Well, James and I just got back from the Outer Banks, and we've still got a whole lot more to share with you, including some fantastic shorebird pictures, and at least couple more lifers. Among those lifers are these juvenile Reddish Egrets we found while the Ocracoke-Cedar Island Ferry passed by Bird Island (remember, that place where I got my lifer Black Terns?) Well, we didn't find any more Black Terns, but these guys were a nice consolation lifer for James, and more than doubles the number I've ever seen.
Multiple Reddish Egrets this far north is pretty uncommon (I think), and check out how ratty they are! Hopefully they'll molt into their immature plumage soon, it's a shame for such an awesome bird to be stuck in such a mundane outfit. Sorry for the distant shots, by the way - these guys were about a football field's length away!
Anyway, check back tomorrow for continuing coverage of the Birding Bros. on the Outer Banks!
There are many reasons to like the North Carolina Outer Banks: pristine sand beaches, insular little communities, and great fishing, among others. There’s one reason not to, however: they hate birders. Not all the islands, mind you, but mostly Hatteras, whereupon you can find bumper stickers affixed to large four-wheel drive vehicles that espouse the motto, and I kid you not: “Piping Plovers Taste Like Chicken”. Oh, and then there’s this little gem. (Warning: PG-13!)
So why all the hate? It all comes down to that little endangered species that tastes like chicken, apparently. The Piping Plover breeds all up and down the east coast in infuriatingly small numbers, including several sites along the NC Outer Banks. In an attempt to boost Piping Plover numbers, the National Park Service has mandated that 12 miles of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore be closed to off-road vehicles (ORVs), while 24 miles of the National Seashore remains open. Which, in turn, has ignited the ire of the local ORVing population, because apparently, driving your giant 4runner all over one of the best beaches in the country is some kind of God-given right (cuz, you know, this is ‘Merica!).
Among other God-given rights...
Which brings us to the other morning, when I decided to walk the ORV trail to the southern end of the island. When I finally made it to the beach, I wasn’t greeted to the immaculate view of the Atlantic I had hoped for. No, instead I was faced with hundreds and hundreds of four-wheel drive vehicles that seemed to stretch ad infinitum along the coastline. Still, I pressed on, trying to escape these mechanical behemoths, until the realization set in that it was just not going to happen. So I made my way to the water’s edge, maneuvering my way between a Jeep and a RAV4, and what should I find not yards from these daunting vehicles? None other than a pair of little Piping Plovers.
My lifer Piping Plover! Ocracoke Island, NC - 08/10/2011
Well, they say Piping Plover tastes like chicken, and maybe there’s a reason for that – these little guys are skittish! Any time you get close to them they run away like the fires of Hell are at their tiny little heels. After a little finagling I managed to get a decent shot, and I began to make my way back home. At this point, I got a little lost, and actually managed to walk right past the ORV road back into town. Not that I’m complaining though – a little group of shorebirds contained these nice adult and immature Common Terns squabbling by the surf’s edge.
"Junior, get back here!" "But mooooom!"
And then I noticed something different in the group of shorebirds. It was a plump little thing, something halfway between the size of the obligate Sanderlings and Willets. As soon as I identified it through the scope, I raced over to get a shot – and in doing so noticed two groups of beachgoers walking in opposite directions through the incoming tide. My mouth became agape in horror as, sure enough, the Sanderlings bailed, taking all the other shorebirds with them. It wasn’t meant to be I guess. Until of course I got home, and I realized that my long shot of the shorebirds revealed none other than the bird in question – my lifer (and now ex-nemesis bird) Red Knot!
Red Knot - and still red, too! Ocracoke Island - 08/10/2010
Now truly satisfied with my journey, I began my way back up the ORV road, pausing every once in a while to take a swig of water or to rest my feet (it had been nearly seven miles of walking through sand at this point). During one of these breaks, I heard an odd squeaky chip, and noticed a little bird perch up in the reeds. At first I assumed it was one of the numerous female Brown-headed Cowbirds I noticed earlier. As I swung around the scope to check it out, I noticed the bright yellow lores on an otherwise drab bird, and I realized I had picked up my lifer Seaside Sparrow! I didn’t manage a photo (it dropped down into the reeds before I could), but James had been down that way a couple days earlier and managed this nice photo of his lifer Seaside Sparrow.
