Black is Beautiful (06Jul2015)

Apologies for the prolonged blog silence.  A combination of work, family, garden and summer doldrums has kept me from birding.  I will start out with some random pics that have sat on my camera for a couple weeks.

Early morning Boat-tailed Grackle at North Topsail.

One of the two Great Cormorants that have been hanging out on the pilings at North Topsail.  Note the blocky head, whitish throat and dark lores.  One of the poor birds had a big fishing lure imbedded in his belly and foot.  However he was not letting anyone get close.

Barn Swallow from I don't even know where.

Over the weekend I got away for several hours and went down to Twin Lakes to find a Wood Stork. If you told me last year I would have trouble getting Wood Stork I would not have believed you.  Yet I dipped hard.  I even went to Indigo Farms on the border of SC/NC.  I saw a pretty tame one there last year but no luck.  I did see many Red-necked Carolinians though.  A strange species.  Many were flying the battle flag not even realizing what it means.  Or maybe they do know and that is even worse than ignorance.  All it takes is a little homework to know that the flag represents secession from the United States and that the secession was documented very well.  In almost all the documents filed by States seceding from the union they stated the reason they were seceding was the threat to the institution of slavery.  None of them cited state's rights. I wish people would just do a little research instead of watching Fox News.  One idiot I saw was flying a Confederate Flag and an American Flag at the same time.  How does that make sense?  If the Confederacy won there would be no USA. It's ok to admit your ancestors were wrong and move on.  Hell my ancestors probably raped and pillaged all the time.

Helmeted Guinea Fowl?  Lots of strange barnyard birds including a Hybrid Barnacle looking Goose.  I didn't bother with a pic.

Loggerhead Shrike

A little bird let me know yesterday of a flock of Black Terns at the South end of Wrightsville. I was busy watching the Women's World Cup (GO USA!!!) so I waited until this evening to head down.  I am on kid detail while my wife helps her sister with some health issues, so I brought the boys with me.  Unfortunately this meant no getting close to the Black Terns.  My boys were yelling and running around preventing any birds from roosting anywhere near us.  However, I did get good fly by looks and some scope views.

Juvenile Black Tern.

Adult Black Tern.

It was good to get out and see something new for the year.  I hope it doesn't take another two weeks for the next bird.

Cheers.