Birding with the Boyz (22Mar2015)

Melissa was our running the Quintiles Half Marathon so I decided to get the boys out before it started to rain.  I had two target birds and we ended up getting both so it was a good couple hours.  George was not into it but Luke is competitive so I made a little game out of it and said that whoever guesses the closest number of species we find over the next two hours would win the game. George guessed 26, Luke 28 and I guessed 50 species.

We started out at Lee Bucks Rd in Brunswick County and slowly worked our way across to Governor's Rd and then finally up Route 17 back home.  It was actually really slow for most of the drive and as we got close to the West end of Governor's Rd. we had 28 species and Luke would have won if I had not found a very nice flock at the river crossing that has always been good for migrants.  This flock included several Parulas, a Blue-headed Vireo, a Yellow-throated Warbler, some Yellow-rumps, 4-5 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and some other common birds like Chickadees, Titmice and both Kinglets.  Also a fly by of a Barred Owl.  Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the owl or the vireo.

Northern Parula

Yellow-throated Warbler

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Right as we were wrapping it up, some good old boys showed up and began to fish some items from the black water like a cooler and some fishing gear.  They told me they had been in the river last night in a John boat and had hit the bottle too hard and flipped.    I could not imagine how much fun it must have been swimming in that black water swamp in the middle of the night.  However, they were some rough looking boys and did not seem to be any worse for wear.

We ended up with 42 species in a couple hours.

Great times.

Nebraska Fried Chicken (15-20Mar2015)

Earlier this week I took a ride out to the Ft. Fisher spit with Harry to catch up with him and do some birding.  It was slow but we managed to find a couple birds.

Wilson's Plover - Spring has sprung

Wilson's Plover

Ipswich subspecies of Savannah Sparrow

Later in the week was my much anticipated work trip to Nebraska.  I had researched a couple spots that would be on the way from Omaha to Grand Island which was my work destination.

First stop was Branched Oak State Park which is a prairie and lake habitat just NW of Lincoln, NE.  I can see why some folks choose to live out there.  The prairie really is beautiful.

There was a large gull flock on the beach at the lake and this dark mantled gull stuck out like a sore thumb.  Yellow feet was the best field mark.  In the end, I called it a Lesser Black-backed Gull. Pretty good bird for Nebraska.

A couple of Common Goldeneye was a good find too, although they did not want to be photographed.

Check out the "carbuncles" on these American White Pelican.  I took a look online and they are formed during breeding and are hypothesized to function as a kind of target for aggressive jabs from rival pelicans so they can fight without damaging the important pouch.

Harris's Sparrows!!!!!  Life bird for me.  I hate when people say "lifer" but I felt compelled in this case since this is such a nice bird and I have been searching for them for a while.

I had a couple more hours drive to Grand Island so I reluctantly left Branched Oak.  Once I got close to Grand Island, I began to see what makes the Platte River Basin so famous this time of year.  Hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes.

Sandhill Cranes - if you have never seen large congregations of Sandhill Cranes, you are missing out.  It is a sensory smorgasbord as these birds are big, loud and active as they are getting ready to mate.  The males do a dance and face off with other males trying to impress the ladies.

This was just one small field in thousands of acres of similar scenes.

Little house on the prairie.

Ring-necked Pheasant - I love the call of a pheasant, it sounds like a submarine about to dive.  It brings me back to my childhood in Old Field, NY where we had tons of Pheasants until foxes later decimated them and then the foxes were killed by development.  Now if something would only finish the cycle and kill the McMansions being built all over Old Field.  Maybe then the Pheasants would return.

Just before dark all the Sandhill Cranes collectively take off and fly for a roost on the Platte River.  It is a sight to behold, and in fact hundreds of birds do go to the roost site every night to watch the spectacle.  I should have taken some more pics, but to be honest I was in awe and not really thinking of it.

After work on Thursday I had a couple hours in the evening to bird around Grand Island.  The area to the North is truly a stark and beautiful place.  Corn fields are interspersed with rolling prairie with tons of raptors working the fields.  As I was driving I spotted some really good birds sitting on telephone poles and road side trees but by the time I pulled over they invariably flew before I could get pictures.  I saw 3-4 dark morph birds that could have been Rough-legged or even better Ferruginous Hawks but I just did not get a good opportunity to study any of them.  I did finally get one Rough-legged that was fairly diagnostic with good wrist patches, but as I pointed my camera skyward the sensor picked up too much light and I kept getting error messages.  Arghh.  Rough-legged is my nemesis bird this year.

There was plenty of American Tree Sparrows, in fact I think they are the most common sparrow there.

Horned Lark - tons of these everywhere and they were not shy.

Meadowlark were just as plentiful and signing like crazy.  I made some recordings of what I think are both Western and Eastern Meadowlarks.  Poor Nebraskans have the issue where they have plenty of both species and must have a hard time IDing them.  I love the above picture for the old boot he is sitting on.  I believe the above bird is an Eastern Meadowlark.  The Supercilium is darker and the flank patterning is a little darker or "dirty".  The yellow of the throat was a little more narrow than some neighboring Western Meadowlark.

