Only a Few Weeks Left (14-27Nov2021)

The year is coming to a close too quickly, much like my life.  So what does a twitcher in mid-life crisis mode do instead of buying a Corvette?  They go on the chase.

First some local pics...

A huge cowbird flock at Ashley High School had me running all over the fields trying to get good looks in favorable light in order to pick out a Shiny Cowbird.  I checked them all pretty thoroughly and aside from a few Starlings and Red-Winged Blackbirds the flock was almost all Brown-headed.

This Sharp-shinned Hawk was the cause of all the murmurations from the cowbirds.  

Meanwhile on the pond there was a little flock of Green-winged Teal which had some adult males, rare for Wilmington it seems.

Red-shouldered Hawks are common at Ashley.

What are the odds?  Pretty good at this particular ball field.

Ashley HS is one of the best places in NC where you can have Wilson's Snipe juxtaposed with vinyl siding.

Saltmarsh Sparrow at Fort Fisher

Cooper's Hawk at FF

This Leaf-footed Bug has been hanging out on my back deck.

Turkey Vulture - At Carolina Beach Lake there was a die-off of the giant carp, or maybe they were intentionally poisoned as invasives. The vultures have been enjoying a free buffet and allowing close study.  

Black Vulture

Last weekend I went on a long drive to the OBX with some stops on the way there and back.

Cackling Geese are back at the Beasley Rd ponds.  The small one on the left of the tall necked Canada was a slam dunk with the stubby bill and steep forehead.  The one just to the left of that one was kind of borderline.

Slam dunk on the far left.  The clouds moved in is why the water color changed.

I made it to Oregon Inlet at about 8am and the plan was to head straight to the jetty where folks had been seeing the Snow Bunting.  However, something made me go over to the area where the Longspur had been seen previously and while I was there sorting through sparrows, someone texted the GroupMe that they were on the Snow Bunting at the mid point on the jetty.  I hightailed it over there only to find a Merlin patrolling the area and the Bunting was gone.  Just my luck!

The beach to the south of the inlet had a huge assortment of gulls and I went through them all diligently looking for a rarity.  

The comparisons between Lesser and Great Black-backed were ..... Great.

The damn Merlin kept moving back and forth along the Jetty and basically ruined my chance of seeing the Snow Bunting.

Purple Sandpiper

Someone who was also looking for the Bunting found a White-rumped Sandpiper standing on the jetty.  I thought that sounded strange so I went to investigate.

White-rumped Sandpiper - weird... I have never seen them perched on rocks.

If there was any doubt about the ID, he/she showed the diagnostic rump.

I basically spent 4 hours walking back and forth along the jetty and the Bunting never showed again.  On the way home I took the long way around Mattamuskeet looking for large Blackbird flocks for Yellow-headed or Brewer's with no luck.

That same weekend someone had a Franklin's Gull at the wastewater treatment plant in Ocean Isle Beach. I gave chase on Sunday with no luck.  Later in the week it showed up again and I went on the chase again.  This time the bird was all the way back in the second impoundment just within range of my camera.

Franklin's Gull feeding amongst a large flock of Green-winged Teal.  Note the neat diagnostic black partial hood.

At sunset it flew up and offered some better looks in still poor light and headed towards the beach, probably to roost for the night.

Thanksgiving was spent with family with little to no opportunity for birds, but once the in-laws left I went on the chase for the Snow Bunting again.  I arrived at Oregon Inlet only to find a large group of birders telling me that the Bunting had just flown off..  ARGGHHH.  I walked the jetty a couple times and then went to find some sparrows when I almost tripped over this fellow.

Snow Bunting!  Finally.

That puts me at 352 for the year which is one over my previous best although still short of the new record which is now held by Matthew W who has a staggering 362 and counting. His record will probably stand for some time, but who knows with climate change and advances in technology may make it easier to locate vagrants in the near future.  

WWD and Longspur Cleanup (31Oct-10Nov2021)

Picking up two birds is a long slog this far into the year, so bear with me as I go through a couple weeks of pics here.  

On the north end of Wrightsville Beach the evening light has been fun to play with and some interesting subjects posed for me. 

Stilt Sandpipers were flagging as rare.

Willets are always one of my favorites once they quiet down after breeding season.

Stilt SP

This peep almost tricked me into thinking Semipalmated Sandpiper, but then I noticed the tip of the bill was covered with sand making me think it was shorter and stubbier.

Here you can see the bill is longer and droopy like a Western SP which is more expected this time of year.

Sometimes a Dowitcher just screams Long-billed right away like this beast did.  It dwarfed the nearby Short-billed behind it and also had that "I just swallowed a grapefruit" look.

The bill was long and didn't have much of a kink in it.  Also, you can see the tail feathers had more dark than light.

One feature I always like but is not definitive like all the other field marks is the pinch at the bottom of the V formed by the supercilia (eye-brows).  On a SB Dow, it pinches shut so that there is no real space between the bottom white supercilia.  On a LB Dow like this one, the supercilia form a nice even V without any significant pinch at the bottom and the two white bars don't meet.  The dark tail is also evident here.

Oh my god! Look at that V.  These are the things that brings order to the world.

Another field mark is that LB Dows always stand on the left of SBs.

Just kidding, here it is on the right.

Last picture I promise, but just look at that grapefruit.

Red-tailed Hawk at Fort Fisher Rocks on one day.

White-winged Scoter at the same spot the next day.

Sticking with the White-winged theme, I was on my way back home (to work) when I saw this White-winged Dove sitting next to a Eurasian Collared Dove at Kure Beach.  Probably the same one Jesse A found earlier in the week at Federal Rocks.

We have had some really huge tides and some good winds and waves which brought in some nice winter gulls.

Bonaparte's Gull back from it's northern haunts.

Overexposed but nice pic.

During the week a Lapland Longspur was found one late afternoon at the 90 degree turn at Mid Pines Rd in Raleigh.  I was going to wait and see if it was relocated in the morning before making the 2 hour drive but I randomly had one of my monthly bouts of insomnia waking at about 2 am and not able to go back to sleep.  So I figured why not make chase early and then take my teleconference calls in the morning on the way back home.  I am glad I did because it was there and then split when a tractor worked the fields later in the day.

Laplands have a diagnostic border around the auriculars (ear feathers) which is shared with Vesper Sparrow to a certain extent but it is much more pronounced on the Lapland.

It was hanging out with a group of Horned Larks.

It would have been really hard to spot without the flock flushing every so often.

Only two more birds to tie my previous record and 3 more to beat Derb's old record.  Matthew W has already clinched the overall record with 360 birds already and he has 2 more months to go!  He is on fire and his strategy of doing tons of pelagics has paid off.  My only differentiator is I have pics of all but three of mine, so if there is a big year photographic record, I have it now.