The plan was to chase the continuing Western Flycatcher in Durham on Saturday but the weather looked horrible with potential sleet so I decided to get off work early and jam it up on Friday afternoon. This beauty of a vagrant has chosen the most unlikely of spots to winter. Morris Green Park is a postage stamp sized park in the heart of Durham's downtown area. Somehow I hit no traffic and got there at the golden hour which is 3:30pm this time of year. I saw some people leaving which made me nervous because I would now need to find it on my own and only had about an hour tops. Luckily it was very conspicuous!
Western Flycatcher perched on a string of lights.
Perched on the floor!
I took about a billion pics but I will spare you any more.
It's a good thing I bagged it on Friday because Saturday ended up being something for the record books. I knew the birding at Johnnie Mercer Pier was going to be good because of the strong East winds, but I was not prepared for what happened. I joined up with Sam and Jacob and we quickly noticed tons of Dovekies flying by the pier north to south. Many of them were being pushed close to shore by the wind and then when they hit the north side of the pier they flew up into the wind to the pier end right past us.
We had some groups that numbered more than 30!
Of course some were on the water too...
We had a ton of Parasitic Jaegers too!
By lunch-time the morning flight stated to wane. We had tallied a whopping 1079 Dovekies!! I believe that is a NC record even when considering pelagic trips off of Hatteras.
Later in the afternoon, I headed to the north end of Wrightsville Beach to see what I could see.
Huge numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls was unusual for this time of year. Usually they start coming in big numbers in March.
This Ring-billed Gull had some bling on his leg.
Forster's Terns sporting the winter pirate patch.
Willet
Black-bellied Plover
Forster's in flight.
The Black-headed Gull is always around but most times is difficult to find in the horde.
Such a pretty gull!
Sometimes a Lesser Black-backed Gull can get legs that are almost pink, or at least not yellow.
Black Skimmer numbers are starting to wane.
Black Skimmers manage to be goofy and elegant at the some time which is not easy.
Semipalmated Plover
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Dunlin
As the sun started to set, I decided to check the marsh side of Shell Island real quick.
A Dovekie swam in the little pool right behind the resort!
It's always with mixed feelings seeing these rare birds during an irruption because usually these events lead to die offs and in fact I saw many dead Dovekies not he beach.
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