I believe this one is a Western - broader yellow on throat, the supercilium was lighter although its hard to tell in this pic and the flanks a cleaner white.  However, the sound recordings should be definitive, I will post them later.  I want my buddy Greg to check them out.

My two biggest targets for Grand Island was Greater Prairie Chicken and Prairie Falcon.  Prairie Chickens can more easily be found early in the morning when they are displaying this time of year.  Unfortunately work through a wrench in getting out early on Thursday.  However, in the evening after coming up short at a spot that recently had a Prairie Falcon I spotted a weird looking bird sitting on top a Telephone post.  As I got closer I thought to myself it looked like a grouse!!!  I know Sharp-tailed Grouse will perch in trees so I was hopeful.  As I got closer I saw instead it was a Greater Prairie Chicken sitting at the top of a Telephone pole!!! So weird I thought to myself, although who knows maybe this is normal behavior?

Greater Prairie Chicken!!!

Luckily this chicken did not touch the live section of wire or I would have been eating Nebraska Fried Chicken.  A funny thing, as I was parked on the side of this country road staring at this chicken, I had no less than 5 locals pull over and ask if I needed help.  Folks in Nebraska are super nice and are not used to seeing birders.  In fact at my job site, most of the folks I was working with said they did not even know the Sandhill Cranes were back.  How can you miss 100 thousand large grey birds flying and landing everywhere? Only a non-birder can be so oblivious to their surroundings.

Its a good thing that the chicken was sitting on the pole because check out how camouflaged they are when in a field.  The same chicken is in the center of the above frame.  Can you see it?

Next morning I woke at the crack of dawn and headed to a nearby spot called Taylor Ranch.  I followed the directions from a website advertising this spot as a great place to see Greater Prairie Chickens displaying on a Lek.  I was prepared to not find anything because eBird had zero reports of Prairie Chickens for 2015.  However, I made the left turn onto the road and headed exactly one mile down as the website suggested and immediately found a very active lek with at least 24 chickens!!

I know these pics suck, but keep in mind these birds were quite far.  Zoom in, is that two bunny rabbits?

Nope, it's Prairie Chickens with their "horns" up and throat sacs inflated.  The noises they were making were very comical.  If you have any playback apps, play the Greater Prairie Chicken lek calls and you will hear it.

There was lot of posturing and jumping up and down.  Unfortunately most of the birds were just on the other side of this rise in the prairie so I could only catch glimpses when they jumped or sometimes when they walked over the rise.  At one point the group flushed when a raptor flew by but they returned and and I was able to count over 20.

Zoom in here and you can see the orange throat sacs on one sexy beast.

On my way back to the airport in Omaha I stopped once more at Branched Oak SP.

I easily found some more Harris's Sparrows.

There were Bald Eagles everywhere!  I saw kettles with 15-20 eagles.

Harris's Sparrow

Instead of the Lesser Black-backed Gull I found an Iceland Gull.

Walking through some fields I came across this Bobwhite Quail which was sporting some bling.  It was fairly tame so probably it was a cage bird recently released for game.

This male Common Merganser had a nice group of females following him around.

I hope one day I will get another chance to go back to Nebraska, although it may not be for another 39 years.  I may have driven through part of it a long time ago but this is the only time I was able to truly soak some of it in.

Great times.

Who says work is no fun? (10-13Mar2015)

The great thing about my job is it takes me places and I create my own schedule for the most part.  So in addition to visiting locations in and out of NC, I am able to bird when the birding is good as long as I get my work done.  Of course there are times when I have to be on telecons or sitting in my office for 10-12 hour stretches, but overall I am very lucky.

Laughing Gull - picture from earlier this week in Wilmington.  Laughing gulls are easy to take for granted but in early Spring they have a fresh and crisp plumage that makes you fall in love with them all over again.

An early Spotted Sandpiper at CB State Park.

Wednesday I had a visit to Duke and I got their early so I swung by Coker Arboretum in Chapel Hill to try for the Rufous Hummingbird.  I quickly found the flowering Sweet Breath of Spring where it has been reported.  A local lady saw me and came over to chat.  She said that the rufous had not been seen for 4-5 days.  However, I did not let that deter me and within 15 minutes of waiting I had my quarry.

Rufous Hummingbird surrounded by Sweet Breath of Spring which has an amazing fragrance.  I am going to have to get some for my yard.

Usually IDing a Rufous can be tricky unless it is an adult male with a rufous back.  Everyone has been calling this one a Rufous and I think Susan C has made a trip to band and ID it but I did not see a band.

Unless someone IDs it as a Allen's, I am going with the default Rufous designation.

On my way back to my truck I saw this Hermit Thrush acting funny.

He flew down started doing a funny dance, jumping up and down.

Then I saw what all the excitement was about, a snake!  Can Hermit Thrushes eat snakes?  This one was real small but still looked too big for a Hermit Thrush to take on.  If you zoom in real close you can see the snake's head on the left.  After attacking the snake a couple times the Hermit lost interest.