Just about every look you get at a Seaside Sparrow - 08/09/2011
With three lifers under my belt, this day stands out as one of my more rewarding birding experiences. Going forward, these lifers are going to stand out like beacons in the night, and I’ll probably forget all about the Herculean effort it took to find them, which is a good thing, because if I never see another gigantic lumbering monstrosity that is a four-wheel drive vehicle, I think I could finally die happy.
This week, James and I are coming at you live from North Carolina’s beautiful Outer Banks! You could call it a vacation, but I’m not gonna be sitting around sipping gin n’ tonics on some beachside screen porch while a cool breeze rolls on through (but man, that sounds awesome). Why not? Because I’m a birder of course, which means I’m going to be spending every waking moment trying to bird the crap out of these fine islands!
The first step on any good Outer Banks trip is getting there, and getting to Ocracoke is taking the ferry. Now, I should point out that due to a slight conflict of schedules, James and I ended up arriving several days apart, which means by the time I boarded the ferry at Cedar Island, James already had one fine lifer under his belt (more on that later). Unfortunately, I arrived at the ferry not five minutes before it was supposed to leave, meaning the large groups of terns and gulls along the beach would remain un-scoped.
There's an Outer Bank out there somewhere! Er, and a boat.
Still, the birds were around, with many Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls circling the boat, while Brown Pelicans dive-bombed their fishy quarry from on high. Soon enough, I noticed a smaller tern flying up ahead, which then banked and flew right across the bow, giving me a great look at my lifer Sandwich Tern! Er, no picture (I suppose I was enjoying it too much), but just check out this one James took when he was over at Shackleford Banks. Yeah, it looked pretty much like that.
Instead, enjoy these nice Brown Pelicans on a channel marker!
But if there’s one thing the Cedar Island-Ocracoke Ferry is good for, it’s gotta be the Bird Island that lies a quarter hour outside Ocracoke’s ferry terminal. It’s chock full of stuff like pelicans, cormorants, gulls, terns, and a couple of fine Black Skimmers. It’s really difficult to scope out birds when the captain is slamming on the ferry-brakes and the strong sea-winds are traveling crosswise across the prow, but I managed a single bird that was different from the rest. And then some random dude got in the way. And it was gone. DAMMIT.
So I ran to the port-side of the ferry where the winds were too strong for most of the passengers, which thankfully makes it perfect for birders. I saw three little terns struggling against the very sea-winds that vacated this side of the boat. Nowhere near as nicely in breeding plumage as the one I’d just spotted on Bird Island, but luckily they allowed themselves to be photographed – my lifer Black Terns!
Black Terns, I swear! Zoom in to see 'em full size.
Ahh, how nice it is to have two lifers under my belt, and I’m not nearly done yet. Check back soon for further updates on how James and I are doing on our Outer Banks journey!
If you’ve ever flown into (or out of, I suppose) Raleigh-Durham International airport in North Carolina, you’ve flown over a little place called LakeCrabtree. Formed as a flood-control lake by damming one of the nearby creeks, it’s had its fair share of rarities over the last couple of years – Brant, Red-necked Grebe, and Iceland Gull have all been seen there. But not by me - for whatever reason, whenever I head out there it’s surprisingly mundane.
Still, I keep hoping there’ll be something real good each time I go there, so I dragged James out there to try to find some of the Bank Swallows that’d been sighted there recently, and was immediately skunked. It was a little late in the year I guess, so the swallows were all gone, and the lake seemed pretty empty. Still, there were birds around, like an Orchard Oriole, a friendly little Eastern Kingbird, and this little guy.
Red-winged Blackbird - Lake Crabtree, NC; 05/31/2010
It’s one of the most familiar sounds once you start birding. Check out a lake, a marsh, or really anywhere with a little water and some reeds, and you’ll be greeted with a pleasant wanKAREE coming from every which direction. Despite being a little on the common side, Red-winged Blackbirds are really quite nice to look at, and I’ve had a handful memorable experiences with them, such as pair of males displaying those red wing patches to each other while I sat and watched at close range, or the constant stream of 13,000 of these little guys over Lake Mattamuskeet this past winter. But more on that later - all in due time!
As you may have seen from my earlier post about it, the Ellerbe Creek mudflats on FallsLake is the place to be during fall shorebird migration. Last time, the twin peninsulas that line the mouth of the creek hadn’t yet formed, and little inlets of FallsLake impeded our progress. However, this week, not only were the peninsulas fully formed, but they were already covered in grass!
