Failure Never felt so Good (18-20Apr2015)

Although I have been unable to add any year birds the past several days, the birding has been good.

Blue-winged Teal at Ft. Fisher Spit.  Do they breed in NC?  Or just a late pair?

Barn Swallow - swallows are notoriously difficult to photograph in flight so I will take this image.

Gull-billed Tern with 100 of his closest friends.

Whimbrels are pretty common on the spit.  Harry S will always check them for a vagrant Eurasian Whimbrel but I have to admit that I am a bad about dismissing birds for the first impression, I need to get better about this so I don't miss any potential rarities.

As I was ogling this Whimbrel, I got a call from S Cooper.  A Glaucous was sitting on Wrightsville beach eating Cheez Puffs from a kid.  I put my truck in gear and high-tailed it over as fast as I could picking up Sherry on the way.  As we were stuck in traffic coming over onto the island, it started to pour rain.  Long story short the gull was gone by the time we got there.

These Royal Terns and many others were having some fun while waiting for the rain to pass.

I speak Sandwichese and I could here them saying "get a room" to their exhibitionist neighbors.

When I saw this bird my heart skipped a beat and I immediately thought LITTLE GULL!!  But then I saw this bird was about the same size as nearby Bonaparte Gulls.

The full hood and blood red legs had my really scrutinizing him.  See the difference between the light pink of the left Bonaparte and the bright red of the breeding Boney.

Carolina Wren was happy when the rain moved through.

On the South end of WB even the Common Loons were sporting breeding plumage.

This poor Red-throated Loon appeared to only have one leg, which is not good for a diving bird.

Man-o-wars littered the beach.  I think I will wait a bit before I go surfing again.

Royal Tern

This morning I went back out to look for the Glaucous.  No Luck again.

This Laughing Gull was yukking it up "Hahahahahahah you are doomed to never see a Glaucous in NC but I see them all the time... Sucker...."

This Wilson's Plover was in full stealth mode.  He thinks I did not see him.  Now if I can just figure out how to find the big old white Glaucous.  It seems he should have an even harder time hiding.

Cheers.