After my job at Duke I managed to make it to Mason Farm Biological Reserve for a quick walk.  Although it is a beautiful place, I did not have much luck.  I was looking for a Barred Owl or Woodcock.  I did hear a Barred but did not find it for a picture. Before dark it started to rain so I gave up on Woodcock.

If you told me my first photographed Red-headed WP for the year would be photographed in the Piedmont instead of in my home town I would not have believed you.

Thursday morning before work, I headed to Brian P's house to try for Purple Finch.  It did not take long to spot first a female then a couple males.

Purple Finch and Blue Jay.  Notice the forked tail which is diagnostic for Purple Finch versus House Finch.

The Purple Finches came to the feeders but the light was bad and all my photos came out bad.  I also missed a photo of a White-breasted Nuthatch which was still eluding me.

The good news is I got photos of both species later in the afternoon after my work was through.  I stopped at Crabtree Lake State Park and posted up next to the feeder at the Park Office.

Pine Siskin

The feeder had tons of bird including Goldfinches, House Finches, Bluebirds, Siskins, Titmice and Chickadees.

Then I spotted a Purple!

Wine colored Purple Finch.  See forked tail and unstreaked belly.

There was plenty House Finches around for comparison.

I almost passed this one off as a House Finch because in the sun it seemed more red than the purple color I was expecting.  However it did not take long to notice that this bird had no streaking on its belly!  It also had extensive color on his back.

Then just before leaving my chance came for a White-breasted Nuthatch!  Booyah, I love when a plan comes together.

Now that my work commitments were over I made the decision to drive to the OBX to try for the Common Redpoll that has been hanging out in Southern Shores.  On the way I could not resist stopping at Alligator for sunset and a try for a Short-eared Owl. Unfortunately no luck there.

This Red-tailed Hawk had a very full crop.  At dark I listened for Woodcock with no luck but I was treated to the amazing sound of a Red Wolf howling.  I think many people in NC are completely unaware that we have a population of Red Wolves with the best numbers in Alligator NWR.  The sound of a wolf howling when you are along in the pitch back is truly haunting and a little scary even when your vehicle is a short way down the road.

Next morning after tackling 40-50 emails I headed from my Hotel to Southern Shores and navigated to the house where the Redpoll has been hanging out.  Don't ask me the exact location because I was not successful in getting permission to get on the property and I simply watched from the street.  The feeder was easily visible from the street although it was pretty far.  When I got there there was very little activity and I could not see any siskins at all!  This was discouraging but Common Redpoll is a lifer for me so I was not going to quit.  However, I had a TC for work and I needed to check out of my hotel so I temporarily retreated after 30 minutes.

After some calls and checking out I headed back and as soon as I arrived I saw things were improving.  There was a group of 30 or so siskins and all kinds of other regulars working the thistle feeder.  Bingo! It was not hard to ID once the Redpoll flew in.

Heavily cropped image of a Common Redpoll - red "bindi" and yellow bill.

If you are the home owner and happen to read this blog, thank you for keeping your feeder full!

Initially the plan was to finish the day working but I made a huge bonehead move the prior day and left my computer cord in RTP!  So I was out of batteries and force to bird the rest of the day. Oh well, I would make up for it on the weekend.

I proceeded to visit all the usual OBX spots, first up Bodie Island.  Nothing special there so next stop was the Oregon Inlet harbor.

There were some Horned Grebes working the harbor.

Then I spied something bigger!

Red-necked Grebe!!!

Now with diving birds I knew the best way to get a good photo is to wait until they dive, then when they are under water I run as close as I can get and get my camera ready.  It worked like a charm, I was able to get very close.  With a better camera I would have been in the money.

About as good a pic you can get of a Red-necked Grebe with my old camera.

Next stop was the Old Coast Guard Station and the South side of Bonner Bridge.

Boat-tailed Grackles are frequently good camera fodder.

Savannah Sparrow

Next stop was Cape Point.  I hiked out getting the stink eye from all the fisherman on my way out.  A few of them even came menacingly close to me with their 4x4s.

Once out on the cape I was able to bird to myself past the group of vehicles.  I diligently searched through the gulls for a Glaucous or Little Gull but the gulls were mostly tucked in and far enough that it was difficult to sort through them without a scope. However I was eventually rewarded with some interesting encounters of a different kind.

Dovekie!  He was so close and getting closer.  Then he was riding a wave in to shore literally at my feet.  It was so strange because he seemed healthy although a little waterlogged.  However, it quickly became evident that this bird was probably not doing so well.

It's not every day a Dovekie walks up onto shore next to you and pops a squat.

He began preening emphatically, and if I did not know better I would have though he was ok.

After a while of preening he just sat there as if he was planning to spend the night.  I hope he was able to get his strength up and get back out in the morning.  I thought about bringing him home so Harry S could get a picture....  Just kidding.

But that was not the last sighting of the day.  Not more than 20 yards from where the Dovekie posted up a seal (sorry not very good at Pinniped ID) hauled up onto the beach.

What a beautiful creature.

Although this animal seemed old, it seemed very healthy.

Great times!!!!