First thing’s first though. The entire reason we were birding the mudflats when we were was to meet up with Scott of Birdaholic, as he was keen to see what was out there (as were we). But, due to his schedule, we couldn’t meet up til 10, which meant James and I had a little time to check out the Cheek Road causeway over the lake. Doing so netted us several Ospreys, a bunch of Canada Geese, and a ton of Egrets. Mostly Greats, but there were a few Snowys mixed in, and one revealed itself to have pale green-gray legs, and was in fact a juvenile Little Blue Heron, a new county bird for me!
Far-off Egrets, at the very edge of scope-view.
With that, we met up with Scott and headed for the railroad grade that crosses the lake, and immediately we were on the birds. Well, mostly Killdeer (do they really count?) and a couple of peeps, but there was a mystery Sandpiper that looked bigger than the peeps, had a longer, decurved bill, and was feeding deeper than anybody else. We couldn’t really refind it, but found a couple kind of similar birds that we decided were Western Sandpipers due to their size,and James’s far-off photo hasn’t really eased my conscience too much. Any ideas?
Mystery Sandpiper! Bad pic, but you can still see the long bill.
As we made our way down to the flats themselves, we flushed a distinctive adult Black-crowned Night Heron from the willows under the bridge, giving me my second county bird of the day – a great success to say the least! Not a common bird around here by any means. Thankfully, the flats next to the old fishermen’s trail had formed, meaning it was a brisk walk down to the peninsulas, and it netted us a Solitary Sandpiper and a couple of Spotteds to boot. A Belted Kingfisher swept past us, and all of a sudden, the shorebirds abounded!
Semipalmated Sandpiper - Falls Lake, NC; 08/04/2011
A quick scan yielded the Semipalmated Sandpiper seen above – not a bad pic considering it was all the way across the creek on the second peninsula, plus it was a life bird for James, and a bird he’d been looking forward to getting. There were shorebirds on our peninsula as well, but there were Killdeer too, and as anybody who’s shorebirded knows, Killdeer are huge chickens (er, not literally). But seriously, if you get within 100 feet of a Killdeer on the flats, it’ll let out its namesake shriek and all of a sudden every shorebird in the vicinity has taken flight and moved to the far peninsula.
Pectoral Sandpiper - Falls Lake, NC; 08/04/2011
Which is how we never got a great look at a Pectoral Sandpiper even thought they seemed to be everywhere. They were always bailing to the other side with the other shorebirds, but even still, the sun shone bright over there, and that got us our best pic ever of these top-heavy sandpipers. Towards the end of the mudflats, I saw a couple of birds, and James went into stealth mode to try and photograph them.
Semipalmated Plover - Falls Lake, NC; 08/04/2011
However, it being the flats, there wasn’t much out there for James to hide behind, so he decided to do a little number that involved him “pretending to be a heron and hope they didn’t notice” (his words, not mine). Not his proudest moment, but it did net us this decent pic of a Semipalmated Plover, of which we had seen several along the flats. All in all, a pretty good day, despite it feeling like 105° degrees outside (in reality, it was a “cool” 99°). Oh, plus we found a confiding Least Sandpiper on the way back. Nice.
Finally a bird that resists the siren song of the Killdeer!
Hey, I finally got James to write his first blog post! Below is his account of a recent camping trip he took to the Outer Banks of North Carolina (pretty much the best beaches on the East Coast!) Enjoy, but first, let's set the mood a little bit.
Good song. Great song.
When you think of the outer banks of North Carolina, one of the last islands to jump into your mind is Shackleford Banks and honestly, there's a reason for that. There are few (if any) any buildings on the island, Wild Horses outnumber people 150 to 0 and the bugs are relentless.
The Cape Lookout Lighthouse from across the inlet
Thankfully, during my camping trip to the island I experienced only two of those three characteristics as a consistent 15 mph wind kept the bugs and scorching heat at bay. The other two characteristics were experienced in full. We didn't change the number of buildings of the island as a forgotten sack with our tent poles in it was left 200 miles away in my friend's living room, so we were forced to construct a surprisingly successful lean-to on the beach front.
Good 'nuff!
From our lean-to we frequently saw the abundant Wild Horses feeding, and if you walked beyond the grassy dunes, you would instantly see 10 to 15 of the small horses.They're said to be the descendants of Spanish Mustangs that survived a shipwreck on the island in the 1500s, which means they've had a long time to become wild!
