Endless Summer (28Jun - 26Jul2020)

It's been a while since I crafted an actual meaty post as I have been archiving my old pics.  Summer is usually pretty slow here in the southeast as temperatures climb above 90 daily.  We had an excellent spring but all good things come to an end and the heat has set in. Here is a mishmash of photos from the past month.

Sunset Beach is a beautiful place to spend some time with the wife and I knew there was a Reddish Egret on the east end so one weekend I suggested we take a stroll.  I should have taken some scenery pics because it was gorgeous, but here are couple bird ones.

This Ring-billed Gull looked kind of interesting for about 20 secs.

Immature Reddish Egret.

My buddy Sam called and gave me a heads up in early July about a Black-bellied Whistling-duck at UNCW campus so off I went.

Eastern Kingbird

BBWD!  This was most certainly the most brazen BBWD I have seen.  I checked the rear toe and it appeared to be unclipped which is a good indicator it is not an aviary bird.

I have also taken plenty drives down the Fort Fisher Spit over the past several weeks.

Its a good year for Gull-billed Terns.

I would have thought these were Royal Tern chicks but the adult Gull-billed were feeding them.  Turns out (pardon the pun) juvenile Gull-billed Terns have orange bills.

Western Willet 

Western SPs and Short-billed Dowitchers

Eastern and Western Willets

Dows

Fast forward to this past weekend, I went out to the OBX to chase a Pacific Plover that decided to disappears for 4 days and then magically reappear the day after I left.  However, I did get some decent birds as consolation.

There was a large group of terns on the beach at the Old Coast Guard Station at Pea Island and this pale tern in the middle of the frame stuck out like a sore thumb.  Note it is the same size as the Common Tern on the right which is overall darker.  Roseate Tern!

As I walked closer I could see the good field marks for this species including the thin bill and long white tail which projected past the wing tips.

There was a lone Black Tern in the group as well.

What a beauty!

In looking for the Pacific Golden Plover I did run into some other shorebirds.

Pectoral Sandpiper

I didn't notice this bird at the time but once I started looking at my pics back home I noticed the peep on the left of this Pectoral had a very red looking neck which made me think stint.  I submitted it for some feedback on rare bird sites but so far no one is confirming it either way.  Oh well...

At the Salt Pond I finally got some year photos of a Least Bittern that flew by...

On Saturday I took a pelagic but it was pretty much the slowest and more boring pelagic I have ever taken.  The few birds we saw did not cooperate and just flew by.  Even the Black-capped Petrels were stand-offish.

Bridled Tern

Great Shearwater

Audubon's Shearwater

Sooty Tern

I just might have to take a second trip to the OBX to get my damn Plover.  It's been seen every day since I left. Ce la vie!

Yucatan Woodpecker (Melanerpes pygmaeus) - 13Apr2019

Many of the Yucatan endemics are not endemic to Mexico.  This is true for the Yucatan Woodpecker which can be found in Honduras and Belize too.  This one was at my hotel Jolie Jungle in MX.  These are a cuter and smaller version of the Golden-fronted which can also be seen in TX.  Counter-intuitively, the "egg yolk" around the base of the bill is a field mark for the Yucatan and not the Golden-fronted.

Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris) - 13Apr2019

Somehow I don't have a picture of this species from my TX trip, so this picture from the Yucatan will have to do for now.  This one was photographed at Jolie Jungle hotel.

Spot-breasted Wren (Pheugopedius maculipectus) - 13Apr2019

I had to search high and low for this little skulker that was singing and calling serruptitiously from tangles in the jungle undergrowth.  Even when I finally found it, it took quite some time before I could get a shot.  Photographed at Jolie Jungle in the Yucatan, MX.

Tropical Gnatcatcher (Polioptila plumbea) - 13Apr2019

These little guys were very vocal and hard to miss although much like other Gnatties they moved very quickly and make taking a decent pic difficult.  I was hoping it was a more rare Yucatan Gnatty but I will take it.  This was on my family trip to the Yucatan.  The Tropical Gnatcatcher has a thicker eyebrow/supercilia.

Bright-rumped Attila (Attila spadiceus) - 13Apr2019

I absolutely love birding in a new place finding birds on my own with no specific target species in mind.  By the end of a trip, I am targeting specific species I may have missed.  But in the first days of a trip in a new place, its all just discovery and taking whatever comes.  This Bright-rumped Attila was totally unexpected and took me a while to ID.  Photographed in the Yucatan.