Almost caught up (24Feb - 03Mar2018)

Some random birding around town and near my son's soccer tournaments has me almost caught up in the pictures/seen ratio.

Some of the Boney's at Wrightsville Beach are developing hoods and it is making me look at them twice.  There has been huge congregations due to the pumping they are doing in the beach restoration effort.

Cool looking Boney.

Up at Wilson, NC my oldest son had a soccer game so I visited some of the birding hot spots not really expecting anything.

I thought this was Snow Goose, but it turned out to be some domestic abomination.

An uncountable beauty and beast all wrapped into one bird.

At North River Farms I reunited with John and the group and all I have for my troubles was this Glass Lizard.  It was good to see them though.

And on the way home I picked up this Bachman's Sparrow signing it's head off in Holly Shelter.  The habitat looks great with a ton of recently burned areas.

Carolina Chicka in my front yard enjoying some Black Oil Seeds.

Green Comma?  in my yard.

Rusty Blackbirds at the Battleship.

Last week I had a work trip up and Philly and to avoid long layovers, I chose to fly our of RDU in Raleigh.  So I thought, why not go to Mid Pines and pick up some birds.

I was looking at some distant Horned Larks worried that the pictures would not come out when a huge flock of them took off from a nearby field and circled overhead.

This is a super cropped and lightened photo so you can see the marks.

White outer tail feathers.

About 40 of them!  I wish I had my ear buds in, maybe I could have picked out a Longspur.

Field Sparrow also at Mid Pines.

White-breasted Nuthatch at Yates Mill right next door.

We don't really get them on the coastal plain so I watched him for a while.

Friday early I headed to Camp Pretty Pond in Brunswick County to look for the reported Mottled Ducks.

I was surprised to see a Red-cockaded working the Long-leafs.

A huge flock of Ring-necked was scoured for anything unusual.  I think I found the Mottled on the far shore but the photos came out like crap and it was restricted access so I could not get closer.  So I have not added them to my list.

Saturday I took a nice stroll at Fort Fisher with my waders on to get the Sedge Wren monkey off my back.  They don't seem to want to come close to the trail this year so I had to get into it with them.

Sedge Wren

Nelson's Sparrow

Marsh Wren

Cooper's Hawk fly by at Burnt Mill Creek.

The State Bird.

Pied-billed Grebe

Black-bellied Plover at Wrightsville Beach

Least Sandpiper

I looked for the Black-headed Gull in the inlet but could not find it.  Plenty of Boney's but none with obviously red legs and bill.

Birthday Bash (18-19Feb2018)

I wish I could say my birthday weekend was epic, but it wasn't.  However, I did manage to work very hard for a couple decent year birds.  In hindsight I should have done the pelagic, but I didn't know it would be pushed to Sunday and I had a soccer game for my kid on Saturday.  It wouldn't have stung so bad if my kid's game wasn't so horrible.  C'est la vie!

My big choice was chase Eurasian Wigeon before the ducks leave and try for Golden Eagle at Alligator, or head the mountains and try for Golden up near Cheek Mountain.  I ended up choosing Pungo, Matta and Alligator and OBX.

First thing on Saturday I arrived at the Pungo entrance to find a huge flock of Red-winged Blackbirds.  I thought for sure this was a fortuitous sighting and set myself to the task of finding a Yellow-headed BB.  45 minutes later I had combed through 20 or so thousand Red-winged, Grackles, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Starlings and some other common birds and still had no Yellow-headed.

Never the less, it was impressive and a Black Bear in a distant field was nice.  I didn't bother with a pic since it was just a black blob.

How many RWBBs can you fit in one tree?

Once again my rarophyllia kicked in when I saw this raptor sitting on a dirt mound.  The pointy wings had me thinking Prairie Falcon or some other exotic bird.  Of course it was just a Northern Harrier.

Gray Ghost

Tons of Tree Swallows at Pungo.

Red-winged Blackbirds are already displaying.

Three Sandhill Cranes mixed in with the Tundra Swans at Pungo.

Before leaving I checked the Red-winged flock again just to be sure.  Still no Yellow-headed.

At Mattamuskeet it took me a long time to find one of the Eurasian Wigeons but I finally got it after a couple hours of looking.  My eyes are still smarting from staring in my scope in the high wind.

Damn coot in the way but nice comparison of the heads of a American and Eurasian Wigeon.

Alligator started out with a bang when I found a small pack of Red Wolves lounging in a field.

I knew they were Red Wolves and not Coyotes based on the honking red radio collar on the far right wolf.

That thing has to be uncomfortable, but I guess if it helps prevent being shot by a hunter it is a good thing.   On NPR I was listening to 1A and there was a dude talking about how AR-15s are great for Coyote hunting.  My question is do they eat Coyotes or just kill them and throw them in a ditch?  Disgusting in my opinion.

Lesser Yellowlegs - I diligently reached for Ruffs in amongst the Yellowlegs but did not find any.

When I first saw this bird soaring I immediately thought Golden Eagle as it had dark underwings and a unique tail pattern and was flying in a dihedral.  Now I see it is a Bald Eagle with a strange combo of a white head but patterned tail.  I wonder how many sightings of Golden Eagles lately are just poor views of Bald Eagles in interesting plumage patterns.

Red-tailed Hawk

As it got dark this raptor perched in a tree near Milltail Rd.  The bib came down far so I can see how it could be IDed as a Swainson's but I got a look as it flew away and the petagial bar gave it away as a Red-tailed.

I waited until dark and never saw a Short-eared Owl, but was treated to the most amazing Red Wolf chorus.  They seemed to be all around me and in fact it was a little spooky.

Herring Gull at Oregon Inlet.  I searched high and low for Snowy Owls with no luck.

This loon was really interesting but in the end I called it a Red-throated Loon.  Pacific and Arctic were considered and thrown out.

Common Merganser on the way home at the Cresswell ponds. Too far for a good shot but will do for year bird purposes.

There was actually a good mix of Common Mergansers and Red-breasted.

Random Wild Turkey flock in Roper area.

As I drove home in shame, I saw a large dark eagle on the side of the highway that looked great for Golden, but as I slammed on the breaks and pulled over he flew off before I could get some pics.  I saw the general direction he flew in and spent the next 30 minutes driving back roads looking for him.  I did find this above Bald Eagle which was all dark but when I got the scope and checked it over thoroughly I could see some white feathers in the neck area.  Dang it!  I will never know if the one I saw on the snag was a Golden but I am not about to call it without a pic.

I also made a stop at Glenburnie Quarry in New Bern to look for Eared Grebe on the way home but struck out.  However, I am always happy to find a new birding spot and met a nice local in the process so not all a wash.  There was an evening roost of thousands of gulls in the quarry so I bet something good will show up there soon.