Real-life Wild Horses - the Stones would be proud.
But of course, this is a birding blog, so let’s delve into that part of the trip. The birds were fairly plentiful along the abandoned beachfront, undoubtedly a result of the lack of people. When the tide went out, an extensive sand bar was exposed.
Good habitat, or great habitat?
A quick walk on the sandbar yielded a plethora (two) new life birds for me, mostly in the tern family. The first terns I came across were a pair of the tiny Forster’s Terns. These noisy little birds seemed more or less unperturbed by my presence and allowed me to get quite close.
Adult and immature Forster's Tern - Shackleford Banks, NC
While trying to get closer to these pint-sized birds, I noticed two unmistakable Black Skimmers whipping past, and managed to get one shot off meaning I had my first lifer of the trip!
Black Skimmers - Shackleford Banks, NC
After watching the Skimmers fly off, I looked back to the flats, and saw a much larger tern sitting amongst a ton of Sanderlings, and it tern-ed (lo siento) out to be my second lifer of the trip, a nice looking Royal Tern.
Royal Tern - Shackleford Banks, NC
Continuing along the flats I came across a bird that made the Forster's Terns look big, the Least Tern. This little guy, like the other terns on the flats seemed more or less accepting of my presence. While this guy was not a life bird for me, it was a far better look then what I was getting with my first Least Tern out in San Diego’s Famosa Slough.
Least Tern - Shackleford Banks, NC
The walk around yielded one more little nugget, in a nice look of a Sandwich Tern which, like the Least Tern, was not a life bird, but still a significantly better look than my first look at one over the bay of the small town of San Vicente de la Barquera in northern Spain.
Sandwich Tern in the States this time! - Shackleford Banks, NC
The last sighting of the trip was, not surprisingly, the seemingly omnipresent Laughing Gull. The juvenile Laughing Gull had been fending off a small section of beach next to the “ferry” pick up spot for around 15 minutes, but despite his best guffawing he could not get this Laughing Gull to leave him alone.
Adult and immature Laughing Gulls - Shackleford Banks, NC
Following the trend of the majority of the birds on this trip, this was not a lifer bird but a far better picture than the previous one taken down in San Juandel Sur, Nicaragua. Soon after, the boat showed off to take us back to the mainland, wrapping up a successful camping/birding trip to the Outer Banks.
The Gray Catbird is an odd bird for me. Obviously, now that I’ve been birding a couple of years, I know that they’re everywhere. Just walking down the street will reward you with a little meeeeeew coming from a bush or the hedges lining the sidewalk. But it wasn’t always that way.
Back when I took Ornithology in college, Gray Catbird was one of those birds I’d never heard of (along with, of all things, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, but I guess that’s a story for another day). In any case, on one humid morning in mid-April, the Ornithology class was boarding the school vans to head down to Congaree Swamp in South Carolina, and out of the shrubs next to the parking lot came the familiar meeeeeew that I now know so well. Excited for a new lifer, I exclaimed its presence and the fact that I’d never seen one before, to which the professor turned to me and said incredulously: “Seriously?”
Nowadays, of course, I know just where to find Gray Catbirds whenever I want to (well, whenever I want to during the summer). So on an otherwise gray and muggy day, James and I headed over to the 17 Acre Wood, a small greenway near the Hillandale Golf Course in Durham that’s just full of them. Sure, I’ve been known to see Black-billed Cuckoos, Bay-breasted Warblers, and Gray-cheeked Thrush at this spot during migration, but on the right day during the summer you can find over 25 Gray Catbirds amongst the shrubs and trees lining Ellerbe Creek. For whatever reason, they’re more abundant here than anywhere else I know of in the Triangle.
Gray Catbird - 17 Acre Wood, NC; 05/28/2010
Which is a good thing I guess, because James, like every other birder out there, needed his lifer Gray Catbird, and true to my word we found this guy right away. Not the greatest light, but heck, any look at a Catbird out in the open is a good look at a Catbird! Try as we might, we cannot get a good picture of a Catbird with the combination of a close-up Gray Catbird in good light and out in the open (I’ve seen good light but in the bushes, bad light and out in the open, and good light/out in the open but far away, but never all three!). Ah well. I suppose this’ll just have to do.
