Mid Life Crisis (14-18Feb2015)

I think I am going through a midlife crisis.  Instead of fast cars and cheap women I want birds.....  Lots of them....A little piece of me dies each time I see a bird species come across my filter that I have not seen yet.  Although this habit might seem harmless to most, it definitely is not.  Driving to see birds is costly in terms of time and money and therefore can put the same strains on life that an addiction like gambling or drugs can.  I think I have it under control for the most part but there is still a little devil in the back of my brain that tells me "you could totally drive up to the OBX on Friday and hop on that Pelagic trip".

So anyway, in order to keep my family intact and job firmly in place, I have been trying to ignore the devil and have kept my birding local and before or after work.

Saturday we (my family) took a walk at Burnt Mill Creek in Wilmington.  I was hoping for Barred Owls but no luck.

American Robin

This Sharp-shinned hawk was able to single-handedly scare the living daylights out of 200 plus robins. Although I can usually find perched Cooper's Hawks, for some reason the Sharpies I see are usually brief glimpses of a flying bird.  So I was happy to get this photo.  Note the relatively square tipped tail white a very thin white border.  The Cooper's Hawk has a more rounded tail tip and thicker border.  Also, I saw this bird up close and it was notably smaller than a Cooper's but this is hard to appreciate from a photo.

I have had a thistle feeder at my house for quite some time and had no takers that I have noticed.  I think I have it hanging in a spot that is too exposed.  Anyway, on Sunday I finally had a single Goldfinch. I thought to myself, oh goody he will bring in waves of finches and siskins.  Not so.

American Goldfinch

Sunday afternoon I decided to bite the bullet and renew my membership to Airlie Gardens.  I have a hate/love relationship with Airlie.  I love the gardens and proximity to my home base, but I hate the way it is managed.  They have all kinds of noisy ATVs roaming around at all times of the day and I also do not like the way they are always clearing sections of the gardens that do not need it.  I frequently see them pulling perennials like Salvias (guaranitica) and chucking them so they can plant some annual that will die in a week.  Recently they got rid of a whole bunch of mature butterfly bushes so they could mulch and plant some myrtles that had been raised on a farm somewhere.  It just seems like a waste of money and resources to me.

Mute Swans nest at Airlie every year that I have been going.

Black-and-white Warbler

This Golden-crowned Kinglet was working a tree in front of me for 10 minutes and somehow this is the best image I got.  They simply will not stay still.

Monday I got away from work for a quick break and checked Wade Park.

Mallards - please do not take these birds for granted.  If you grew up on some other planet and came to Earth you would probably think these were the most beautiful of all the birds.

 Gray Catbirds love Wade Park

So do Brown Thrashers.

Next stop was Greenfield Lake.

This Anhinga would not wake up.  I was waving my arms and yelling so I could get a shot of his head (I know - shameless, but keep in mind I was across the other side of the water and no threat to the bird).      Then I saw a police car eyeing my poorly parked vehicle so I took that as a queue to split.

However, not before taking a picture of Ebony and Ivory.  Double-crested Cormorant and Great Egret.

Last stop was Sutton Lake.  I drove the dirt road hoping for some interesting sparrows and instead ran right into a cute covey of Bobwhite Quail.

Northern Bobwhite.

These birds were relatively fearless, or maybe my car was working great as a blind.  However, there is a slight possibility they were released birds.  There are Bobwhites at Sutton Lake normally, but these birds were not very skittish like they usually are.

So freaking cute.

If the light was not failing these photos would have been insane.  It was almost sunset at this point.

A Cooper's Hawk swooped down while I was watching and I missed the shot but it was impressive.  It was close enough that I could hear the sound of the Cooper's wings swoop in.  Luckily it was an immature Cooper's and he missed his mark.  After dispersing into the woods, I waited and the covey came back out feeding on the side of the road.  Some of you may remember a post from last year called Jimmy Crack Corn.  Well apparently that nice man is still spreading cracked corn out this way and that is what the birds were attracted to.

It was my birthday yesterday so I tried some spots before work and unfortunately came up empty handed with the exception of a nice cluster of Piping Plovers at Masonboro Jetty.

Piping Plover

I bought a new "Squirrel Buster" for my yard so I can stop feeding the many squirrels and so far it seems to be working.  The squirrels have been flabbergasted.

 Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Great times? Could be better, but could be worse.