Knuckleheads (23-26Aug2015)

Local birding has been the call for past several days and things are starting to pick up.

Sunday was some casual birding from the car with Harry at Ft. Fisher.  Tons of shorebirds and even more yahoos.

This little tern gave us a little pause because it had a dark bill and was lacking a strong carpal bar.

I could almost see a white "window" in the inner most primary which would be good for Roseate Tern but we consulted with the experts and decided it was a Common in some sort of intermediate plumage.  The above photo was tricky because the right wing was tricking me into thinking this bird had a long tail.  However, Harry's photos show a shorter tail.

I have combed through about 400-500 Black-bellied Plover in the past 4 days and have not found one American Golden, in fact I don't think I have ever seen one on a beach but I guess some people have all the luck.  I think I have seen 4-5 different reports of AMGP found on beaches this year.  I will continue to look at sod farms or North River for mine.

Caspians are all over the beach lately.

Monday morning I visited Ft. Fisher monument to see if any warblers were coming through.

The bucks from last year were on the monument as usual and with more points to boot. However, there was not much going on so I headed to the Basin Trail to meet up with some Knuckleheads.

Sorry I am not a Herp guy, but I would guess Leopard Frog?

There was a huge party of egrets at the pond next to the Basin Trail.  Hundreds of them.

Blue-winged Teal always seem to get flagged by eBird even though I regularly see them here in the late summer.

If you have not seen the Life series on PBS (Netflix has it), watch it! Nothing better than David Attenborough narrating over some of the best images you have ever seen.  One of the episodes has a cool bit on Monarchs.  Here is one fueling up for the long trip to Central America.

I was able to get one of the Knuckleheads this life bird - Seaside Sparrow.

Horrible pic but we had 6-7 Yellow-crowned Night-herons working the mud flats.  I have never seen that many around here. Bills were stubby and black and legs were long and extended past tail in flight. They just had the Yellow-crown "jizz" despite all being juvenile.

Tricolored Heron - Erla calls these Louisiana Herons so she must have been birding a few years.

The Knuckleheads - a nice group of ladies from the Triangle area.

In the evening I headed back to the Spit.  I love driving on the beach with my redneck truck (it has a 3 inch lift) and defying the redneck stereotype by pulling up and setting up my scope instead of a lawn chair and a six pack (not that there is anything wrong with that either).

This time I pulled up to the first cut and immediately saw an interesting bird in view.  I was getting ready to get out and put the scope on him and some other dude pulled up and starting asking me questions about my truck.  I was very worried that he was going to scare the bird off but luckily I was able to shake the guy off and was setting up when who rolls up other than some genuine knuckleheads - Harry and Greg.  Well Greg and I definitely have Rarophyllia as some folks call it, so we immediately tried to make this bird into something better than it was.  Rarophyllia is a terminal disease in which the afflicted tries to make every bird into a rare bird.  It was either a Pectoral Sandpiper, or it was something really rare - a Sharp-tailed SP.  Well we knew it was a Pectoral but whats the fun in just calling it and not giving it a good study.

The bird was refusing to turn around, so we studied the bill and legs which lead us on the goose chase. Sharp-tailed and Pectorals look strikingly similar.  They both have orange/yellow legs and a similarly sized bill.  Above photo taken through scope.

When it finally did turn around it had a proper Pectoral "bib" and little of the buffy coloring that blends in with the bib on a Sharp-tailed. It also lacked the more striking rufous cap of a Sharp-tailed.

Pectoral SP - for those of you that Poo-Poo our rarophyllia, keep in mind that Greg found the first state record of a Sharp-tailed SP in NC at this very spot.

Although we agreed this was a Pectoral, it was not very typical.  It was kind of dumpy looking and the bib was not totally clean having some streaking on flanks.

Next evening Harry and I went to the spit again.  this time we used our Rarophyllic powers to try and turn a Least Sandpiper into a stint.

Least Sandpiper - poor light can lead yellow legs to look Black.

Least Sandpiper - a little better light showed legs had some yellow color.

Another Pectoral in center of frame.  Decidedly a different bird than the day before.

Finally this morning I headed back to the Basin to finish up some unfinished business with the Northern Waterthrush that has been hanging out at the beginning of the trail.  It was still very dark hence the poor pics.

Prairie Warblers kept distracting me.

Northern Waterthrush - he had very dark and dense streaking on breast and throat.  The Louisiana has more of a window in the throat.

Picture taken through many laters of bush, but shows the dense streaking all the way up through throat. Hope to get a better picture, but just in case this will do.

Back on the Basin Trail I saw the Yellow-crowned NHs from earlier in the week.

And this time I had an adult confirming our ID on the immatures.

On the trail there was a whole pile of these dead little turtles, not sure what kind.  Surely they are not sea turtles?  If so they were way off course.

Great times.