Blood Moon, Beach Stuff and the Shack (15May - 25Jun2022)

The birding has been sporadic for me over the past month, but I always find an excuse to get out at least a few times.  The night of 15May the Blood Moon eclipse was a super nice treat from my  driveway. Photo taken with 15 sec exposure on my iPhone with no filters applied.

I have been spending almost all my free time working in my yard, planting native plants and pulling weeds etc..  Every once in a while good birds come to me. Lately I have had Mississippi Kites circling my neighborhood.  The following pictures taken from my driveway.

I've also been spending time with Paco lately, he's starting to get old and gets anxious when I leave the house.

Meanwhile, the north end of Wrightsville Beach is almost always worth the walk.

Whimbrel

Bottlenose Dolphin in the intracoastal.

Sandwich Tern

Royal Tern

Some Bonaparte's Gulls are just lazy and don't ever leave.

Sandwich

This hefty Water Moccasin at Wade Park was a beauty!

Common Loon at WB

Willets in breeding condition are absolutely annoying.  

Wilson's Plovers are the most handsome of the local plovers.

These vacationers were blasting some horrible music and dancing on the shore at the north end of WB.  At first I was annoyed, but then I just had to crack a smile.

Common Eider at Fort Fisher

Black Scoter

Gray Kingbird - its always good to locate a self-found rarity. I have had several self-found Gray Kingbirds over the years.  This one was enjoyed by several people at Fort Fisher.

Common Terns have been pretty successful on the south end of Wrightsville Beach this year.

Common Loon

Wilson's Plovers - Like father like son (Or like mother like daughter).

Least Terns at the north end of WB.

Clapper Rail

The Frangipani I have been nurturing for 20 years in my back yard.

Melissa hasn't been able to run due to some health issues so she picked up her water color pencils for the first time in 30 years and made this on the first pass!  

Meanwhile, we have made Fish Tacos a regular part of the rotation at home.  These feature pickled red onions, Albacore, avocado, Pineapple and Mango. Yum!

Sandwich Terns are so accommodating, I can't ignore them even if I wanted to.

A Great Shearwater on the south side of Wrightsville Beach.

Common Tern

Common Tern chicks

And finally some pics from the only real trip of the past month, I co-led a Cape Fear Audubon trip to East Shackleford Banks with John Fussell.  What an awesome day and it was cool to connect with a like-minded group of people.  

Immature White Ibis

We had Common Nighthawks doing their thing pretty much the whole time.

East Shack is pretty much the most reliable place in the state for Reddish Egrets and today was no exception.  

The same is true for Long-billed Curlews but usually only in the winter....

However, we lucked out with one Long-billed although it looked on the short side of long, meaning it appeared to be a young bird..  According to Sibley field guides, immature birds should only be expected Aug-Dec?  

The bill certainly looked good for a juvenile to me but as far as I know nesting has not been confirmed in NC.

Of course the wild horses are always a bonus at Shack.

We also had some Black Terns on the beach but I neglected to take pics.

What an awesome trip!  The weather was pretty much perfect with puffy clouds and enough wind to keep the flies away.  Once you go to Shack, you will always want to go Back!

Gretchen sent me this group pic!  Thanks for the fun time Cooper, Chris, John, Nancy, Ken, Gretchen, Doug, Johnnie, Red and Kaaren!