Winter Birding on the OBX

The first time I ever went "real" birding was with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. I spent a weekend at Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina's largest natural lake, gazing over the horizon to watch the myriad of Snow Geese and Tundra Swans that winter there. I was enthralled when we saw an American Bittern immersed in cord grass, and I was amazed at how the museum educators could tell apart species of ducks through the eyepiece of a scope. By the end of the trip, I had caught a bad case of the birding bug and the only treatment was birding itself. After a full year of birding, I returned with the museum this time farther East to North Carolina's crystal coast, the Outer Banks. The museum group I go with is a teen volunteer program I am apart of called the Junior Curators.

Day 1

"Thank goodness" is what I thought as I stepped out of the van, a Saturday morning birding on the coast had finally arrived after a long week. We had birds to see and places to be! That first place was a stroll at Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve. We took a stroll down gravel roads beside the preserves shrubby, maritime forest and ponds under mixed species flocks of common eastern passerines. Towards the end, we took one last loop around a pond and encountered a mixed species flock with endless quantities of the prosaic Yellow-rumped Warbler that winter here. Then Brian, our trip leader, pointed out a warbler with a drab color wearing an inexpressive plumage, an Orange-crowned Warbler!  The whole group had amazing views from a close distance for a few minutes. It felt great to start the trip out with a view of an uncommon year bird I was not expecting to see.

Next, the whole group piled into the vans, and we headed over to Jockey's ridge State Park. Jockey's Ridge is home to the largest sand dunes on the East coast that appear like a small mountain range on the beach, an interesting site that I always forget NC has. Our Target specie were Snow Buntings, a brave songbird that breeds in the high arctic, and its southernmost range in winter is the OBX . However, we did not see any Snow Buntings, but getting to explore the largest sand dunes on the East coast made up for it!

 I did spot some wild Junior Curators, a very gregarious species.

Hmmm, where are those Snow Buntings?

After Jockey's Ridge, the whole group took a midday break from birding. The weather held crisp blue skies without a foreboding cloud on the horizon so far today. We eagerly returned back to birding in unexplored territory farther south. Our first stop was at the Bodie Island Lighthouse & Pond that is a reliable spot for waterfowl. As we walked up to the observation platform, we quickly spotted a noticeable shorebird, the American Avocet.

American Avocet

The American Avocet is a unique shorebird because it has an upturned bill it skims across the surface of the water to feed. They are a personal favorite of mine and never get tiring to encounter! The pond was most numerous in Tundra Swan along with the gorgeous Green-winged Teal, Pintail, Gadwall, and Widgeon.

Northern Pintail

Me holding a scope at Bodie Island.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

Another interesting sighting was a Great-horned Owl. The owl had taken over an old Osprey nest at a Marina nearby and would roost there for the day offering great views to the whole group.

You can just barely see his ear tufts sticking out.

 The next stop was one we had all been waiting for, Oregon Inlet. This spot has been very productive all winter long: Harlequin Ducks, Red-necked Grebes, Scoters, and even a Snowy Owl found by my friend Lucas last December. I had been itching to get a scope on out there all day. The conditions were perfect: a setting sun shedding light to the east with mild winds from the NE and a crisp, blue sky. Harlequin ducks would be a lifer for me, and their elaborate plumage that made them one of North America's beautiful birds was a sighting I didn't want to miss. They are unusual this far south to North Carolina and winter commonly along the rocky shores like those of the Northeast states. Luckily, the group of six Harlequins had chosen the rocky jetty at Oregon Inlet to spend their winter.

The moment I walked onto the catwalk my friend Sam shouted and pointed across the water. I pressed my eye up to the scope. Six ducks that seemed to have applied to much makeup is what identified them as Harlequins. One-by-one they dove under the surface and popped back up again. Finally, a lifer for the day! After the ducks, a Red-necked Grebe emerged from the water. This was my second sighting of this species and by far better when I barely saw it fly over the Oregon Inlet Bridge last fall; it felt like lifer. White-winged Scoters emerged, a first for the year in NC.

