Pyrrhuloxia - 25Nov2015

I was reconciling my bird photos and found this one from 2015 never was captured in my list!  Here is a damn good bird and a decent pic.  The SW version of our cardinal, although it's true they overlap in Arizona.

Pileated Finch - 30Jul2019

Per Wiki: The grey pileated finch (Coryphospingus pileatus), also known as the pileated finch, is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, where it has recently been moved to from the Emberizidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, and Venezuela in subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and heavily degraded former forest.

We found these in La Guajira, the dry forest in Riohacha, Colombia. The first pic is from a local's property that had some feeders set up to attract birds and consequently tourists.

 

Brown-crested Flycatcher - 30Jul2019

These large Myiarchus flycatchers are similar to our familiar Great Crested Flycatcher and can be found all the way from South America through the US Southwest.  I suspect these go undetected east of the Mississippi as vagrants because of their similarity.  Some good birder will find one in NC eventually.  This one was found in La Guajira, the dry scrub forest near Riohacha, Colombia.  

White-fringed Antwren - 30Jul2019

We had great looks at this dry scrubland bird in La Guajira, Riohacha Colombia.

Black-crested Antshrike - 31Jul2019

We had seen a couple females of this species the prior day but this is one of those birds that you just need to see a male.  This particular spot called Cari-Cari was a sprawling farmland with dry scrub and marshland habitat.  We were there for 4 hours and had a list of 99 species!!  It takes me all day to get 99 species in NC and that is on a good day.

Tocuyo Sparrow - 30Jul2019

Have you ever been on a birding trip where the guides lead you to believe the bird you are about to see is critically endangered and super rare only to find out later they have a status of Least Concern and have stable populations?  Well in their defense it is apparently quite rare in Colombia but does have significant populations in Venezuela.  However, who knows when traveling to Venezuela will be a reality.  I was not too pleased with the looks and photos I obtained, but sometimes you just have to accept the skulkers will not cooperate.  Photographed in La Guajira, the dry scrubland next to Riohacha, Colombia.

Here was one of the juvenile sparrows.

An adult made a super fast run across a dirt path and this is all I got...  One day I shall return to crush these little guys.

Southern Beardless Tyrannulet - 30Jul2019

These little guys look a lot like a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet which we sometimes get as a vagrant in the southwest US.  Photographed in La Guajira, the dry forest in Riohacha, Colombia.

White-whiskered Spinetail - 30Jul2019

If it wasn't for that pesky stick, it would have been a decent photo.  This is just one more of many species endemic to that northeast corner of Colombia and NW corner of Venezuela.  Photo taken in La Guajira, the dry forest near Riohacha, Colombia.

Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus) - 24Nov2020

Finally!!  I have seen and photographed Purple Finches in NC before but this was the first one I captured on my feeder at home.  This photo was taken through my window and they continue to this day so its just a matter of time before I crush them with better photos.  I am eagerly anticipating other winter finches and hoping they visit my feeder.  Evening Grossbeaks and Crossbills would be nice.

NC Not so Big Year (07Oct-02Nov2020)

I am way overdue for posting an actual blog entry, apologies for those of you have been spammed with my individual entries of birds from trips to Colombia and Mexico.  I have been trying to add to my overall bird life list entries and have been way behind.  

As you all know by now, every year is a big year for me, meaning I try to get as many species as I can.  Some years I try harder.  This year has been mostly local birding and only chasing North Carolina lifers, partly to reduce my carbon footprint but also because I have been enjoying hanging out more with my family during the pandemic.  

Prairie Warbler in my front yard one random morning in early October.

Another thing I have been doing lately is trying Photographic Big Days, or really practicing for one since I have been somewhat lax and usually taking a nice long lunch with Melissa (we play Wingspan and have a nice big egg fry-up).  The following photos are from some of my failed big day attempts.  I usually know by 11am whether I am on pace to reach my ultimate target of 100 species of birds photographed in one day.

Indigo Bunting at Burnt Mill Creek.

Eastern Wood Pewee also at BMC

A few Red-headed Woodpeckers have decided to over-winter which is great because some years they are really sparse down here.

