Brunswick CBC and a New Hanover Hangover (01-03Jan2023)

I am trying a new thing this year.  Instead of just trying to get as many birds as possible in a calendar year, I am going to try and visit all 100 counties in North Carolina to give everyone a flavor of what this great state has to offer.  In case your wondering, the SF notation in my 2023 list on the right hand widget means self-found.  I am curious how many of the birds on my list by the end of the year are Self-found (SF) versus Not Self-found (NSF).  I am not putting any hard fast rules around this criteria, but basically if there is a rare bird that someone else found and I chased, I will count it as a NSF bird.  If the bird is part of a population of regularly occurring birds in a particular place but someone else eBirds it first, I will still count it as Self-found because it is expected.  A good example are the Henslow's Sparrows at the VOA site, it is a known location but it requires me to hunt and find the individual birds.  Conversely, the Black Guillemot rarity that was found last year at Johnnie Mercer would be a NSF bird even though I probably would have found it later that day as I was headed to the pier.  Someone else gets the "finder's" credit for that one. 

January 1st started out at the beautiful Bald Head Peninsula for the Brunswick County Christmas Bird Count.  Some folks refer to it as an island, but the old Corncrake Inlet south of Federal Point at Fort Fisher shoaled in after Hurricane Bonnie in 1998.  

Here is an old map that shows how Bald Head really was an island at one point but originally was called Smith's Island.  It's a beautiful place that has been careful about keeping the old maritime forest of twisted live oaks intact when building new houses.  Each house is tastefully built within a nest of trees with a few gaudy exceptions on the waterfront.  There are no cars allowed on this island, with only electric gold carts zooming around quietly on the shady carriageways.  Even the golf course is tastefully set within the trees giving it an intimate feel.  The Bald Head Conservancy was nice enough to volunteer not only a golf cart, but even their Chief Scientist, Beth Darrow for the bird count.   Check out the website for some info on the BHIC:  https://bhic.org/

My good friend Bob Cowan joined me on the first ferry at 6am over from Deep Point near Southport for the short ferry ride over.  Beth commandeered the cart and we were off!

Here is a map of our route which took us all over the island and even to the exclusive Ibis Lake on "middle island".

I didn't take a ton of photos because I was concentrating on counting birds, but here is a few.

We tried for owls for 30 minutes until the sun poked its head up, but this island is not known for its owls and it was still really foggy.

On the golf course, we picked up a couple Sedge Wrens first thing when the light was still poor.  I only came away with one shot despite the bird bouncing around my feet.

Later on the golf course we ran into a nice mixed flock of mostly Yellow-rumps, but when we noticed a Blue-headed Vireo, I wagered that there was a Black-and-white Warbler around.  They always seem to be in the mixed flocks that have vireos for some reason.

Black-and-white Warbler

Cedar Waxwings were seemingly everywhere gorging on Cedar berries and Holly Berries.

By the time we got to the beach, it was sunny and the early morning bird flight was already over.  Tons of people were out walking dogs so all the birds were pushed offshore on a sandbar that also happened to be in the sun glare making counting difficult.

Prairie Warbler - the only "flagged" bird in eBird for the day.

A Northern Harrier glided past us for a sec but my new camera easily crushed it.

We ended up with only 65 species but that's not terrible for an "island" outing for only 4-5 hours.

On the way home, I stopped at the Old Brunswick County Store on route 133 (River rd) which connects Southport to Leland.  I wanted to see if I could pick up a Red-cockaded Woodpecker for the count as I wasn't sure someone else would get one.  I saw many different woodpeckers but none of the red-cockaded types.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

American Robin

Downy Woodpecker

I am just hoping that colony of Red-cockaded were out foraging somewhere and are not extirpated.

On Monday my work had one more day off for the New Year and I spent it exploring some of my regular haunts in New Hanover county which also happens to be my home county.  Though New Hanover is the second smallest county in NC, it is one of the most populous and continues to grow rapidly much to my chagrin.  I have lived here 17 years but there are old timers that would say I am one of the ones to come in and spoil a magical place.  Many of the old timers I talk to say the building of Interstate 40 was the worst thing that ever happened to the place.   Certainly from a birding habitat perspective, the clearing of woods for development is causing many negative changes in what kind of birds can be seen here.  However, we also enjoy some positive side effects like infrastructure that attracts birds like jetties, groins and piers.  Speaking of piers, one of my favorite places to bird in the winter is the famous Johnnie Mercer Pier in the center of Wrightsville Beach.  The pier sticks out a good ways and consequently allows better looks at some of the bird species that like to keep their distance from human activity on the beach.

The Common Loon is one of our birds that has an appropriate name in that it is very common here.  There are a ton of birds here in NC that have Common in front of their name but are not common in NC.  Birds like the Common Eider.  

Parasitic Jaegers often make close passes at the end of the pier like this one did.  Note the pointed central tail feathers on this adult that are a slam dunk for identification.  Some of the younger birds do not have these obvious prongs and the birder must lean on other more subtle field marks like the bill size, barring patterns and the presence or not of a "barrel-chested" look.