As we were wrapping up scoping from the bridge, Brian and I noticed three little shorebirds with dark rumps fly and disappear into the rocks of the jetty. No doubt that these had to be Purple Sandpipers. The whole group shifted out onto the jetty and scoped out into the choppy waters of the inlet. I got one last glimpse of a Red-necked Grebe flash its white secondaries and land behind the choppy waves. As we made our way back to the vans, we stopped to clarify the Purple Sandpipers. Soon enough, we found them foraging on the rocks. An NC lifer at last!

The not so Purple Sandpiper.

The group checking out out the PUSAs

Lucas photographing the PUSAs.

Purple Sandpipers winter along rocky shores of the east coast. Hence their name, they don't ever appear purple. However, it is difficult to see this bird appear because its slate gray color blends into the rocks. I saw this sandpiper about a year ago hiding in a jetty in South Carolina. After the inlet and an unproductive trip to Pea Island, we treated ourselves to pizza and pasta at a go to restaurant called Gidget's that has fed us many meals after previous birding at the OBX. We ended our day with a night walk around Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. You really notice the powerful lights of a lighthouse at night!

Day 2

Sunday Morning brought another new day and new birds. As we drove the van in Cape Hatteras, Sam and I noticed a chicken-like bird scurry across the road and into the marsh grass. The only small, chicken-like marsh bird I could think of was the secretive, Virginia Rail. We walked down the gravel road and soon the rail flushed out of the grass and everyone got a quick look, another NC lifer to begin the morning! My second sighting this year. Our target location was the salt pond that lay behind the coat on Hatteras. The short path to the salt pond was covered in 3-inch deep puddles as usual, thank goodness I brought my boots. As our feet sloshed through the saturated ground, we flushed an American Bittern. A secretive species of wader related to the more common Great Blue Heron, the bittern was another new year bird. Once the salt pond came into sight, it was filled with Double-crested Cormorants, gulls, and waterfowl. By the end of our morning there, we had tallied nearly 10,000 Double-crested Cormorants. There seemed to be an endless amount from the horizon East to West.

Swamp Sparrow by the salt pond.

However, the trip was not over yet! We still had to see the 3rd state record Band-tailed Pigeon roosting in a front yard in Manteo, NC; another lifer I didn't want to miss! This is a notable pigeon that is a denizen of coniferous forests of the mountains in the West. The Band-tailed Pigeon is native unlike its closely resembled cousin, the Rock Pigeon. We arrived to the home where the Pigeon has been reported. A large oak tree that towered over the yard is where it had been previously reported. We strained our necks trying to see through the thick branches. As we walked into the yard, a Sharp-shinned Hawk flushed from the tree put the thought in my head the Band-tailed Pigeon had been the hawks last meal. Luckily, the pigeon was soon located by Lucas obscured in gnarly branches.

The very well hidden Band-tailed Pigeon in Manteo, NC. My second lifer of the trip.

While we were in the yard, we got a call from an employee at the aquarium who knows one of the trip leaders saying there was a deceased dolphin that washed up on the beach back on the OBX. So, we took another break from birding to observe a local species of marine mammal, the Common Dolphin.

The Common Dolphin, a close relative of the Bottle-nosed Dolphin.

Apparently, dolphins have been suffering from a virus that might be the cause of this ones death. However, I don't think I'd ever realized the beautiful pattern on a dolphin, so it was worth driving back. Now, we were home bound. We made a quick trip to Alligator River National Park on the way. It's a great spot for Short-eared Owls in the morning and an Ash-throated Flycatcher was here earlier in the year. We were not there early enough for Short-eareds, but I did see one more a Gray Catbird putting me at 157 species for the year. 11 birds to add to my year list, 3 NC lifers, and 2 lifers. That itself spells satisfaction to me. Now, I'm ready for spring to arrive through the colorful plumage of a warbler.

Woodcock Walk

Suddenly the peenting ceases and the bird flutters skyward in a series of wide spirals, emitting a musical twitter. Up and up he goes, the spirals steeper and smaller, the twittering louder and louder, until the performer is only a speck in the sky.  -Aldo Leopold, The Sand County Almanac 

I witnessed this performer, the American Woodcock, on this warm winter evening showing off its Sky dance. The Woodcock's courtship display shows one of natures most interesting and spectacular animal behavior. The way Aldo Leopold describes the courtship display of the woodcock sums up my similar sighting. I joined the Wake Audubon Society on their Annual Woodcock Walk at a local hotspot called Schenck Forest, a plot of pine forest owned by NC State University, to take a look at the free admission show,"The Sky Dance", that's in town from now until the end of March.

