If you were doing a big year, this might be a good one to do it. There has been a string of good birds and some snow storms or cold weather that always seem to bring some cool stuff. I will be in Brazil for 3 weeks starting now, so although I have been birding a ton, I have no designs on the year for North Carolina. That being said, I have had some good ones already!
A large flock of Vesper Sparrows continue at Blue Clay sparrow fields. I went with Jacob to see if I could locate the Grasshopper Sparrow. I think I got a glimpse of it, but alas no pics.
This red Fox Sparrow stayed hidden in the thickets.
Loggerhead Shrike is a good bird for this spot.
The treeline in the far back of the property is always good for a Hairy Woodpecker.
White-throated Sparrows abound.
Eastern Towhee
Brown Creeper!
A master of camouflage.
Blue-headed Vireo
Another Vesper Sparrow
After lunch and a game of Wingspan with Melissa, I got a second wind and headed up to Cabin Lake SP. A large group of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks have been hanging out on an island in the lake.
It didn't take long to find them, but I was a tad bit disappointed that no matter what angle I took, I only got some marginally decent shots through the heavily wooded shoreline of the island.
It was only a little above freezing and they looked like they were annoyed that their leader took them to this inhospitable place. They were constantly shifting weight on their fleshy feet trying to get warm and comfortable. Poor babies...
On Sunday I headed to Airlie Gardens as someone had found a Black-headed Gull on the pier across the creek from Airlie the previous day. I scoped the pier but there was no BHGU to be found so I headed down to the palm trees by the lake where a Western Tanager has been seen feeding on the palm fruits.
Black-and-white Warbler.
Great Blue Heron
While I was waiting on the Tanager, I saw Sam and Jacob shooting something in an oak.
Yellow-throated Warbler - usually I get one on my feeder in the winter but I haven't yet so it was nice to see one at Airlie.
Western Tanager
Eating palm fruits.
Then Sam and Jacob found the gull! It was loafing on the big metal roof across the creek in the marina. However, it flew before I could get a pic! Jacob and Sam went looking for it and found it hunting in the marsh between Airlie and Wrightsville Avenue bridge.
Black-headed Gull - at this point the conditions were getting really challenging. It was cold and foggy. These pics were taken from a good distance.
Black-crowned Night Heron
I decided for one last hurrah for the weekend and hoofed it out to the north end of WB at Mason Inlet.
Glaucous Gull! I am on fire with the white-winged gulls.
The comparison pic next to a Great Black-backed Gull - Glaucous Gulls are bruisers!
Marbled Godwit
American Oystercatcher
The light was really nice at this point so I headed to Carolina Beach Lake.
American Black Duck female.
The male.
A beauty of a drake Blue-winged Teal.
Mallard
Killdeer
Little Blue Heron
European Starling
Eurasian Collared-Dove
On Tuesday I wanted another crack at the Black-headed Gull so I headed to Airlie just before closing. It was sunny this time but it stayed way off. I suppose I could have gotten in the car and driven over to the Marina but I didn't.......
Black-headed Gull
Northern Shoveler drake!
Ring-necked Duck! You can kind of see the ring on its neck.
The Tanager was still hanging out gorging on palm fruits.
BC Night Heron
Anhinga flyby.
Rusty Blackbird! A good bird for Airlie.
Meanwhile at Airlie - I continued on my drake duck steak and found this beauty of a White-winged Scoter. Unfortunately it stayed on the sunny side and didn't offer a proper crushing.
Most winters I get a Painted Bunting at my feeder, this time a female.
With the winter storm coming I was getting very nervous that my flight out of Raleigh on Sunday would get canceled so I spent hours on the phone trying to get my flight pushed up a couple days. I have a three week trip scheduled for Brazil and I wasn't about to be stuck in Wilmington for 3 days waiting for flights to open up again. Luckily they got me on an earlier flight on Friday before the storm started and I was able to fly out to Houston and wait there for a couple days for my next flight to Sao Paulo. The good part of that was that I was able to rent a car and do some birding in the Houston area. I will include those pics in the next post.
I snapped this pic of Melissa and Louie just before leaving. I feel terrible about leaving them for three weeks but I need to get some new material for my rabid hordes of blogspot fans.
