Wednesday, January 27, 2021

OBX Round 2 (21-23Jan2021)

My home feeder continues to host a dozen or so Purple Finches which in "normal" years would be exceptional.


On Saturday, I made my second trip to the outer banks and was scheduled for the first pelagic of the year.  The winds ended up pushing the pelagic to Sunday which actually was not a bad thing as it allowed me to explore a bit on Saturday and get a decent night sleep before the pelagic.


Virginia Rail - the new bird blind about a mile north of Bodie Island has turned out to be a good spot for rails.


Black-bellied Plover - the jetty at Oregon Inlet was somewhat quiet.


Northern Shoveler - Duck numbers seemed to be down at Pea Island.  I think birds tend to stage in large numbers at North Pond in December and early January and then start dispersing for other spots in the area.


American White Pelican



Peregrine Falcon - New Inlet, formerly nicknamed Split Pea which was a much better name as the spit of sand separates South and North Pea.


Tricolored Heron

Meanwhile at Salt Pond....


Sora - I was airing down my tires to go out to Cape Point when I noticed this Sora taking a bath.


The point itself was relatively tame, probably because most of the gulls were scared off the beach by constant 4x4 traffic.

As I was airing back up, in the same spot off salt pond I again noticed something out of the corner of my eye..


Northern Waterthrush - whoa... way out of season.  There are some warblers that have a pattern of vagrancy or winter stay-overs but Waterthrushes are usually not one of them.


As I was watching this guy, Ed C posted that he had the hen King Eider at Avon Pier.. as luck would have it I was only 15 minutes away.


Female King Eider!



You can even see the trademark Mona Lisa smile which is a dead giveaway. 

Here is a pic of a male King Eider from Massachussetts back in 2017 for comparison. 


The wind died down a bit for Saturday and we motored out into the lee of the banks.


Dovekie - oddly enough there were more Dovekies than Razorbills and in fact I never managed a decent pic of Razorbills.




Pomarine Jaeger




Dovekie


Atlantic Puffin!

They look kind of silly in the winter.  Here is a breeding bird from Iceland also back in 2017.  I guess 2017 was a good year!  Certainly better than 2020.



We ended up having a couple Puffin.


Loggerhead Turtle


Ocean Sunfish or Mola Mola


Northern Gannet


Loggerhead


Iceland Gull - this adult was a rare treat.  Usually Iceland Gulls seen in NC are 1st or 2nd cycle young birds.



Although we didn't have a ton of diversity, they were quality birds.  Can't wait to get out on the open ocean again soon.




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