WInter's Last Gasp (11-25Feb2024)

It's been a pretty mild winter and today it was spring like with cherry trees blooming and daffodils popping up.  Here are some photos from earlier the month.

Yellow-rumped Warbler - I will not be sad to see these moving north.

Northern Cardinal

The waves have been good but its hard to get me to suit up nowadays.

A Dovekie at the south end of WB has been very cooperative for photos in good light.

Cooper's Hawk

A couple weekends ago I had a day off from surveys so I headed up to the triangle and looped around to Charlotte to try and pick up a couple rarities.  I started out at Schenck Forest in Raleigh.

Hermit Thrush

Fox Sparrow

Wilson's Warbler - it took a little while to find and it never came down from high in the Long Leaf canopy. 

Next stop was at a golf course a little north of Raleigh.

Greater White-fronted Geese

There were over 20 Mute Swans here.  I wonder how long they have been breeding here.  It seems strange that only ones in the north part of the state are countable where these seem to be established.

A handful of Tundra Swans were also chilling out here.

Things were going well so I decided to head up even further to see if Cackling Goose at Mayo River State Park was still around.  It hadn't been reported for a week or so.

I combed through the Canada Geese but couldn't find it.  I kept looking and eventually found it hanging out with some domestic mallards in a pond about 100 yards from the Canadas.

Cackling Goose!

So cute!

This is where my luck started to run out.  I decided to go try for photos of the Short-eared Owls over at Guilford County Farm hoping three times was a charm.  It seems quite a few people have seen them come out before sunset, but I had been skunked twice already this year with the owls only coming out after any possibility of photos.

A bunch of people were already out waiting well before sunset.  I did catch a glimpse of one but it was almost pitch dark.

The next day was President's Day so I had it off so instead of heading home, I headed to Charlotte to stay the night with plans to pick up a Common Goldeneye in Concord Mills and then the Lapland Longspurs east of Charlotte.  I failed miserably at both.

The Concord Mills ponds in the morning were chock full of ducks but no Goldeneye.  I thought I might have seen it way in the distance on a wetland, but I never got a good look before it disappeared.  

The farm fields at Brent Haigler Rd where Martina found the LALOs was really birdy with huge flocks of American Pipits but I was never able to get on the Longspurs.  Its a huge area and the Pipits they are supposedly hanging out with were all over the place.

Strange to see an American Pipit sitting next to an American Kestrel.

American Goldfinch

Savannah Sparrow

American Pipit

Meanwhile back home the Boat-tailed Grackles are starting to get horny.

More good waves!

At Figure Eight Island, I have been diligently combing through the gull flocks.  I don't even know what to think of this beast.  The huge dark eye and sharply bicolored bill was giving me weird vibes.

A cooperative Bald Eagle sitting on the wood pile someone put up.

Massive flocks of Cedar Waxwings have been feasting on rich people's hedge berries.  I think it is mostly privet.

Last weekend I made another trip up to the triangle to redeem myself after the misses in Charlotte.  A Common Golden has been hanging out at Jordan Lake.

Common Goldeneye - it took a while to get some decent pics as it mostly hung out in some far nook of the lake.

Erla B has been having a horde of Pine Siskins at her feeder in Raleigh so I got permission to come over and do some Geribirding.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Mourning Dove 

Pine Siskin feeding on shelled sunflower seeds.

Goldfinch

Pine Siskin

Pine Warbler

Brown Thrasher

Dark-eyed Junco

A nice little day trip!

 A sun beam poking through the gloom at Figure Eight one morning.  I was toying with the idea of going up to Shackleford Banks but by the time I was done with my survey, I decided to just stay local and hit up the sparrow fields at Blue Clay rd.

Vesper Sparrow

Mallard

Great times!

This weekend is pelagic time!  I hope the weather holds up.

Were-grebes of London and a Red-cockaded WP (05-10Feb2024)

Work had me going to London this past week but I only got outside a few times due to typical UK weather and a packed work schedule.  I stayed at the Syon Park Hilton which is not really close to any of the good London parks except Syon Park which is closed in the winter.  Bad luck!  However, the hotel was next to a  trout pond which had a few good birds.

Little Grebe was actually a lifer for me.

Common Wood-Pigeons are conspicuous and everywhere.

I walked about a mile to the Thames River and there were about a thousand Black-headed Gulls but not much else.

Gray Heron - I feel like I am getting familiar enough with this species that I will be able to pick one out if we get one back home.

European Robins are cute as a button and sing all year long.

Long-tailed Tits are also very cute but there is something about them that seems off. I think the color scheme is just weird.

Eurasian Blackbird - the one that the Beatles were singing about.

Tufted Duck

Eurasian Green Woodpecker - I had one of these in Norway but it was a new one for the UK.

Great Tit

Stock Dove

Eurasian Jackdaws

Rose-ringed Parakeets are everywhere in London and now other cities in EU too.

Egyptian Goose

On the last full day I had some time to play around but the weather was horrible and I barely got out.

Back at home I managed to make it up to Holly Shelter after my survey at Figure 8 and found a nice flock of Red-Cockaded WPs.

Red-cockaded WP

As I write this, it is Saturday and I am hoping to go chase some birds on Sunday, wish me luck!