However, first let me offer you a teaser for posts to come from Europe.
Great Crested Grebe might just be one of my new favorite birds. This one was seen just outside Oslo.
Back home I was surprised to see this guy fly over my house. I am going to have to start a yard list.
Mississippi Kite
Saturday morning I was enticed by reports of Roseate Spoonbill and Reddish Egret over by Sunset Beach, NC. Actually I ended up having a bit of insomnia so I left my house at around 5am and got to Sunset Beach before first light.
This immature Laughing Gull was so dark I was thrown off and thought I had something interesting so I snapped some photos. I like what I came up with. Looks like some evil giant Storm Petrel coming to steal the souls of innocent gulls. What you don't see here is that there was thousands of gulls and terns all around this. I have never seen so many. I need to get up early more often.
It didn't take long to locate this immature Reddish Egret.
He was still there dancing around when I left.
Short-billed Dowitcher doing some early morning stretching.
Transitional Ring-billed Gulls can throw you off. The legs are bluish green which is a field mark for young California Gulls, but lack of red orbital ring and no red on bill eliminated that.
Next up was a shot in the dark. Someone I don't recognize posted an address on eBird of a Spoonbill sighting. Usually one-off sightings like that don't mean anything but this person commented "been here for 3 days" so that intrigued me. Right when I pulled up to the causeway, someone was already on the bird and I didn't even have to search.
Its not often in North Carolina when you have a Wood Stork and a Roseate Spoonbill in one picture frame.
This Muscovy Duck almost looked like one of the Florida countable birds. However close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
It is the year of the Mississippi Kite. There were a couple kiting in the same area as the Spoonbill.
Ok, time to curate some of these Iceland and Norway pics...
