The week of 10Jan started out with some birding around Wilmington.
Brown Pelicans are super fun to watch especially when surfing and having them zip by and arms length away.
Northern Gannets are plentiful now but I still haven't seen one of the massive feeding frenzies of past winters.
House Finches are everywhere but I rarely get decent photos of them.
Snowy Egrets have the coolest stockings.
Some Savannah Sparrows are fairly light colored even if not the Ipswich sub-species.
Yellow-rumps are everywhere, outnumbering all other birds combined.
A Hermit Thrush on my front yard Live Oak was a nice treat.
Marsh Wrens are around at Fort Fisher, but they are staying under cover and not getting too bold yet.
A darker Savannah at Fort Fisher.
Sedge Wren at Fort Fisher monument.
Fort Fisher sunset.
On the long MLK weekend I took a trip up to the OBX without any real targets in mind. I arrived Friday night in time for the Short-eared Owls at Alligator but apparently I was in the wrong spot because I heard the next day they were seen over at the intersection of Bear and Link Rds.
Saturday started at Alligator and I saw the Rough-legged Hawk but it was too far for decent pics.
There was Sandhill Crane that was still chilling off Sawyer Lake Rd.
It was slow to I headed to North Pond at Pea Island to try and get some ducks in decent light. In past years the ducks can aggregate next to the break wall at the visitors center but there wasn't too much to speak of this time.
American Wigeon almost looking like a Storm Wigeon.
Green-winged Teal with a Tundra Swan photo bomb.
I was trying to get photos of these American Avocets but the picture ended up being more interesting because of what the Great Egret was doing with the shade hunting technique.
Gadwalls are bleh at a distance but up close they are super intricate.
The yellow next to a Tundra Swan's eye can be quite variable. This one had just a hint.
Northern Pintails are so neat they almost look fake.
American White Pelicans are truly awesome birds, in size and also in terms of economy of style.
Jeff L and Derb had a Least/Dusky type empidonax flycatcher at the Duck boardwalk so I somewhat half-heartedly headed over to give it a look-see. I am not a big fan of looking for birds that evade identification. I didn't end up finding it anyhow but there were plenty of birds to look at. It turns out the bird is probably a Least and not Dusky.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
A Painted Bunting was a nice self found bird. I was surprised it didn't flag as rare in eBird.
On the other hand, a handful of Black-and-White Warblers tripped up the eBird filters, so go figure.
Mourning Doves are often taken for granted.
Golden-crowned Kinglets were all hopped up on goofballs.
That evening I positioned myself on Bear Rd at Alligator where I heard the Short-eared Owls were being seen the previous night. White waiting for dusk David F and Vicky B showed up and we spotted a Red Wolf over by the maintenance buildings.
You can tell it's a red wolf because they are fitted with red radio collars. Then while watching the wolf I noticed a big lumbering Black Bear in a field nearby.
Black Bear
Eventually both the Black Bear and the Red Wolf both worked their way into the fence perimeter and onto the loading docks for the dump. Obviously they both had a routine and tolerated each other as they sifted through the trash.
The photo time stamp says 6:20 pm but I didn't think it was that late when the Short-eared Owls started their aerial displays. I will need to check my camera settings, perhaps they are off by an hour.
It was dark enough that the photos suck.
I high-tailed it home because a Snow/Sleet storm was predicted for Sunday and I didn't want to get stuck or have an accident.
Back home the weather wasn't nearly as bad as the media predicted but it was super windy. I got out first thing in the morning to check a couple spots that sometimes get storm vagrants.
Greater Yellowlegs at Ashley High School retention ponds.
Marbled Godwit at Carolina Beach Lake
American Oystercatcher at CB Lake.
The larger gull in the flock had off colored legs and a dark eye so despite the left half of my brain telling me the mantle was not dark enough, the right side of my brain was thinking California Gull. After taking a million photos I finally realized it was just a Herring.
When zoomed in the eye was in fact yellow.
After spending some time with the family playing board games and making a big egg brunch, I headed out again to see what was going on now that the front was passing and the wind going offshore. I knew I should have probably brought my surfboard but I must be getting old because I reasoned the waves would only be good for 30 minutes before dark and went without my board.
I was right about the waves only getting good for 30 minutes before dark, but I am kicking myself for not paddling out. The waves don't get this big and barreling very often down here.
Out of the 20 or so surfers that paddled out, only a handful got waves. Many had a hard time just getting out past the breakers and some got swept half a mile down the beach. But the few that did get waves were probably over the moon.
Wow! That last wave was at least double overhead.
