LBJ from Texas (19-24Oct2021)

Birding is weird.  If you would have told me that hundreds of people from all over NC and even further afield would drive 10 or more hours round trip to see a Little Brown Job (LBJ) that looks somewhat similar to a female House Sparrow, I might not believe you.  First some local birds..

House Wren at Fort Fisher

Cape May Warbler also at FF

White-crowned Sparrow

Coyotes are really beautiful.  Somewhat reminiscent of my favorite mammal the Tibetan Fox.

Monarch on Seaside Goldenrod at FF.

DC Cormorant at FF

Black Skimmers at the north end of WB - still no luck with rare gulls, but the sunsets have been phenomenal so well worth the parking fees.

Just one of many pics that fails to capture the true splendor of a great sunset.

On the weekend I had a pelagic scheduled in Hatteras and originally I was planning to take off from work after a half day but there was so much going on I decided to stay in the office.  At about 2pm I got a rare bird alert for a Thick-billed Longspur at Oregon Inlet.  Thick-billed Longspur is the new name for McCowan's Longspur which is a bunting type bird of the Western Plains which spends it's winters in Texas and Mexico.  This particular one is presumed to be a non-breeding plumaged male (little brown job) that somehow went the wrong way after spending the summer up in Montana or Canada and didn't make it to its winter home in Texas.  Fun fact, LBJ the former president was also from Texas.  LBJ also has a ton of funny bathroom stories which you can check out here: https://historycollection.com/lbj-used-one-thing-control-others-around-became-known-johnson-treatment/2/

I did the quick math and even if I packed the car quickly and set off I would just be getting there at dark and it would be unlikely that I would find it.  So I finished a full day at work in agony and set off for the outer banks not getting to Hatteras until 11pm.  I had already paid up for the pelagic so I just had to hope the Longspur would stick around until after the boat trip.  Most pelagics end by 4-4:30 pm so that would give me an hour to get up to Oregon Inlet and hopefully get the Longspur before dark.  

The weather was great but that usually is not a good thing for pelagic birds, they enjoy wet and wild weather.

Black-capped Petrels never get old.

We had multiple Pomarine Jaegers follow the boat.

Most of the Cory's type Shearwaters were Scopoli's.

Great Shearwater

Pale Pomarine Jaeger

The day went by super fast and before I knew it we were headed back to port without me picking up a year bird.  Super disappointing that I have been on over 10 pelagics and I missed both Tropicbirds, both Boobies, Fea's Petrel, Red Phalarope and Great Skua not to mention the Wedge-tailed Shearwater.  Better luck next year..

Somehow we ended up getting back to port at 5pm and that meant we only had 1 hour to get to Oregon Inlet and look for the Longspur.  I drove like a madman and made just under an hour and lucky for me Martina was on the bird so no hunting needed.

Thick-billed Longspur

I took a million more pics but will spare you all the different angles.

Rather than drive home in the middle of the night, I crashed near Duck in my Volvo and headed to the boardwalk in the morning.

Plenty of Blackpoll Warblers were still around.

A Tennessee Warbler flagged as rare.

A Western Kingbird was seen on the boardwalk the previous day but it had flown the coop.

I went back to Pea Island and didn't find anything of note but I just had to stop back and check on the Longspur.

It was good to get it stretching and showing its field marks like this chestnut wing panel.

And the white tail feathers.

I took the long way home again hoping for a rare Kingbird on the wires south of Mattamuskeet but only had this Bald Eagle as a reward for my efforts.

So close to my previous big year record but off the mark none the less.