Blog Archives

SPRING BIRD CLUB WALK AT RIVER PARK NORTH

4/28/2016

Each year the RIVER PARK NORTH BIRD CLUB holds annual spring and fall bird walks for its members through the park. I was fortunate to attend the spring walk this past Sunday morning and for those of you who missed it, I can only say that you missed one fantastic birding trip!! Our able guide, as usual, was Howard Vainright, the long time President of the bird club. We were fortunate to also have Professor Matt Louder, ECU Biologist on the walk. Matt will be speaking at our May 2 Bird Club meeting about his research on the parasitic relationship between Cowbirds and Prothonotary Warblers, and will be using the park as one site for the study. Between Howard and Matt, with their visual and song ID skills, and Matt’s phenomenal hearing, the birds did not have a chance to escape our detection. It was truly amazing that we were able to ID 55 different species in about 21/2 hours. This is quite a large number for one day in this park. As many of you know, I walk here at least a couple times a week, and I usually count 20-30 each day. What was amazing is that we saw one species, the Swainson”s Warbler, which none of us can ever remember seeing here in the park. For me, this was a life bird! I regret that many of you missed this great opportunity.

Of course, I was not able to get pictures of many of these as lots of them were identified by sound, but I did manage to get a few of them, including the Swainson’s Warbler, but unfortunately the pic is blurry as the bird was several feet back in low bushes and never really “posed” for the camera. You can make out a few details---

In the Gallery below, you can see the pictures I did get. Also, Matt Lowder put together a complete list of the species identified and provided an estimate of how many of each species we saw. You can find that list below the pictures. Be sure to be at the May 2 meeting!

SEE GALLERY BELOW. CLICK ON ANY PIC TO ENLARGE. USE SIDE ARROWS TO MOVE BACK AND FORTH.

From: LOUDERM15@ECU.EDU > > > Here are my estimates and species list from River Park North bird walk Apr 24, 2016: > > 15 Canada Goose > 3 Wood Duck > 3 Mallard > 1 Common Loon -- Flyover > 5 Double-crested Cormorant > 2 Anhinga -- Flyover > 4 Great Blue Heron > 3 Turkey Vulture > 3 Osprey > 1 Red-shouldered Hawk > 1 Red-tailed Hawk > 1 Killdeer > 2 Mourning Dove > 2 Yellow-billed Cuckoo > 1 Barred Owl > 11 Chimney Swift > 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird > 3 Red-bellied Woodpecker > 2 Downy Woodpecker > 1 Pileated Woodpecker > 2 Great Crested Flycatcher > 2 White-eyed Vireo > 2 Yellow-throated Vireo > 4 Red-eyed Vireo > 2 Blue Jay > 4 American Crow > 4 Fish Crow > 1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow > 5 Purple Martin > 4 Barn Swallow > 4 Carolina Chickadee > 4 Tufted Titmouse > 1 White-breasted Nuthatch > 2 Brown-headed Nuthatch > 1 Brown Creeper > 10 Carolina Wren > 20 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher > 1 American Robin > 3 Northern Mockingbird > 3 European Starling > 6 Prothonotary Warbler > 1 Swainson's Warbler > 1 Northern Parula > 55 Yellow-rumped Warbler > 5 Chipping Sparrow > 12 White-throated Sparrow > 1 Summer Tanager > 10 Northern Cardinal > 2 Indigo Bunting > 4 Red-winged Blackbird > 8 Common Grackle > 8 Brown-headed Cowbird > 2 Orchard Oriole > 2 Pine Siskin > 60 American Goldfinch > > Number of Taxa: 55 > > Thanks again! > > > Matt McKim Louder >

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HUNTINGTON BEACH STATE PARK IN APRIL.

4/25/2016

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I had not been to this favorite location in early spring and wanted to check out the warblers and other spring birds.In summer, fall, and winter the shorebirds and wading birds along with waterfowl are always available. The spring migration was an unknown to me. I was able to see a few warblers including the Black and White, the Common Yellowthroat, the Yellow-rumped, the Prothonotary, and the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. The Painted Buntings were already present and busily nest-building. Talking with local regular park visitors, I learned that the variety of warblers here is limited and fall is the best time to see them.

