I spent some time on 02Jan scouting for the New Hanover count by visiting Veteran's Park, aka Ashley High School Ponds. It is actually a little disappointing this year, holding only Mallards and Gadwalls and of course a huge contingent of Canada Geese. However, you can usually find a Snipe hiding in the mix so I scanned the pond edges.
Wilson's Snipe trying to blend in to his surroundings.
I decided to check what was happening down in Fort Fisher, but it turns out not much except for some of the usual suspects at the Ferry Terminal parking lot.
Savannah Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Ron M got into town later in the day and we headed over the Sam's house to try for his female Western Tanager. It took a little while but we finally got some distant looks.
Western Tanager - pics are sub-standard because it had some leaves or sticks in its face.
Finally, Ron and I headed down to Masonboro Inlet to check the evening gull roost.
I spotted this Iceland Gull on the other side of the inlet! Super far but definitive.
Mostly dark bull and a cuter look than the big bruiser demeanor of a Glaucous Gull.
On count day, we woke bright and early and were joined by Mary W from Carteret County. We headed over to Snow's Cut Park for some owling but only managed a Barred Owl which was probably the one I was least expecting. We also spent a lot of time working the marshes on the side of River Road and managed a bunch of Clapper Rails, but otherwise we came up empty. At River Road Park, we started to get into some bird activity although mostly they were not photogenic due to the poor weather.
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers
Brown-headed Nuthatch
One interesting thing about the count this year is that Jesse A knew someone in the Cape community and was able to get in touch with the HOA who granted us access. The Cape is a large community with a defunct golf course that has tons of habitat possibilities.
Little Blue Heron
We had 4 Common Gallinules which can be hard to find on the New Hanover count but I think someone did also find one at Greenfield Lake. At this point it started to rain pretty hard so we decided to take lunch at a nearby bagel store and head to Veteran's Park for some car birding.
Snow Goose!
It was nice of this bird to show up on count day! I think it is still there a week later.
A Merlin was holding court keeping the dicky birds to a minimum.
Eventually we did venture out into the rain for a bit and I was able to get closer to our Snowy friend. Wayne H has since taken some pics from a different angle that shows this bird had a nasty leg fracture in its history but it seems to have healed and it can walk ok.
In the afternoon we continued birding to the north including the River Lights area but it is getting more and more developed over there and fairly birdless.
Sunday was the annual Bald Head Island count. Ron and I took the first ferry (6am) over and joined forces with a fairly large contingent of birders and biologists from the Bald Head Conservancy. There was 9 of us altogether!
Old Baldy at first light. Our convoy of 3 golf carts sped on down to the Cape Fear proper (the southeast most point on the island) and we began by watching a fairly impressive morning flight of gulls, gannets and seabirds. I should have taken some photos but I didn't.....
Next up was the drive along the golf course with the intent of hitting the links before the golfers.
Northern Cardinal was probably the bird of the day in terms of notable numbers. They were everywhere. We probably had more yellow-rumps by shear volume but no more than usual.
Red-breasted Nuthatch is always a good bird on the coast.
Meanwhile, on the south facing beach there was not much activity but we did have a couple of the Ipswich subspecies of Savannah Sparrow. This subspecies likes the beach and is very pale looking.
Hermit Thrushes are very common in the maritime forests of Bald Head but birds like the Crested Titmouse are not.... We didn't have one titmouse.
We finally finished up and took the ferry back over to Southport with some time left in the day for Ron and I to chase a Western Kingbird that has been hanging out by the entrance to the Eagle Island spoil ponds.
He was not very cooperative for photography. When Ron started the eBird checklists, it assigned the location to New Hanover, but Sam C shared a county line map that makes this a Brunswick County bird. Personally I didn't mind either way because this is a species I have in both counties.
In this poor shot you can at least see the definitive field mark for this species which is the white outer tail feather.
Brown-headed Cowbirds
Altogether it was a fun couple of days although I sometimes wonder if it would be better to start my year off by doing my outer banks rotation.
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