More Lee Bucks and some birding with the boys (18-19Apr2014)

I have been birding but have not been getting new birds for my big year so I haven't posted.  However, now I have some decent pics to share.

Thursday ended up being a really bad day for the Adams family.  George had been sick earlier in the week but on Thursday it caught up to Melissa and Luke, with both of them throwing up pretty much at the same time.  In the afternoon I started to feel ill and pretty soon all of us were down for the count.  So when Friday dawned and we all felt better, I took the opportunity to get out and bird for an hour or two before work.

Sherry met me at Lee Bucks and although we saw pretty much more of the same birds, we got some really good looks. We had 7 warbler species with Swainson's, Worm-eating, Yellow-rump, Pine, Hooded, Prothonotary and Sherry heard Parulas.

Swainson's Warbler - pretty much the best looks you could ask for.

Cattle Egret - there was about 50-60 of them in the pastures.

On Saturday the boys and I dropped Melissa off at the airport for her Boston Marathon attempt.  We are hoping the stomach bug will be 100% gone by Monday.  After doing some work I headed out with the boys past Riegelwood to try for some shorebirds at Oakland Sod Farms.  The farms turned out to be really birdy but nothing special in terms of species.  There were loads of both Yellowlegs, Cattle Egret, Chimney Swifts and Geese.

Chimney Swifts are notoriously hard to photograph because unless you have a chimney and a good flash you will only see them flying high and they are small to begin with.  Peterson I believed coined the description "cigars with wings".

Greater Yellowlegs.

On the way back I stopped at Lock and Dam 1 to see if the Swallow-tailed Kites were back.  No luck in that department but I got some good looks at some Wood Stork.  I think eBird flags them as rare because they typically do not come far into NC.  However I see them at this location quite regularly.

Wood Stork.

Purple Martin - there was 4 types of swallows here with Tree Swallows being the most common, then Purple Martins, Northern Rough-wing and Barn Swallows.

I would love to have a Martin home set up in my yard but probably I don't enough open land to attract them.  And who knows what the home owner association would say.

As I was pulling onto the highway, here was a Wood Stork on the roadside ditch.

After birding for a couple hours I had to make it up to the boys and took them bowling. Luke won two games and George the last.

Great times.

Lee Bucks Part III and Bruce's House (14Apr2014)

Making this post a quick one because the wife is calling me down to dinner.

Headed back out to Lee Bucks this morning and met up with Sherry and friend (Amy). We had some nice birds but nothing new.  However I got a decent Red-eyed Vireo picture for my photographic big year.

Yellow-throated Vireo.

Look at my yellow throat!

Red-eyed Vireo - "Here I am, in the tree, look-up, at the top"

Worm-eating Warbler - loved this shot.

Eastern Towhee - Yellow-eyed subspecies.

White-eyed Vireo.

Sherry reminded me that Bruce has a bunch of Baltimore Orioles and so I went over after work.

 
Baltimore Oriole - There was a troupe of 6!

Great times.

Failed Goatsucker Expedition (13Apr2014)

It was so beautiful today, after coming home for a few hours I decided to go back out.  This time I figured I would try my luck with some nocturnal species - the Goatsuckers.  Apparently the family was given its name goatsucker because in the Old World it was believed they sucked the milk of goats.  Nightjars is probably a more appropriate name but Goatsucker is more fun.

Although I heard Chuck-Will's-Widows a couple nights ago, I wanted to get a picture.  I also heard that Holly Shelter can also have Whip-poor-wills.  Unfortunately when I got to Holly Shelter, I seemed to have joined a target shooter's convention.  Literally every mile or so was another target shooter blasting away.  I reckoned that if I drive 7-8 miles in I could escape the ruckus but to no avail.  I spoke with the game warden and he said he was sad about it but apparently there is no rules against it.  He said he saw significantly less critters whenever the shooters come.

Not only was it noise pollution, but it seemed evidence of the shooters was everywhere.  Shot up bottles, plastic containers, shell casings and left over targets were everywhere.  It really makes me sad.  I am also alarmed by how many people in North Carolina have handguns.  Hunting with rifles is one thing, not for me but I can tolerate it.  Bows are better.  But handguns are totally unnecessary.

