Wrightsville Beach Pool Party (15Jan2017)

The Sunday before last was one of those great days where the birding gods smile upon you and offer up conditions that make finding birds easy.  You have to put in a bunch of sub-standard days to get one of those but it is worth it.  At Wrightsville Beach the wind was dead and the water was laced with quicksilver.  Usually the loon flocks move out to see fairly early and finding a rarity like Pacific Loon requires the use of a scope.  I am not much of a scope guy.  If I can't see it with binocs and shoot it with a 400mm I am not sure I even want to see it.

Bottlenose Dolphins were everywhere some jumping clear out of the water. Of course getting a shot of that is near impossible.

Northern Gannet

Pacific Loon!!! Finally a decent shot of this elusive creature.  Note the smallish bill, the "chinstrap" and the dark back compared to the Common Loon above.

Nice comparison shot with Common Loon. The Common Loon's bill dwarfs the Pacific's.  Also the forehead profile difference is easily seen here.  The Pacific Loon has a nice rounded head.  Common Loons have a more flattened head with a neanderthal brow.  Finally the Pacific has a nice unbroken line separating the neck and nape.  The Common Loon has breaks in the neck line where in breeding plumage they get a white line straight across the neck.

Chinstrap pretty pronounced here.

Red-throated Loon - some of these birds had some funky plumage, as you can see from this bird with all dark neck.  Not sure if this is a bird coming into breeding plumage or a really late juvenile bird.

Common Loon

Lesser Black-backed Gull - hard to see here but a Herring was nearby and it was about the same size if not smaller.  Zoom in close and you can see blotchy head.  Great Black-backed adults have clean white heads.

Horned Grebe

The Lochness Monster - I just keep this one because it looked cool.

Hump-backed Whale - very distant but very cool to see from the beach.

Red-throated Loon

Long-tailed Duck! This bird was reported by Sam C the day prior and lucky me it was still there!  I thought it was kind of a strange place for this species but it seemed happy fishing in the creek.

I attempted to get closer by wading into the creek and got a whole bunch of marsh scum up on my pants but it was worth it.

Some more New Hanover county birds from later that day:

American Robin

Downy Woodpecker

Double-crested Cormorant

White Ibis

Pied-billed Grebe

My first self found Ross's Goose in Wilmington!  This little guy/girl was hanging out at Ashley High School pond for a couple days after I found it.

Play ball!

I reported this Scaup as a Lesser but I noticed that several people subsequently reported it as a Greater.  Certainly the bill is large and the nail on the tip is also large.  However, the plumage is throwing me off.  This was at Fort Fisher Aquarium Pond.

Size was about the same as the Hooded Merganser so Greater is a good possibility.  The head is also very rounded lacking the distinct peak that a Lesser would have.  What do you think my dear readers?

Some ratty looking Redheads in background.

A Great Cormorant at Carolina Beach.

I am really racking up the species quickly this year.  Maybe this staying close to home thing is a good idea.

Stay tuned, the best birds from the past week are still to come.