Work Week? We don't need no stinkin Work Week! (02-06Jan2019)

Although it's been crazy at work the first couple weeks of the year, I have been keeping my four new year's pledges so far.  It helps that I work from home.  It's only a matter of time before I crack on one of these resolutions and I am pretty sure which one is going down first.

1. Only eating pork (bacon, pork, ham etc) and beef (yes burgers too) once a month each.  I am attempting to reduce my meat consumption but only a fool would go cold turkey on poultry.  I have had my one pork product this past Sunday brunch at Savorez (Pork belly and Trout Taco).
2. Birding at least once a day and logging it in eBird even if just a tally of my feeder birds out my office window.
3. My only year listing this year will be my 5 Mile Radius birds.  Sure I will chase any new NC birds or lifers and probably go on some pelagics, but this will be the first year in 4 years that I will not be doing a "NC big year".  You know you are addicted to listing when you make a resolution to stop doing big years.
4. Running at least 5 days a week. I have done at least 3 miles a day for five days in the first week and I am on track for another 5 day week this week. I am getting old and I hurt all over.

I bet the pork and beef one falls first as I love bacon and my favorite dish in Wilmington is the Pork Belly Bahn Mini sandwich at Yosake.  I don't think I have ever turned down a gourmet burger when offered one either. I also have some client dinners coming up soon for work, and it's hard to turn away a free filet mignon. 

Back to birds...  In the first week I spent a bunch of mornings at neighbor's houses looking for Western Tanagers.  I know of at least 2 houses maybe three in Wilmington that are hosting Western Tanagers.  That being said I dipped every time the first week.  But the consolations were pretty good...

A brighter yellow Orange-crowned then the previously posted one.

Eastern Bluebird

American Goldfinch

Tufted Titmouse

Carolina Chickadee

Cape May Warbler

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Downy Woodpecker

Red-winged Blackbird

Lots of good bokeh on this day.

Hmm, is it really winter?

A quick trip to Airlie Gardens one day yielded some new 5MR birds.

Northern Cardinal

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Anhinga

White-throated Sparrow

Carolina Wren

My first thought on this was a Mottled Duck!  Are you kidding? I missed Mottled on my big year last year...  and this one was 50 yards from my house..... Further inspection revealed this was the love child of a Mottled and a Mallard.  The chest had too much rufous coloring and the throat was not totally free of streaks.  The tail had a little hint of lighter colored feathers.



White under wing was nice....

But way too thick of a white border in the speculum...  By the way, does anyone else think it's weird that speculum can be the feathers on a duck or the "medical tool used for inspecting body orifices"?

After checking this hybrid monster's speculum thoroughly with my speculum, I slowly walked home and lucked into a nice flock a stone's throw from my back yard in the land that is being cleared for a new house.

Dark-eyed Junco is actually a pretty decent bird here.

Brown Creepers are not easy to find in New Hanover county either.

Blue-headed Vireo

Black-and-white Warbler!

What a week to start the year and all within 5 miles of Casa Adams.  Half of this was achieved without any driving.

Happy New Year!

A New Beginning (01Jan2019)

I am really enjoying this 5 Mile Radius challenge!  I have not birded outside 5 miles from my house and some of the best birds I have seen were within 100 yards.  The following pics are only from Day 1!

This series is from a friend's house about 4 or so miles south.  She has had a Western Tanager recently but I did not see it the few times I went.  However, her feeders were still hopping.

Yellow-throated Warbler - pretty rare for a winter bird but even more remarkable that it is visiting a feeder.

Orange-crowned Warbler enjoying what else?  An orange.

Baltimore Oriole - those weird artifacts to the right of the bird are reflections of Xmas lights in the window.  Yes all these pics were taken from her breakfast nook behind glass!

Nom nom nom....

When this raptor flew over my house, I thought Cooper's but now I see the squared-off tail, so I am going with Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in my back yard.

Carolina Wren in my backyard.

CHickie D in my front yard.

Ok this next one is from a spot that is technically outside my 5MR at Ashley High School, but I took the following from the eastern parking lot which is inside the circle.  I am super bummed that the ponds to the north west of these fields are out of view and out of the circle.  Those ponds are chock full of ducks I don't have on my list.



The continuing Ross's Goose and other common birds like the Canada Geese and White Ibis was easily seen from inside the circle.

Of course I was not satisfied so I moved in for some pics.

White Ibis

Canada Goose

Ross's Goose

Eastern Bluebird

Later in the afternoon I moved to Wrightsville Beach.  The south end of WB is squarely within my circle.

Black Scoter

Willet

Red-breasted Merganser.

More birds from Jan 2 on the next post!

One Last Push (27-31Dec2018)

I spent the last 5 days of the year trying to get 1-2 more birds but spoiler alert, I failed.  However, I am proud of the final number - 352!

Some time was spent on piers looking for Harlequin Ducks...

Parasitic Jaeger at Johnny Mercer's pier in Wilmington.

Saturday I went to Camp Pretty Pond in Brunswick County to look through the large flock of ducks where a Mottled Duck was reported several weeks back.  I did find a couple candidates but they were really far off and I was uneasy about putting Mottled on my list but in the end I did decide there was some Mottled and I planned to come back to try for some closer shots.

One of the Mottled candidates on the left.  A buffy face with unstreaked throat and a warmer colored body compared to the American Black Duck on the right.  Also the bill was bright yellow compared to the olive yellow of the Black Duck.  Finally I noticed some white in the speculum which a Black Duck would not have.  So I put it on my list which brought me to 353 for the year.  However, a couple days later I went back and decided after much deliberation to take it off and remain at 352.  I just don't like ending the year on a bird that has potential hybridization issues.  Maybe I can take a half point for it? Joking.... kind of.

On Saturday night I had a decision to make.  Should I go to Hyde County and chase a Golden Eagle seen at Gull Rock Gamelands which would also give me a shot at Yellow-headed Blackbird, or should I go to the mountains and try for Golden Eagle there and have a shot at Ruffed Grouse?  It was suggested to me that if I wanted to get Golden or Ruffed Grouse, the best man for the job was Eric H.  So I called Eric and set it up.  The plan was to help on the Stone Mountain CBC and then go up and look for Grouse and Golden Eagles.



Eric is a falconer and has a couple of Harris Hawks.  Very cool birds.  Some folks have negative perceptions of falconry but all I saw were a couple of birds that had every opportunity of taking off if they wanted to but actually seemed to happy to stick around.  The two birds were released at the beginning of our walk and followed us all around while we conducted the CBC count.  Unfortunately I never got to see them in action as we were not able to find any bunnies, but it was very cool to see them flying around in the woods.

Once the count was finished we headed up to the Parkway and tried some spots for Grouse but were not able to find any.

Then we headed up to Cheek Mountain and drove all over the northern portion of the state near the Virginia border scanning the skies and tree tops for Golden Eagles.

We couldn't figure out what happened to this Red-tailed Hawk, was it shot and then fell into the tree?

At the very end of the day we got all excited when we finally saw an Eagle flying over the ridge...... But alas it was a Bald Eagle which apparently is less likely to see up there.

So the number remains 352 which is still a huge feat.

I plan on doing a year in review later with some key photos from the year, but until then, here is one of my favorites from a Pelagic trip.

So what is in store for 2019?  Don't worry my dear readers, more materials are incoming.  I plan on staying more local and actually have signed up for a 5 Mile Radius challenge which will help me concentrate on the areas within 5 miles of my home.  I hope this will help reduce my footprint and I can give my old truck a rest.  However, I also am planning trips to the Yucatan and Colombia so there's that and I am sure I will chase any state birds that happen to show up.