Saturday, March 17, 2018

March Doldrums (04-17Mar2018)

March is a slow month for year birds, but sometimes a good vagrant shows up.

A trip to Myrtle Beach for my son's soccer allowed me a 10 minute stop at Twin Lakes in Sunset Beach, NC.


Common Gallinules abound at Twin Lakes.  No Wood Storks yet.


This Killdeer at the soccer fields picked a bad spot to lay eggs.  Right in the middle of a field between two soccer games.


I made a bad choice in going birding this one morning when the waves were pumping.    I didn't have enough time to head home for my board before work.


Adult male Cooper's Hawk.


The Northern Rough-winged Swallows are back at the Battleship in Wilmington!!


Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are the earliest migrants to come through.  This one on Lee Buck Rd in Brunswick County.



Any snake experts out there? This was a relatively small one, maybe 16 inches.



I was on an important work teleconference when this Painted Bunting showed up at my front yard feeder.  I hope my client didn't hear by camera shutter.

Wednesday night I drove to Charlotte and checked into a hotel so I could try for the Black-headed Grosbeak that was reported to be coming to a feeder set up.  I had calls all morning so my window was small.  After one and a half hours, it showed up and posed nicely.





A state bird for me.

Jeff L told me about an easy Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nearby so off I went.


Sitting near the nest as promised.

Someone reported an interesting goose in Wilmington so as soon as I got home from Charlotte I went to check it out.


Turned out to be a Blue Phase Snow Goose. Kind of a weird looking one.




Bald Eagle flying over my house.


Little Blue Heron at CB Lake.



Seaside Sparrow at Fort Fisher


Nelson's Sparrow


Saltmarsh Sparrow


A large flock of Scaup flying by at Fort Fisher.



Wilson's Plovers are back at the spit.


Whimbrel


Savannah Sparrow


Finally the Eared Grebe at the Fort Fisher Airforce base pier.  It was super far out and loosely hanging around some Horned Grebes which gave a nice contrast.  Head more peaked, smaller in general and dark neck.


A good comparison which shows size difference between Horned Grebe on left and Eared on right.


Loggerhead Shrike at my son's soccer game in Wilmington today.


Fish Crows are plentiful but super smart and getting them to stay still for my crappy video function on my camera is not easy.  Here you can hear the classic Uh Un call.  Ignore the Laughing Gulls, the crow only called once amid the Laughing Gulls.

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