Black and White Warbler
My friends the Bucks have been present every day on the monument mounds.
I did see multiple Merlins. This one was at the Aquarium parking area.
These Banana Spiders have been all over the Fort Fisher area. I have heard they can even get birds in their large webs.
Friday I had a day off and traveled up to the mountains to get in on some of the action up there. I was hoping for a big migration push based on rumors of a front. However, Weather.com was not showing anything significant and I was skeptical. Greg accompanied me up and we had a grand old time. We spent the first afternoon at Jackson Park for a couple hours and then headed to Beaver Lake to try for the reported Wilson's Warbler.
Jackson had loads of warblers including Magnolia, Cape May, Redstarts, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Waterthrush, Blackburnian and Black & White. However, it was by no means the birding potential that Jackson Park can be from what I have heard.
Magnolia Warbler - these were surprisingly common.
Here is a "Maggie" that was preening and puffing her yellow rump feathers.
Then she took this awkward pose and just sat like that for a while. Greg thinks she was trying to get rid of mites by sunning with her feathers all spread out.
Other than warblers, Empinodax flycatchers and Pewees were the most common birds. I was having tons of trouble even telling a Pewee from an "empi" let alone identifying between the empis.
Empinodax sp. in above picture.
This one looked like an Eastern Wood Pewee.
After a couple hours at Jackson we went to Asheville to check into our hotel and finished the day birding Beaver Lake north of Asheville. Our target was a WIlson's Warbler that had been seen there for a couple days.
American Goldfinch.
Greg spotted an Empinodax that he did not have trouble in identifying as a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. This is the only empi I was still missing.
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - yellowish color throughout, large eye ring, narrow tail and medium primary projection.
Then we spotted a thrush which we thought maybe was a Gray Cheeked, but in looking at these poor photos, I changed my mind to Swainson's Thrush.
If you zoom in you can barely see the buffy eye ring that makes it good for a Swainson's. Don't worry i got better pictures later!
Northern Waterthrush - coloration uniform cream color is good for Northern Waterthrush. Also stripes on throat were closely packed as opposed to Louisiania. Also, I think the Louisiana WTs are mostly gone by now.
Prairie Warbler - oddly enough this was one of the more rare finds. On the coast I can't keep these away.
This one looked like it could be a Gray-cheeked too based on dark spots and lack of buffy tones, but once I saw it's buffy eye ring I decided this one too was a Swainson's.
Swainson's Thrush - See the buffy eye ring.
This was a common sight - the black square on the end of a Magnolia's tail made him/her and easy mark.
Cape May Warbler - these were very accommodating, hanging down a little above eye level.
This one was a little drab but some of them had great coloration.
Blackburnian Warbler.
Cape May Warbler.
Cape May - a more colorful one.
Tennesee Warbler - there were quite a few of these but no where near the numbers that I was expecting.
Cape May Warbler
Tennesee Warbler
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - I really tried to make one into a Black-billed but they all had yellow-bills.
In the afternoon Greg took a nap in the truck and I birded a section of the park that offered some new birds for the day.
Ovenbird.
Then in a nice flock of vireos I spotted a Philadelphia Vireo!!! My best bird was also the worst photographed bird. It was at the very top of a large tree and the photos are heavily cropped. You have to use a little a little bit of imagination and zoom in but if you look closely you can see the vireo bill and distinctive semi circles around the eye. I got really good looks with my 10 power bins and watched it for a good 3 minutes while trying to get Greg on the phone and explain my location. This bird was quite yellow, which is nice because I would have a hard time with one of the more drab birds.
In the above photo if you zoom in to the center of the frame you can see the vireo eye which in the case of this bird distinguishes it from the other similar sized birds with yellowish belly and vent.
Horrible pictures but I just don't know if I will have another chance at a Philadelphia Vireo this year.
Sunday we tried for an early morning trip to Ridge Junction up near Mount Mitchell. It looked like it was going be perfect and when we got near Craggy Gardens in the dark there was birds all over the road and flying in the headlights. probably a nice migratory flock moving through. We pushed on to our final destination but by the time the sun came up there was a strong wind from the West which did not seem to be good and there was little birds to be had.
We tried the Bald Knob Trail and got a couple Crossbills for Ryan Justice. They were right where I had them last time on the ground near an old piece of metal roofing. Probably drinking the water collecting there in the tin. Or maybe even eating the minerals in the metal?
We headed down the Curtis Creek road and then finally finished our adventure birding some more in Jackson Park before heading home.
Altogether a good trip, but I still need to hit a major migration event in Jackson Park. Something to look forward to.
Great times.
No comments:
Post a Comment