Before we go into that, a couple pics from Saturday and a failed second attempt at the Burrowing Owl. Shun and some friends were going for an attempt and I decided to go along for a ride with my kids in the boat to see if I could help and point out where we saw the bird previously. However, it was Saturday and there were fisherman and surfers walking the trails before we even got to the island. In the end we could not find it and had to settle for some other birds....
A little overkill on the bling if you ask me. Poor J83 has more bling than Mr. T.
This other Piping Plover didn't have any bling at all.
We were able to get Jeff a year bird in this Great Cormorant.
First target for Sunday was the Ross's Goose in Pfafftown, NC. Yes, I know... What in the world would lead someone to call a town Pfafftown? Apparently its pronounced Pofftown and was named after a man named Pfaff and I can't find anything interesting about him other than the fact that he owned the land that eventually became Pfafftown.
I got to the lake where the bird has been roosting at first light so I could photograph it before it took off for a day of grazing in nearby fields. Of course this meant the light sucked and although i could get very close the pictures are not great.
I had to crank my ISO all the way up for this bad boy. Notice the bluish discoloration at the base of the bill that is a field mark for Ross's Goose.
I was hoping it would stay a bit longer so I could get better pics, but the Ross's was the first bird to leave the pond.
Another 2 hours drive and I arrived to Warren Wilson College which has to be one of my favorite birding spots in NC. I searched and searched... for 7 hours!!!! I ended up finding 7 species of Sparrow (Field, Song, Chipping, Swamp, White-crowned, White-throated and Savannah) but I could not turn up a Lincoln's Sparrow and worse than that I did not find the Sage Thrasher! Oh well, you never know unless you go.
There were plenty of skulkers in the thicket where the Sage Thrasher should be and the Song Sparrows seen through thickets periodically tricked me but in the end I don't think I ever had a glimpse of the thrasher. I know a Song Sparrow looks nothing like a Thrasher, but sometimes when all you see is a couple inches of a bird through the brambles it is hard to ID them.
The good news is I did get wonderful looks at a beautiful male White-crowned Sparrow.
In the huge flocks of blackbirds there was some Rusty Blackbirds but no Yellow-headed or Brewers that I could find.
Rusty
Field Sparrow
Rusty female
Hairy WP - look at that bill!
Click and Clack the tappit brothers.
Junglefowl!
On the way home I stopped at a known Barn Owl roost and heard them screaming but they did not show themselves for a picture.
I had to take a 45 min nap at a rest stop on the way home to avoid falling asleep at the wheel and did not get home until 1am. That means my mission was almost 23 hours long. I should have stayed 1 more hour to make it even.
Cheers.
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