First off the American Woodcock is a peculiar species. It is a plump shorebird that lives in the woods and meadows, probing the soil for earthworms with its long bill. The bird itself appears to be from another planet with its bold, black eyes positioned on each side of the head. This bird is very well camouflaged and not often seen unless flushed, or performing its courtship dance in the spring. The Woodcock first makes itself noticed with a buzzy peent from its preferred habitat, a forest opening or shrubby field. The performer pierces the air towards the sky emitting a musical whistle from its fluttering wings then circle high above any tree and spirals down to where it began.  An interesting fact I learned this evening is that Schenck forest has Woodcocks that spend the winter here and year-round residents.  Here is a Video of what the Woodcock looks like peenting.

Snow Day Brings Backyard Birding

Cold, slow, and surprised are the three words I use to describe the past week and a half. Cold and slow where the two things I felt after birding Yates Mill and Mid Pines twice. This winter has been colder than usual for North Carolina with single digits temperatures overnight, and temperatures in the 20's during a few days in the past couple of weeks. However, slow birding does not always mean complete disappointment as the birds were slow enough for me to catch a few videos, like this Sparrow Sparrow, at Yates Mill County Park last Sunday(he catches a bug at the very end):
  Monday and Tuesday did pick up a little bit faster. I was driving to pick up my brother, and saw a Cooper's Hawk fly over the road, then on my evening run I heard a Barred Owl calling it's famous call:"Who cooks for you?" on the greenway by my house. Tuesday, Wake County Public Schools' fear of the snow that never came, opted for another birding opportunity at Mid Pines Road instead of sitting in class. As usual, I met up with the two other members of the "Bird Nerd Herd", Sam and Lucas. Within the first few minutes of shivering in the wind under the foreboding clouds, a drab, robin-sized bird flew overhead chirping. It was an American Pipit, a passerine of open fields thats winters in the south, now it was year bird #142. Wednesday morning I woke up to my yard completely sugar coated. 

I laced up my boots, zipped my jacket, and grabbed my camera for a little stroll with my dog to inspect the new look to my familiar yard.

I soon realized my dog, Castor, playing in the snow was scaring away to many birds.

The birds where going crazy over the feeders, so the majority of the two snow days I spent backyard birding because I wasn't able to drive anywhere to go birding in the places I thought were the best spots. This is the moment where I felt surprised, all the common birds were suddenly more intriguing to watch and photograph than previously out in the other hotspots were new birds were always the target.   The first birds I always noticed are the Dark-eyed Juncos hopping on the ground below feeding on the seeds that fall from the feeder.

Dark-eyed Junco

 Then I turn up to my suet feeders that is always occupied by this one Yellow-rumped Warbler.

 Yellow-rumped Warblers have a better adaptive digestive system than the other warbler species that allow them to winter farther North. They are known to feed on the waxy berries like Wax Myrtle. There sheer numbers seen through out the South in the winter show that these are a tough species of warbler that can stand the cold, compared to the other warbler species that flock to the warmer South America.

The yellow rump.

Then I look the other direction and see all the other visitors at my tube feeder:

Male orange variant House Finch.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are always my favorite bird to see at my feeder. There huge size and loud kiwrr call always make there presence noticeable.

Red-bellied Woodpecker with its bold, zebra-back pattern.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Wren in a still position from its usual energetic self.

Northern Cardinal and House Finch.

Male Downy Woodpecker saying a hello.

As I was focusing on the feeders, the small Dogwood tree beside me hosted a noisy bunch of Chickadees and Titmice. This one Carolina Chickadee was very curious:

Carolina Chickadee(this is not even cropped!)

Carolina Chickadee

In all, backyard birding was a nice little surprise to have during my snow day. A backyard is a great place to enjoy the common birds that are just overlooked in the field at any time of day. It's your personalized bird habitat to learn about the local birds.

