Sorry for the radio silence dear readers/oglers, I had a bit of a health scare recently which put a wrinkle in my birding activity. I was having some calf pain and the wife made me go in to the walk-in clinic to get it checked out due to my history with pulmonary embolism. Good thing she did because I had a big DVT (clot in the leg). They put me on a high dose of blood thinners and sent me home, with orders to not exert myself in any way to lessen the risk that the clot dislodges and travels to my lungs. It took a good week before the pain in my calf went away and I could get back out and do my survey on Figure 8. Thanks to Jacob for covering for me while I was out of commission.
Lately I have been bringing the beach cruiser to do the survey because the distance is a couple miles now that they have pumped more sand.
You have to wear a helmet when doing surveys at Figure 8 because you never know when a coconut or some other object will fall out of the sky.
Shorebird migration is in full swing with numbers of dowitchers increasing. This Short-billed Dowitcher was having a good scratch which caused it to pucker its "lips". Pretty cool that they can bend their beak tips to probe and snatch goodies in the mud.
Although this looks like a sneeze, it was actually calling.
Bet you didn't know Dowitchers have teeth! Just be careful because they can take a finger right off.
My kids had a track meet in Brunswick county and I noticed some Swallow-tailed Kits circling high up so I went and grabbed my camera.
One of them perched up in a snag.
Then this happened!
Sweet sweet love.
I love it when birds come to me.
Ryan from the triangle texted me to get some intel on birding Shackleford Banks for a planned trip on Saturday and I had been meaning to get out there anyway so I joined him, Lee, Jeremy W and his daughter for a beautiful day out at Shack to show them around.
It didn't take long to find a Long-billed Curlew.
The Spanish Horses are always a treat to see at Shack.
Cape Lookout light in the distance.
We spent a long time scanning the mudflats for the Bar-tailed Godwit but came up short. Still a worthwhile adventure as always. My favorite place in NC.My next post might be from my trip to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas! I booked a 5 day trip to mop up some of the eye-popping rarities that have been sticking around and maybe take in the Solar Eclipse.
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