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.
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!
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