We had huge numbers of Bonparte's Gulls in December maybe because of cold spells early in the Great Lakes, but their numbers seem to have come down some maybe because of our recent cold snap.  I expect the numbers to increase again in February and March.

Willets always are accommodating subjects in the winter.  This is a "Western" subspecies which is a bit of a misnomer because we get both the Western and Eastern subspecies on the East Coast but the Eastern ones migrate south in the winter.

Rock Pigeons are feral but established all over North America and elsewhere.  I have seen the wild populations in Iceland.

After a quick visit to the pier, I headed north to the Mason Inlet Waterbird Management Area.

Ring-billed Gull populations explode this time of year with the Laughing Gulls becoming more sparse.

Semipalmated Plover in the low tide moguls created on the north end of Wrightsville Beach.

Dunlins also enjoy this tidal smorgasbord. 

Although this Black-headed Gull was originally found by Sam Cooper back in 2015, I consider it mine because I spend so much time with it and usually am the first to relocate it when it comes back each winter   as I did this winter.  So don't mess with "my" bird!  Honestly its a greatly under appreciated bird.  The combination of the light mantle color and red legs are so striking, its pretty much my favorite gull.

Forster's Tern - the pirate of the Sterna group.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls are becoming more common in southeastern NC.

Herring Gulls were always common but its important to look at them closely lest you miss something more interesting like a California Gull which have dark irises and legs that are decidedly not pink.

Sanderlings are always scurrying about and make tough photography subjects.

A wall of fog descended on me and caused me to relocate for the remainder of the morning.

White-throated Sparrow - Airlie was closed so I headed to my back-up spot of Oleander Memorial Gardens which is really a cemetery but has similar habitat to Airlie with a nice sized pond and lots of hedges for sparrows to hide in.  The one thing I despise about this cemetery is all the fake plastic flowers.  I need to write into my will that I should never be placed in a cemetery with plastic flowers.  Just cremate me and spread my ashes.

After a nice lunch with the family, it was time to head to the southland of New Hanover which is Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Fort Fisher.  Jesse A found NC's first record of a White-crowned Pigeon during the Christmas Bird Count for New Hanover so I swing by the supermarket parking lot where he found it.

This Red-shouldered Hawk kept the bird activity to a minimum.

The adjacent neighborhoods have loads of hollies and other fruiting trees right now and so I walked around hoping to locate the white-crowned frugivore.

This Baltimore Oriole was an unexpected addition to the list considering how developed the area was.

Near the telephone wires where the Pigeon was initially seen, there was a lonely but stately Long-leaf Pine  which seemed to hold a nice mixed flock so I ambled over.  It's amazing how one tree can create an ecosystem in an otherwise dismal landscape.

A adult female Red-bellied Woodpecker searched this sheared limb for some tender morsels.

Brown-headed Nuthatches are seeming the most bold nuthatches and frequently come in close to pishing.

Pine Warblers can also respond well.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

European Starlings are another introduced species which have happily taken over much of North America.  They are actually quite beautiful when you stop to smell the roses.

The nearby Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr Civil War Park is a little postage stamp sized park right next to the Publix shopping plaza but it seems to attract a fair number of birds.

Eastern Phoebe

Meanwhile at Carolina Beach Lake its always easy to pick up some year birds early in January.

Eurasian Collared-doves are common here.

Egrets and Herons make easy photography subjects in at CB Lake like this Little Blue Heron that posed in the still water offering some interesting reflections of the nearby colorful houses.

This Tricolored Heron was standing next to garbage but I managed to crop it out.

This Redhead duck was only noticed as the sun set, but my new camera is quite good in low light.

On Tuesday I had to work but managed to run down to Fort Fisher for the sunrise.

Great Blue Heron

American Oystercatcher at the "Rocks".

Belted Kingfishers are notoriously camera shy but my cameras extra 100m of lens and 1.5x crop feature allows for some decent pics even at a fairly long distance.

The "Rocks" is a great place to find Cooper's Hawks which share hunting grounds with Northern Harriers.

Great Egret

The nearby Ferry Parking area held a huge flock of Common Grackles.

As well as Savannah Sparrows.  I didn't notice at the time that this one was banded!

The Basin Trail at Fort Fisher is a great place to find sharp-tailed sparrows like this Nelson's Sparrow.  This is a classic example with nice even coloring and light streaks on the breast.  The bill on Nelson's is also smaller and makes it look more gentle or friendly than the Saltmarsh Sparrow.

I am not sure what they are doing to the pond next to the aquarium because it just doesn't hold the duck numbers it used to.  However, I was able to find this lone Ruddy Duck.

I created a second eBird account I can use to track my 100 county year effort and have been using the shared checklist function so I don't duplicate any records.  Here is what it looks like with both Brunswick and New Hanover in the bag:

My middle name is Lawrence, hence the user name Larry Birds.

Back to work after a nice long break!