One morning at Fort Fisher I was ocean watching and saw this American Bittern flying in from way over the ocean.  He/she must have been migrating during the night and got caught up in some offshore winds and had to correct itself in the morning.

I love mid-October for many reasons but one of them is that the Sharp-tailed Sparrow species come back in large numbers. Here are some from the North end of Wrightsville Beach otherwise known as Mason Inlet Waterbird Management Area.

Nelson's Sparrow with a Seaside photobomber.

Seaside 

Nelson's - not the blurry streaks and the color on face and breast are similar tones.

Saltmarsh Sparrow - dark streaks and different color tones.

A nice flock of Blue-winged Teal flying over the marsh.  The marshes around Wilmington are one of my favorite places to hang out mainly because they offer quiet solitude most times. 

In the last week of October we took a much needed vacation and went up to stay in a VRBO cabin up on the North Carolina and Virginia border.  The town was called Grassy Creek in North Carolina but really there was no town, it was quite remote.  However, it was close to some big attractions like Greyson Highlands State Park in Virginia which I had always been meaning to visit.  As always I neglected to take scenery pictures and focused on the flora and fauna.  One of the specialties of the park are these dwarf highland ponies.

They really only came up to my waist, I was surprised on how small they were.  Altogether a great State Park but no birds hence why I have no pics for you.

The birding was quite slow but I enjoyed the view and birding from the deck.  We saw some amazing sunsets and sunrises but I won't bore you with those.  Here is a pic showing that we still had some nice fall foliage as seen from the cabin deck but definitely past peak.

The birds next to the cabin were typical mountain birds.

Dark-eyed Junco

Blue-headed Vireo

Plenty of Common Raven fly-bys.

Downy Woodpecker 

Cedar Waxwings were everywhere feasting on fall berries.

A furtive Hermit Thrush (is that redundant?).

One of the mornings we rented bikes and did the first half of the Virginia Creeper Trail which takes you down a couple thousand feet of elevation change into Damascus, VA.  I was really surprised just how downhill it was with some sections needing to brake pretty hard.  I also was surprised in the fact that it was an actual trail, for some reason I thought it was going to be a paved path.   All in all, it was super fun and I recommend it for sure. It was so fun that we biked the whole thing and didn't stop to take pictures.

One more installment of local birds then I will post a link to a Big Day attempt where I managed to get photos of 95 species in one day here in New Hanover.  I am getting close to my goal of 100.

Stay Safe and wear a mask!

Pale-tipped Tyrannulet (Inezia) - 30Jul2019

La Guajira, which is a dry scrub forest in the Northeast of Colombia, was good to us. It gave our group many lifers. This particular bird was a brief but satisfying one to add to the list.

Pearly-vented Tody-tyrant - 30Jul2019

Here is another dry scrub denizen in Colombia, seen at La Guajira.  The eye of this bird is mesmerizing.

Slender-billed Tyrannulet - 30Jul2019

Our first morning in the Guajira, a dry scrubby forest in Riohacha Colombia was greeted by this Slender-billed Tyrannulet.  

Rufous-vented Chachalaca - 29Jul2019

We found a couple groups of these big arboreal chickens but they were always far away and up high which did not lend to crushing views.  This group was under a tree next to a police checkpoint in Riohacha Colombia.

Green-rumped Parrotlet - 29Jul2019

These little lovebirds were perched next to a busy police checkpoint in Riohacha Colombia.  

Fork-tailed Flycatcher - 29Jul2019

This is probably the one bird I am anticipating most to show up in NC.  We have had a few but usually one-hit wonders don't stick around for more than a few hours.  I was floored by how many were flying around Riohacha Colombia.

Eared Dove - 29Jul2019

The crazy thing about this tree in Riohacha Colombia is that it had multiple lifers in it.  Unfortunately it was kind of far and backlit, but I am not worried because these are birds I can get elsewhere and obtain better pics.  I think this one tree had 5-6 Fork-tailed Flycatchers in it.  I think the perspective of the shot is amplifying the effect but I was stricken by how large this dove was compared with the flycatchers.