopped at the monument area and found the Great Horned Owl where I have been seeing him all year. Unfortunately I only got this horrible picture of his rump before he flew off.
Great Horned Owl rump.
Prairie Warbler - oh boy, here comes the confusing Fall plumage warblers.
Cooper's Hawk.
Bad lighting but you can see the long tail and red eyes.
And the I finally got another photographic year bird!!!!
Yes it's true, I did not have a Pileated picture all this time. Or at least not a decent one.
Pileated Woodpecker.
After work on Wednesday we went on another Spit journey. After the tide came in the birds started pouring in. We had even better numbers than on Monday minus the Black Necked Stilts.
At Crossover 3 in amongst a sea of Dowitchers a Black Tern was hiding.
I could have spent hours searching through all the birds.
Peeps, Dowitchers, Whimbrels, Skimmers, Terns, Gulls, Godwits and Turnstones galore. However, no rarities.
Lesser Yellowlegs amongst the other waders.
Least Sandpiper.
Large numbers of Semi-palmated SPs and some Western mixed in for good measure.
Some of the Dowitchers still had nice colors.
Great times.
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