I have been walking Burnt Mill Creek with George while Luke is at Soccer practice.
Blue-headed Vireos are always good birds. This one was at the Burnt Mill Creek Cemetery (Oakdale?).
American Robin - taken for granted?
Saturday we made the trip to the airport to pick up Melissa after she spent a week up North with her Father. Whew, a week alone with the boys was good bonding but I was getting tired of working all day, doing all the house chores and getting the kids to school and soccer for a week. A man needs to bird now and again....
ILM is one of the most reliable places in the state for Loggerhead Shrike.
Sunday was my day to bird all day! I had to pull the plug on attempt #2 for the Mountain Plover because of the weather. It was 30mph winds and raining all day on the coast. So naturally I headed inland and got some good birds.
This drake Common Goldeneye has been hanging out in a minuscule pond at Wake Tech.
Brian P let me come over for some Geri-birding. Brian has a truly good set up and he regularly gets Purple Finches in the winter and Thrushes in the Summer.
Nice comparison between Purple Finch on bottom right and House Finch on upper tier. The Purple Finch is more of a wine color and the House Finch is a vibrant red.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
White-breasted Nuthatch
Unfortunately I dipped on Greater White-fronted Goose and Nashville Warbler in the RTP area, but that did not dissuade me from heading for my last target which was the Buff-bellied Hummingbird in Winston-Salem. It took a while for the Buff-belly to show, so I took some photos of common birds in the Connor's back yard while I waited.
Carolina Wren
Pine Warbler
BFFs forever - Northern Cardinal and White-throated Sparrow
Hermit Thrush
I didn't notice it at the time, but this Downy Woodpecker was banded.
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Then he showed and he looked even better than he did 5 months ago. The colors were more vibrant and all the feathers were fresh and crisp. Unfortunately he was partially obscured while perched and when he was feeding it was too dark for a crisp pic.
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
I actually kind of like the speed blur pics. Its art!
It took me 2 hours to get these serviceable pictures and then 3 hours to get home so I only missed the first quarter of the Superbowl which ended up being kind of boring anyway. They shouldn't let the #1 defensive team into the Superbowl, it does not make for good viewing.
Monday I took an early morning walk to the North end of Wrightsville Beach and flushed a couple bitterns which is a first for that area for me.
American Bittern
Finally on Tuesday I had a day off so I could settle a personal score with Mr. Mountain Plover. On the way up in Beaufort I managed to locate the Sandhill Cranes off Hwy 101.
Sandhill Crane - why is it so hard to crush such a big bird? Its like they know where to go to be off limits to photographers.
One day soon I will find a crushable Sandhill Crane.
I should have taken some pictures of the scene at Sea Level, the town where we launched, but my focus was on birds as is typical and I forgot to take some landscapes. The boat captain told us that on Sunday winds up to 60 mph were clocked and the flooding was severe. He was worried that the bird was dead or gone. When we got over to the inlet, the scene was an amazing contrast to what I saw a couple weeks ago. The sandbars looked completely different, a duck blind was gone and there was debris everywhere. We had some trouble landing but the captain managed to get us in and it did not take long to find our target......
Mountain Plover!
We did not want to flush him because another boat load was on the way, so we just posted up and waited. White waiting, the plover moved around quite a bit.
His sandy brown color blended in perfectly with the surroundings.
I don't care what Trump says, Mountain Plovers are not fat and ugly. They are beautiful!
A shot showing size comparison to a Dunlin.
Farewell you plover of mountains. I hope you find your way to some idyllic mountain meadow where you can frolic with members of your wonderful species. Put these frozen beaches behind you.
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