Wilmington Can be Good (26-Apr to 03May2025)

Its easy to take your home location for granted but lately I have been feeling the love for my stomping grounds even though there has been nothing rare.

Where else can you see a Clapper Rail crossing the road so nonchalantly?  Fort Fisher.

Fort Fisher is also one of the best places to see Painted Buntings in the whole state.

The females are easy to overlook but when you do see them, they are almost as striking as the males.  It's a color of green you just don't see on many birds especially in this area.

Whimbrels are not rare but lets say they are nice to see every time.

Its always nice to have a Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs combo. The bill size differences become evident but also the Greater is more heavily barred underneath.

Lesser Yellowlegs are harder to come by until migration time, whereas the Greater can be seen all winter.

Mottled Ducks do not flag as rare on eBird, but they should.  They are quite hard to find, although a pair has been hanging out around the aquarium area.

Soras like most rails are usually secretive but sometimes you get a bold individual like this one.

Banded Water Snake!  

Baby American Alligators!  I counted about 20 of them in the little pond off the aquarium bike path.  Perfect size for a Great Blue Heron to eat, but luckily Mommy was not far off.

Usually I only go to Burnt Mill Creek in the fall during migration but I went recently and it was great so I have been going more often.

Chimney Swifts love the downtown area for the chimneys.

White Oak - I was so happy to see that the city/town has been planting trees all along the creek.

Yellow-crowned Night-heron!

Virginia Spiderwort loves the Oakdale Cemetery.

White-breasted Nuthatches are tough to find in Wilmington.

Great-crested Flycatchers on the other hand are everywhere.

Mississippi Kites are starting to come back in big numbers although it is usually hard to get close for pics.

Meanwhile at the beach the Least Terns are back in full force.

Many of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls have moved on but some are lingering, especially the ones that have developed a taste for washed up watermelon.

A few Gull-billed Terns have been terrorizing the Least Tern nesting area.

Black-bellied Plover

Red-breasted Merganser

Common Tern claiming its territory.

Gray Catbirds love Wade Park.

As does Lyreleaf Sage.

Chinese Privet

A young Little Blue Heron molting into adult plumage.

Green Heron

GBH at WB

For some reason I was under the impression that all American Elms were wiped out by Dutch Elm Disease but apparently we have some big ones by Burnt Mill Creek.  Maybe I was thinking of Chestnuts which I think are gone.

Barred Owl at BMC

Yellow-crowned Night-heron

Broken Northern Dash?

American Lady

Common Grackle

Needham's Skimmer

Little Blue Heron looking for fish in BMC.

Got one!  Ignore the Fritos bag..

Nom Nom Nom.....

American Black Elderberry

Yellow Iris

You have to love the spring!

Visiting A Tarheel And More Local Stuff (18-20Apr2025)

My son Luke was set to run the annual Tarheel 10 miler on 19Apr which would be his first race since he quit competitive running in high school, so we decided to make a trip of it and go support him.  He has been part of a club running group at UNC Chapel Hill but they don't really compete except in local races and not as a team.  We showed up a couple days early to take him out to dinner and get him some carbs. 

Dinner the first night was at Lime and Lemon, a great Indian restaurant but we went to Napoli's Gourmet Pizza in Carrboro for gelatos too.

On the first morning while we waited for the boys to wake up, Melissa and I took a walk at Mason Farm.

Common Yellowthroats were everywhere and I heard some other birds including Indigo Buntings but the photo ops were not great.

Philadelphia Fleabane - plants were easier to photograph.

After dropping Melissa at the hotel so she could shower, I just visited a postage stamp no-named park next to the hotel.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are starting to look snazzy and getting ready to leave for more northern climes.

Eastern Kingbird

A little later we drove into Carrboro so Luke could pick up his race packet and I parked the car under a bird feeder at a random house.

American Goldfinches were everywhere at this station.

House Finches too.

After a delicious lunch, Melissa and I went to the Botanical Garden while Luke gave George a tour of the campus.  Yes, next year we will have two Tarheels.

Louisiana Waterthrush - is this the same bird that has been returning for years, or are we seeing a younger generation coming back to its birthplace?

Red-eyed Vireo

American Beech

Mayapple - this is a plant that spreads by underground rhizomes and it is toxic but also produces derivatives like etoposide which is a cancer-fighting agent. 

Sensitive Fern - so named because it is sensitive to a frost and will usually die off during the first frost of the year.

Red Buckeye - I love this plant and have recently planted some in my yard.  It produces red flowers which hummers like.

Blue Wild Indigo - growing in a planter in Carrboro, but this is a native.  We at dinner at Napoli's which was really good wood-fired pizza!  

We headed to the UNC Campus in the morning to watch Luke run.  The Tarheel 10 miler is kind of a big deal on campus with over 4600 runners for the 10 miler and even more for other distances.  

Here is a link to the website: https://tarheel10miler.com/

Luke hasn't run a race in almost a year but has kept in shape so we were interested to see how he would fair against such a deep field of talented runners.

Here he was half way through the race looking like he was taking a jog in the park. It was really weird to see him all by himself in a race with 4600 runners, but that is how fast he is.  I think he was in 10th place half way in.  By the end of the race he made up a couple spots and finished in 55:48 which is a 5:35 minute/mile pace!

The car was parked at the Botanical Garden so we stopped in for a few minutes and George posed with Melissa in front of some beautiful Red Columbine.  I have some in my yard but it has yet to achieve such a lush backdrop.

Back at home a couple days later, I stopped at Orton Pond in Brunswick County to try for some Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and came up short of that species.

But I did see the biggest Black Horse Fly I think I ever saw on my car window.  This think was huge!

Ospreys were nesting in several of the large Bald Cypresses in the pond.

A distant flock of Glossy Ibis was also a nice surprise.

Since Boiling Spring Lakes was on the way home, I swung by to see if the yearly Sandhill Cranes were back and I didn't find them either.  Apparently they are there now but have moved further east than I was in the dried up lake bed.

Purple Martins were plentiful feeding over the dried up lakes which are now basically marshy areas.  

They males really do look purple in the right light.

Gorgeous birds and prolific insect control.

An interesting looking Red-shouldered Hawk screeching.  

I have been shooting flying birds more trying to get better at my camera.

I have more local stuff to catch up on, but this is all I can handle in one post for now, so look for another installment soon.