Local Treats (14-15Jan2024)

Many of the good birds I have on my list this year are coming easy. Here are some local birds.

One of the really good local spots in past years has been the set of fallow sparrow fields across from the Blue Clay Bike Park at the very northern end of New Hanover.  So I was really gobsmacked to see "they" are developing it.  Who is they?  No idea. I thought previously the land was owned and leased by the state.  Anyway, it's all bull dozed and retention ponds are created, but so far no houses or whatever they have planned.  So I put on my muck boots and took a walk.  Still plenty of sparrows.

Chipping Sparrows were everywhere.

House Wrens too.

At one point I made the jump into the woods because I have had Hairy Woodpeckers in this area.

 But all I could find were Downy Woodpeckers.

So that was a bit depressing.  New Hanover is growing so fast that soon it will all be suburban sprawl.  Hopefully I will be gone by then.

A couple trips to the beach yielded some goodies....

Common Loons in nice light on the intracoastal side of the South End of Wrightsville Beach.

Common Eider

Double-crested Cormorant 

I tried to go to Airlie but they were closed so I headed over to the adjacent Oleander Gardens which is really a Cemetery.

Fish Crow doing its diagnostic nasal "Uh Uh" call.

Belted Kingfishers can be hard to photograph so I was pleased to immortalize this one.  This is one of the few species where the females are more colorful.

Pied-billed Grebe taking in its reflections.

Red-Shouldered Hawk

That's when a murder of Crows alerted me to a high tree with a nest.  A Great Horned Owl! It was hunkered down low avoiding the crows so I didn't get a decent pic, but don't worry because I went back later!

Sam C called and told me he had a presumed Rufous Hummingbird at his feeder.  So I went over and staked out his feeder.

Northern Flicker - Sam has a great feeder set up which I need to aspire to.

The only hummer that showed up was this female Archilochus which is probably just a Ruby-throated but made me think twice based on the drooping wings and short tail.  Usually RTs have longer tails compared to wing tips, but it's possible this one is just worn down. It wasn't pumping its tail vigorously like you would expect on a Black-chinned.

Carolina Chickadee

I had to go for a dentist appt so I left before seeing the Rufous.  After the dentist I decided for a short trip to Fort Fisher to see what was around.

Blue-headed Vireo - I was into a nice little flock when Sam texted me to say the Rufous was back!

This Hermit Thrush doing a Swainson's impression bid me adieu as I prepared to head back to Sam's.

Back at Sam's this young male Ruby-throated showed up first.  Note how the tail is quite a bit longer than the wing tips.

Then the presumed Rufous showed!

However, I needed to get a tail spread shot to confirm.  I went through all my pics later and found one!

Bingo!  Rufous hummingbirds have a notch in the R2 tail feather (retrice).  You can just make it out here.

An Allen's Hummingbird would not have the notch.  Rufous are also much more likely and Sam had a rufous last year too. It's probably the same bird.

It was getting kind of late so I decided to head back to Oleander Gardens to see if my friend the Great Horned was stirring.

There she is!

Next installment includes a day trip to the Outer Banks!