Georgetown County, SC Big Day

I opened my eyes to Sam calling my name. I look down at my watch and it's 5:45 a.m. We slept in by an hour and fifteen minutes, whoops . . . I guess our alarms decided not to wake up either. But we made up for it, we were out pulling out of the gates of DeBordieu by 6:10 a.m. Our Georgetown Big Day had now began as we pulled through the causeway of Huntington Beach State Park, another prominent birding jewel in Georgetown, SC with over 300 species year round, and spotted  our first bird: Great-Blue Heron. We now began cupping our ears for Virginia and Clapper Rails calling in the tidal salt marshes from the boardwalk that stretches into the middle of the marsh. A few Clappers respond to playbacks and suddenly I spot, not just hear one, foraging in the low tide mud. Then on the other side we spotted a smaller rail with a slightly decurved bill actually swimming like a coot in the water, a Virginia Rail! These shy, chicken-like marsh birds often obscure themselves in the dense vegetation of marshes, only coming out at low tide to feed; it was a pleasure to actually see both species at the same time!

We all three left the boardwalk with the Virginia Rail as a lifer and made our way to the beach. After the mile walk down the beach the jetty was finally insight, we had a new companion on our big day team who was there to greet us: a curious Ruddy Turnstone, who we named Levi. Levi was not nearly as skittish as the rails and kept following us around on the jetty.

Levi, the curious Ruddy Turnstone.

After we filled up our memory cards with Levi, we got to some scoping. We walked up and down the jetty as the strong winds pushed waves over the side of the jetty spraying us. We quickly spotted all three scoter species: Surf, Black, and White-winged Scoter. 

Lucas Scoping Scoters

Sam checking out Loons

After the Scoter Grand Slam, a few Common Loons, and a Common Eider; we quickly got out of the way of the strong winds and made our way to a few trails behind the sand dunes. There was no success with spotting any Seaside or Nelson’s sparrows just Savannahs plus an American Kestrel. After the long walk back, we hopped in the car and drove towards the freshwater pond, Mullet Pond, to scope for more waterfowl. The pond had a nice variety from Blue and Green-winged Teal, Scaup, Shovelers, and even American White Pelicans feeding in a rhythmic motion each bobbing their heads in and out of the water one after the other.

Mullet Pond, filled with waterfowl

Our last stop in Huntington was at the feeders to see if any Painted Buntings; a cousin of the cardinal dressed in a beautiful plumage of red, green, and blue that is summer resident; might have stuck around for the winter. However, there were none, but as we were walking in the parking lot to leave, a small passerine with an olive colored back and blue head stuck out like a sore thumb in the never ending flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. I brought my binoculars against my eyes, and a Blue-headed Vireo was hopping around in the tree limbs of a cedar tree. Then another warbler made an appearance in the cedar tree, a Black-and-White Warbler, two birds I thought we would miss. We left the park at 11:00 a.m. satisfied that we had quality views of all 72 species of birds.

We arrived at DeBordieu after treating ourselves to a nice lunch of hot dogs and milkshakes, ready to bird another 28 species strong, at least to break 100. I knew a perfect place to start, a dirt road that runs parallel to a small, shrubby canal that leads you out to the marsh. We saw an immature Wood Stork, Killdeer, a female Wood Duck, and a Seaside Sparrow that flushed out of the marsh. These were all birds we didn’t see for the rest of the day. However, there were some others that we encountered little to none, Woodpeckers. There is patch of beautiful Longleaf Pine forest in DeBordieu that just has woodpecker written all over it on the tree trunks, but we only heard a Downy Woodpecker call from a far distance. After our frustration with woodpeckers, we got another great photo opt. with this Anhinga:

 Once the Anhinga flew off, we sped the car down the road and checked a spot we knew was reliable for our 100^th bird: Black-crowned Night Herons along with two Eurasian Collared Doves as 99^th. By dinner, we had broken our previous record of 102 species that we set in the OBX of NC. We were munching on our pizza at 106 species for the day, with Least Sandpiper being a nice surprise and a Northern Harrier being our last bird seen in broad daylight. The day’s not over yet; we still had some nocturnal numbers to add to our list.