Anyway, needless to say I did not find any Nightjars.

Eastern Kingbird.

Common Yellowthroat.

Eastern Kingbird.

Not so great times.  Tomorrow will be better.

Hooded Warbler Mission (13Apr2014)

Seems like everyone is getting Hooded Warblers but me.  So today I made it my mission to get one.  After the wife had her morning run I headed back to Lee Bucks.

First stop I had Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-and-white Warbler and a Prothonotary Warbler that perched with ten feet of me.  There was one Yellow-bellied Sapsucker sticking around a little later than usual.

Prothonotary Warbler - Apparently its not named after roman clerics with yellow robes as Wikipedia would have you believe, but actually its a cajun term for a legal clerk.  Probably because prothonotaries love to hear themselves drone on.

Look closely and you can see a spider web in his bill.  Maybe collecting nesting material.

White driving down Lee Bucks I ran into Harry and Derb.  They were nice enough to key me into the location of a Hooded Warbler that had posed for them. And their instructions were perfect.

Hooded Warbler.

If you squint your eyes, the face in the above picture looks like a human face with a big nose and a gnarly black beard.  Almost like an Ancient Greek caricature.

Cattle Egret.

Northern Parula.

Great times.

More first of the season birds (12Apr2014)

This morning I woke at 3am and headed up to the Castle Hayne area to help David from the Wilmington Wild Bird and Garden with an area bird count.  David lives up near Sidbury Rd. and had heard Chuck-will's-widows recently, so we started up there.

Right on cue as I pulled up to David's house, a Barred Owl greeted me.  After some hunting around we came up with about 4-5 Chucks and 2-3 Screech Owls.  One of the Chucks dive bombed us or at least flew very close.  However it was too dark for pictures.

After checking Wade Park for Virginia Rails with no luck, we headed to Ft. Fisher and had some good birds.

Blue-headed Vireo.

Short-billed Dowitcher - tails did not have much dark barring and they are the more likely bird to be present here.  When we scared them off David thought he could here a more characteristic call of a Short-billed vs. Long. However neither of us are especially good at telling the difference.

 
Gull-billed Terns still around.

Whimbrel!

At CB State Park we had some good song birds.

Prothonotary Warbler -AKA Golden Swamp Warbler.

Summer Tanager.

Blue Grosbeak.

We probably had about 70 species, not bad.

Great times!

Lee Bucks is on fire! (10Apr2014)

Greg and I met early today to see what warblers or migrants we could scare up.  I was not prepared for the awesome birding we had.  We started at Lee Bucks and at the first real creek were greeted by a Vireo symphony.  We had at least 5-6 Yellow-throated Vireo but Greg thinks even more and his ears are pretty much super human.  We had at least one Red-eyed vireo and Greg swears he heard a Philadelphia.

Yellow-throated Vireo - Song is a little more rich and musical than the Red-eye.

Yellow-throated Vireo - here you can see the wing bars and yellow spectacles.  Looks kind of like a Pine Warbler but bigger vireo like bill.

A little further down Lee Bucks, Greg heard a Prairie Warbler but we could not scare him up. However Greg heard a Summer Tanager and bingo, here it was.

Even I could hear and ID by song this Eastern Towhee.  Drink your Teeaaaaa!

Then even a little further down Lee Bucks, Greg said "this is where the Worm-eating are" then promptly this one came to say hi.

Worm-eating Warbler.

He was singing his head off.

Greg pointed out these birds had a rapid fire song typical of Tennessee birds and he was right on.  Apparently different populations sing at a different cadence.

Here you can see the crown stripe.

Next stop Greg said "this is where the Oven Birds hang out" and bingo there he was.
This Ovenbird was in poor light and would not sit still so the picture is not great, but you get the idea.

Next stop was the Swainson's Warbler spot, and this is where I finally found a bird Greg did not hear first.

Black-and-White  Warbler.

Then there he/she was!

Swainson's Warbler!

Pretty big for a warbler and man can he croon.

I told Greg he could market his ears.  He really called almost every bird before we saw them.

Great times.