You Never Know Unless You Go (02-04Oct2015)

Driving for 5 hours one way to get some birds and failing is definitely a frustrating way to spend your time but my mantra is You Never Know Unless You Go.  So go I did.  A report of a White-cheeked Pintail earlier in the week was enough to motivate me for a drive to the OBX despite a dismal weather forecast.

I will cut to the chase (pardon the pun).

Upon arrival to Pea Island North Pond the first bird seen was this large falcon which we flushed from a power pole.

Very dark picture of a Peregrine Falcon - if you look very closely you will see the definitive mask.

The bird was very large and very dark, indicating a juvenile bird.

And yes this is with the pictures actually lightened!  Remember the weather was horrible so decent pics were hard to come by.

We scoped the large flocks of ducks and terns with no luck so we headed a bit further down North Pond and flushed this more adult looking Peregrine.

For a size check, that is a Black Skimmer he is flying off with.  I don't think a Merlin would be able to take down and fly off with a Black Skimmer.

After dipping on any rare ducks (White-cheeked Pintail or Eurasian Wigeon), we headed to the Oregon Inlet Marina and combed through the flooded field.   Above bird presumed to be a Short-billed Dowitcher.  Everyone seems to have their own way to ID the difference between Short-billed and Long-billed.  The one field mark I have adopted the most is looking at the barring on the tail.  The above bird has more white showing than black.

Greater Yellowlegs - note upturned long bill.

Lesser Yellowlegs - shorter and relatively straight bill.

Another presumed Short-bill Dowitcher showing his tail.

Here is one I think qualifies for a Long-billed.  See the black barring is thicker or at least as thick as the white. Of course I could be way off.

Despite our brains telling us this bird was a Black-bellied Plover due to larger bill and lack of very definitive supercillium, our hearts tried to convince us it was an American Golden Plover.

Of course after about 30 photos it flew off and showed us it's black axillaries dashing our dreams.

I did not take many photos of the ducks because it was raining most of the time and none of the shots came out crisp.  But to give you an idea, we had Shovelers, Northern Pintails, American Black Ducks, Blue-winged Teal (above), Mallards and American Wigeon.

In this group of Northern Pintail you can see a couple American Wigeon with somewhat cream colored foreheads that we tried to turn into Eurasian Wigeons but a profile view reviewed they were clearly American Wigeon.

So I dipped on any year birds but the good news is I am closing the gap between seen and photographed birds adding Peregrine Falcon and American Wigeon.  Yes I have seen thousands of wigeon this year but I was holding out for a nice side by side shot with Eurasian and American in one shot. At this point I am giving up and just ticking the American.

Yesterday was soccer and both my boys won their respective games!  The weather in Wilmington was horrendous this morning so although I tried to bird a bit, I have resigned myself to catching up with work.