We returned to the dirt road running parallel to the pine forest where we had heard Eastern Screech Owls two nights ago. Three responded to our playback with their whiny, monotonic trill. By the end of the night Screech Owl was the only owl that decided to respond, and we were able to get another cousin in the Rail family to let out a quick call through the thick and grassy marsh later that evening, a Sora. Thus the climax of the weekend had ended once the Sora responded. The Bird Nerd Herd now has a new Big Day PR of 108 bird species and learned another step or two of how a big day should be done. The marshy jewel that has been the subject of many chapters in my birding stories, DeBordieu, did not disappoint as usual. It would not of been possible if we did not have the golf, perfect chasing birds in DeBordieu:

  Here is the chronological order of bird species we saw on our Big Day.(Thanks Lucas)

Huntington Beach State Park

1. Great Blue Heron
2. Clapper Rail
3. Hooded Merganser
4. Sedge Wren
5. Snowy Egret
6. Little Blue Heron
7. Greater Yellowlegs
8. Virginia Rail
9. Tricolored Heron
10. Tree Swallow
11. American White Pelican 
12. White Ibis
13. Ring-billed Gull
14. Double-crested Cormorant
15. Forster's Tern
16. American Crow
17. Boat-tailed Grackle
18. Yellow-rumped Warbler
19. Carolina Chickadee
20. Mourning Dove
21. Northern Cardinal
22. Tufted Titmouse
23. Carolina Wren
24. White-throated Sparrow
25. Dunlin
26. Willet
27. Semipalmated Plover
28. Northern Gannet
29. Sanderling
30. Red Knot
31. Bonaparte's Gull
32. Brown Pelican
33. Pied-billed Grebe
34. Herring Gull
35. Horned Grebe
36. White-winged Scoter
37. Black Scoter
38. Ruddy Turnstone
39. Red-breasted Merganser
40. Surf Scoter
41. Common Loon
42. Common Eider
43. Red-throated Loon
44. Savannah Sparrow
45. Great Egret
46. Black-bellied Plover
47. Short-billed Dowitcher
48. American Kestrel
49. Belted Kingfisher
50. Lesser Scaup
51. Brown Thrasher
52. Blue Jay
53. Northern Mockingbird
54. Northern Flicker
55. Mute Swan
56. American Wigeon
57. Gadwall
58. Redhead
59. Northern Shoveler
60. Green-winged Teal
61. Blue-winged Teal
62. Lesser Yellowlegs
63. American Coot
64. Ruddy Duck
65. Greater Scaup
66. Bald Eagle
67. Turkey Vulture
68. American Robin
69. Golden-crowned Kinglet
70. Osprey
71. Blue-headed Vireo
72. Black-and-white Warbler

Debordieu Colony

73. Black Vulture
74. Wood Stork
75. Eastern Towhee
76. Wood Duck
77. Red-bellied Woodpecker
78. Chipping Sparrow
79. Red-tailed Hawk
80. Red-winged Blackbird
81. Song Sparrow
82. Killdeer
83. Seaside Sparrow
84. Common Gallinule
85. American Black Duck
86. Brown-headed Nuthatch
87. Eastern Bluebird
88. American Goldfinch
89. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
90. Pine Warbler
91. Common Grackle
92. White-breasted Nuthatch
93. Fish Crow
94. House Finch
95. European Starling
96. Cedar Waxwing
97. Eastern Phoebe
98. Anhinga
99. Eurasian Collared-Dove
100. Black-crowned Night-heron
101. Mottled Duck  
102. House Wren
103. Great Black-backed Gull
104. Downy Woodpecker
105. Least Sandpiper
106. Northern Harrier
107. Eastern Screech-Owl
108. Sora

A "Big" Weekend in Georgetown County, SC Day 1 & 2: Western Kingbird

Day 1:
The sun was dropping over the marshy pond full of Widgeon and Redheads feeding and as Sam, Lucas, and I piled our scopes in the golf cart; I began to reminisce on how visiting DeBordieu helped me find my interest in birds. This small, private beach club community has always been a marshy jewel nestled on South Carolina's coast in Georgetown County filled with endless coastal marshes, beaches, and pine forests. My family has been coming here all my life, and my grandparents have a perfect sized villa. This beach is where I caught the case of the "birding bug". I started chasing birds here, literally, on bike from Ospreys plummeting into the water, to spotting my first hooded merganser, and identifying my first bird using a Peterson Field Guide in 7th grade: a Great-crested Flycatcher.  As I got older and my interest grew, DeBordieu became more than just an annual beach trip destination, but a birding destination. For my 16th birthday last year, I asked my Dad for my present to be a trip to DeBordieu, and invited my two friends, Sam and Lucas. This was the first time the bird nerd herd birded together, and it was a success with 91 species for the weekend. Our first rarity chase too, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, all the way to Charleston.

