More Local Stuff and a Black-Chinned (22-Sep-01Oct2024)

Good migration birding continues into October in Wilmington, many times with the best part of it at the end of September.  However, this year we never really had a good cold front with strong northwest winds so we never really had a stellar fallout.

 Burnt Mill continued to produce confusing empids into late September, but this was was most certainly an Acadian.

Bolete mushrooms in the lawn were a good distraction during my son's cross country meet.  I haven't ID'ed this one yet but it bruised blue quickly in the gills.

I am always hesitant to eat these types of shrooms although I think most Boletes are safe, mainly because the lawns they grow in are heavily treated with chemicals.

On the morning of September 27, I headed to the Johnnie Mercer Pier very early because I figured the strong winds could blow in something interesting.

Sam C and I had some Cory's/Scopoli's coming in relatively close which is good for New Hanover County.  In fact, there are very few Calonectris shearwaters that have been photographed in this area at all and so no one has tried to separate them into species since the split occurred last year.

To me, it looks as if the white extends into the "hands" of the wingtips but it is admittedly hard to gauge because this bird's primary feathers are in molt.  I posted some of these pics on a Facebook pelagic bird group and the first two people that weighed in said it looked good for a Scopoli's Shearwater which would be New Hanover's first record.  However, just today someone else weighed in and challenged that ID.  

Depending on how the Facebook discussion goes, I may have to change the ID back to Calonectris sp..

Later that same day, Melissa and I went up to have dinner with Luke in Chapel Hill and stayed the night.  We took a nice stroll at Brumley North which is probably the best migration birding spot in the triangle.

Hooded Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

It ended up being kind of a slow day but I do love getting out of Wilmington every now and again.

One NC bird that has not been kind to my camera is the Black-chinned Hummingbird.  We have had a handful in NC but usually it is a one-day wonder or a female type bird.  My one photo record is of a female that was banded taken from 25 yards away from a feeder. So I was really happy to see that Gilbert G up in Snead's Ferry had a male coming reliably to his feeder and after some emails he agreed to host me for a morning.

Black-chinned Hummingbird - The light was wrong for a shot from his deck so I had to try and get some shots when it landed in nearby trees.  I wanted to try and get the purple gorget and I managed to get a few shots but never quite nailed it.

Thanks Gilbert!