Yesterday after work I went to the spit with Harry. Harry wanted to try his new image stabilization bins and so we took a trip out knowing it would not be good because the tide was not high yet. Well not only was the tide not high but it started to rain. So we started heading back and we noticed a flock of gulls flush from the shoreline and Harry said "why are they flushing, I am not that close" and I immediately saw the cause. A dark large bird with powerful and fast wingbeats was bearing down on the flock. We both jumped out of the car to take pictures but it made it way past us before we could get on it. I got pretty good looks at it as it went right past us. I am convinced it was one of Harry's nemesis birds - the Pomarine Jaeger. To me it was a fair bit larger than the Laughing gulls it flushed. It was a dark morph bird.
Presumed Pomarine Jaeger - dark phase
Then as we were just coming off the beach, I noticed this Merlin sitting on a snag in the rain. Too bad the light so bad. He was so close in good light it would have been a really good pic.
Merlin - notice the weak mustache.
Tuesday afternoon after my last teleconference of the day I headed to Fort Fisher knowing that a front was passing through and might turn up some birds. Again the light was bad but I did find some nice birds.
House Wren - this wren made my heart race at first. I thought it might be a Sedge Wren. It did not look like a typical house wren, I think it is a juvenile bird.
Palm Warblers were everywhere.
Palm Warblers are nice because they frequently are low down and give good looks.
Then I ran into a really nice flock of 20 or so warblers in the large Live Oaks by the monument. I had Blackpoll, Black-throated Blue, Black & White, Parula, Yellow Warbler, Cape May and Blackburnian. In fact the birding was better in that 30 minutes than it had been the whole time in the mountains. The light was poor and backlit so most of my pictures were worthless.
However, there was one bird I got stuck on. It looked smaller and behaved differently than the Yellow Warblers. I know that Wilson's Warblers will flick their tails and this birds was doing it. The eye was big and the cap was a dark olive and I couldn't see any white edging in tertials.
Wilson's Warbler?
When I got home and looked at the pics, it was the above picture that changed my mind. I think a Wilson's would have a more dusky tail throughout instead of bright yellow all the way to end like in this picture. DRAT.
I am going to get there early tomorrow and see if the birds are still around.
Great times.
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