What a great couple days of birding.
Saturday I birded Greenfield Lake before my kids' soccer games and had some warblers and other birds but nothing great. I knew Sunday was going to be the big day because of the front. I was torn between staying local and joining John, Jack and Chandra for a trip out to Cape Lookout. The Cape is the southern terminus of the Outer Banks so a Northwest wind will push all the birds down. The added bonus is that most of the trees are fairly low. Its a long drive to the Harker's Island Ferry terminal, but in the end I trusted John's innate bird finding ability and made the drive leaving my house at 4am. It ended up being worth it.
We walked about 8 miles according to Chandra's iPhone app and ended up with 14 warbler species, over a hundred Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Philadelphia Vireo, Hundreds of Catbirds and Phoebes, Peregrines, Merlin, Clay-colored Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrow, Bobolink and some other goodies. The big miss was a Blue-winged Warbler that I found but somehow missed a picture of it. I think the few times I clicked the shutter I must have just missed him before he jumped to a new perch. However all in the group got a good look. John says its a good bird for Carteret County.
Black-throated Green.
Cape May - there was tons of Cape Mays and a few really colorful ones.
Black and White Warbler.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - we ended up putting about hundred on our list but I think there were several for every one we flushed. They were everywhere.
Magnolia Warbler - we had a couple of these.
Black-throated Blue.
Peregrine Falcon - there were at least two of them but we saw them again and again as they cruised the relatively small area.
This Merlin had a very full crop. He was in heaven with all the easy targets.
After Cape Lookout we swung by North River Farms and had Bobolink, tons of Blue Grosbeak and Indigo Bunting feasting on some yummy Millet.
Bobolink.
Monday morning before work I checked Carolina Beach State Park and Ft. Fisher. Nothing great but still nice.
Red-tailed Hawk with a really nicely defined bib.
I counted about 10 Marsh Wrens at the walkway near the Cape Fear River at Ft. Fisher. I still can't buy a decent look at a Sedge Wren.
This evening after work I headed back to Ft. Fisher and joined Greg and Harry for some birding.
Greg found this Clay Colored Sparrow at the Ft. Fisher Aquarium trails. He was so exhausted from migration that he let us get within 10 feet but the lighting was not the best. The picture does not do the looks we got justice.
We hit up Crossover 2 and had a huge group of migrating Nelson's Sparrows. Usually I can see 1 or 2 resident birds in the winter mixed in with Saltmarsh and Seaside but this time there was 10-15 in a small area and they were not shy. This was the last of the three I needed a decent picture of and I got some good ones.
Nelson's Sparrow - face and breast yellow/orange color is fairly uniform and the line delineating the breast and belly is well defined. Streaking is lighter than Saltmarsh.
Nelson's Sparrows - two for one shot.
I love this shot - spread eagle.
Can your Grandfather do this!!!
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Great times!!!
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