Monday, March 20, 2017

Epic Failure (12-19Mar2017)

Some of my more faithful readers might remember an ill fated trip I took a couple years ago to the mountains where I had 4-5 target birds that were regularly being seen and I ended up missing all of them.  Nothing says failure like 10 plus hours of driving with nothing to show for it.

Fast forward to this week and I decided that with the Rufous Hummingbird in Durham looking so snazzy I might as well go up to RTP and try for a few missing year birds.  First things first, a couple birds from earlier in the week and last weekend.


Eastern Bluebird at Airlie Gardens.


Wild Turkey off Kerr Rd near the airport.


House Wren at Burnt Mill Creek


Pied-billed Grebe at Burnt Mill


This was a first for me, 4 Read-headed WPs feeding on fallen acorns.  I have 2 together but never 3-4.


Someone reported a Yellow-crowned Night-heron at Airlie but I only found Black-crowns.



Blue-gray Gnatsmasher


When I first laid eyes on this little guy I thought I had myself a rare hummingbird.  The area under the gorget looking buffy and he looked so small and plump.  Turns out he was just freezing and trying to get warm.


Ruby-throated Hummingbird


Fox Squirrel at CB State Park.


The last of the "easy" owls in New Hanover - Barred Owl at Burnt Mill Creek.



Tree Swallows are back at Greenfield Lake - I know horrible picture.  Don't worry dear reader, I will get better ones later.

Sunday dawned beautifully and I started my day at Brian P's house looking for my first target - Purple Finch.


Dark-eyed Junco - amazing to think this was my first Junco of the year.



Yellow-bellied Sapsucker



Hairy Woodpecker


Brown-headed Cowbird

Dip.... Brian had a Purple Finch 5 minutes before I got there and 5 minutes before I left he saw a couple fly by but they never cooperated.

Next target was the Rufous Hummingbird at the Winton's house in Durham.  Dip again.  Apparently he left a couple days earlier or at least no one has seen him.  Just my luck, a bird reliably seen for 4 months departed 2 days before I got there.  The consolation is that meeting Scott's parents was cool.  They are two very nice individuals.

At this point I thought to myself sure I could salvage the day by going to the Coker Arboretum in Chapel Hill and photograph the cooperative Cape May Warbler that has been hanging out near some Camelias.  I beat the bushes and scanned the tree tops for 2 hours and failed to find it.  Later in the evening I saw that someone saw him about 2 hours before I got there.  Arghhh.....


White-breasted Nuthatch

Final stop for the day was Mason Farm for no reason other than to have a nice walk before driving home.  Its harder to be disappointed when you have no real target.


Brown Creeper - this is probably my 5th or 6th creeper for the year!


Winter Wren


Field Sparrow in the foreground and Swamp Sparrow in background.


Field Sparrow

Now that I got a horrendous day of dipping on all my targets out of the way, I am sure my next foray will be more successful.  Its basic laws of statistics right?

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