We all three return back to DeBordieu for another weekend, this time we'll be doing a Big Day in Georgetown County on Sunday. Now I pull the golf cart off the paved road onto the dirt road that leads to the boat ramp offering a better view of a marsh. We started playing rail calls and a few Clapper Rails chattered back, a secretive marsh chicken-like bird. Then Sam and I turn for a moment away from the marsh and a suspicious mockingbird sized avian flutters from a bush. I shrugged my shoulders thinking it was just a mockingbird, but Sam and Lucas bolt to catch a better look the bird perched on a wire over the road. Wait, mockingbirds don't have a yellow belly? That's no Mockingbird, it's a Western Kingbird!

A lemon yellow belly and ashy gray head. Photo by Lucas Bobay.

A tyrant flycatcher that breeds in the grasslands out West. Western Kingbirds are known wanderers on the East Coast during Fall and Winter. With our first afternoon and only about 45 minutes of birding, we already have a self-found, random rarity in the bag and my 100th specie of bird this year! Lucas was able to snap a picture before the kingbird quickly flew out of sight. We headed back towards the villa and heard a small and secretive Sedge Wren calling from the marsh, the second lifer for us all. We ended our day over a plate of spare ribs with satisfaction in our stomachs and on our life lists. Before we went to bed, we took the golf cart to call for owls at a nearby pine forest. Two Eastern Screech Owls responded with their famous trill. The screech owl was an owl that I missed last year, so I went to bed with three lifers. What a perfect first night.

Day 2:
The next morning we would start our day just in DeBordieu to scout for good places on our Big Day, starting with a walk on the beach out to a nearby inlet. However, we wake up to an uncharged golf cart from a storm that zapped the houses fuse box. Luckily, I have plan B: a supportive Dad who is willing to drive his son and two friends at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday! Finally we arrived at the entrance of the path. The path meandered through a shrubby, maritime forest and with patches of prickly pear cacti that always get stuck in our shoes. We started our 2-mile hike down the beach and came across a large congregation of Sanderlings, mostly Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitchers, Black-bellied Plovers, and a Red Knot. The Red Knot was a lifer for the whole group and is a species known for concentrating in large numbers in the Delaware Bay to feed on horseshoe crab eggs during spring migration and winters father south. We made it to the inlet to meet large gusts, strong enough to burn your face. Next was a flock of American White Pelicans across the inlet and a flock of American Oystercatchers that just landed on the beach.

A noteworthy shorebird with a boldly, patterned plumage.

After the Oystercatchers flew off, we left the sheltered sand dunes and headed back down the beach to escape the strong gusts. Once the inlet trip was over and after lunch we went and explored a patch of beautiful Long-leaf Pine Forest for Red-cockaded woodpeckers or a Bachman's Sparrow.

Longleaf Pine savanna is a disappearing habitat that used to span across the southeast, only 4% of its historic range remains.

I've birded this patch of woods before and found a Red-cockaded woodpecker on Memorial day weekend. We followed a dirt road that meandered through the forest and followed it. As beautiful as it was, it quickly yielded no success. We ran into Brown-headed Nuthatches, Towhees, and a House Wren no new birds unfortunately.

After the pine forest, we drove in our golf cart to a roosting spot for Black-crowned Night Herons we saw last year. We pulled the golf cart to the side of the road, and as we walked towards the edge of the pond, two Eurasian Collared Doves, an introduced species of dove that has been expanding its range throughout the Southeast, flushed out of a tree. We then caught a glimpse of the Night Herons hunkered behind dense shrubs. The rest of the scouting day we picked out Mottled ducks and a Red-breasted Merganser from a pond. We came home to a pot of shrimp and grits and hit the haystack shortly after and set our alarms for 4:30 a.m. We had places to be and birds to see. Let's hope we have a "Big" day.