I spent most of my time on what is called the “straight road” which is the original driveway from hwy. 17 in to the front of the old Atalaya mansion which is now deserted and is a historic site which can be visited. This road, now a trail, is about 3/4 mile long and is bordered by a large freshwater pond on the north side and a water filled swamp on the south side. The elevated road is bordered by thick bushes, reeds, and mixed pine/hardwood forest. This environment is ideal for nesting waterfowl and wading birds, as well as woods birds. Here I saw Common Yellowthroats, Orchard Orioles, Prothonotary Warblers,Black and White Warblers, Cardinals,Bluejays, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wrens, Common Moorhens, Green Herons, Little Blue Herons, Great Blue Herons, Great and Snowy Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons, Mallards, Wood Ducks, Red-winged Blackbirds, Coots, Least Bitterns, and Pied-bill Grebes. This is a very interesting area and there are always birds flying in and out. In April many of these birds were nesting and I was able to get some pics of nests, eggs, and babies. The only precaution here is to watch out for the Alligators. They regularly cross the path which is about 20 feet wide from one side to the other. You can see their “slides” and stay away from them, but you have to watch!! See pictures below of one that came across while I was there and for a time seemed to be coming up the road toward me!!!

The 2 days spent here were great as always. My wife, Glyn and I also saw a great show, Hot Jersey Nights, featuring Frankie Valle and the 4 Seasons tunes at the Palace Theater in Myrtle Beach. If you are in the area, I recommend this show. And, of course we ate great seafood at the Lee’s Country Kitchen and the Wicked Tuna in Murrell’s Inlet, two of our favorite restaurants.

For more information on the Huntington Beach State Park, see the main page on this site. See pictures below taken on this trip.

SEE GALLERY BELOW. CLICK ANY PIC TO ENLARGE. USE SIDE ARROWS TO MOVE BACK AND FORTH.

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RIVER PARK NORTH-GREENVILLE, NC--SPRING MIGRATION, OWLS, OSPREYS.

4/13/2016

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I have walked several times here in my home park over the past couple of weeks, really trying to capture some pics of our usual spring migrants, especially hoping to see warblers. But my luck has not been good--so far the only migrants I have seen are one Prairie Warbler, and a bunch of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. The park has been loaded with Yellow-rumped Warblers--I think they have taken over the place as the first picture below indicates. They seem to have appointed themselves official greeters for the park.

I have had my first encounter here with a Great Horned Owl, who surprised me flying off a low perch right over my head, then landing through the woods about 50 yards away. I could barely see him with no clear shot with my camera to get a good picture--but I did manage a few shots so that you can at least make out that it is an owl.

Today(April 13), I did get an interesting shot of one of our Osprey residents--he was perched in a tree on the back pond with what appeared to be the remains of a fairly large bass which he was eating. These guys are super fishermen and are the envy of all our two-legged anglers!! In the pics below, you can see the fish pinned to the limb under his right foot.

I keep hoping for the warblers to come through---maybe in the next couple of weeks---See pics below from my recent walks----

SEE GALLERY BELOW. CLICK ON ANY PIC TO ENLARGE. USE SIDE ARROWS TO MOVE BACK AND FORTH.

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OLD WAYNESBORO PARK IN APRIL

4/12/2016

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On the past couple of visits here recently, I had hoped to see migrating warblers. But the only migrating bird I saw was a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher. There were many signs of spring however, with many butterflies and some spring flowers. On my last visit on April 11, as I entered the park in my car, I was surprised by what appeared to be about 50 Goldfinch feeding on the ground by the entry road. I was able to get a couple of pictures before another car came by and flushed the entire flock. Most of what I saw and was able to photograph are resident birds. I am hoping that as we get further into the spring migration season, there will be more warblers in this area. For a full description of this site, see its main page here. See photos below from my last couple of visits here.

SEE GALLERY BELOW. CLICK ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE. USE SIDE ARROWS TO MOVE BACK AND FORTH.

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APRIL VISIT TO THE RACHEL CARSON NATIONAL RESERVE AT BEAUFORT, NC.

4/5/2016

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I visited this beautiful barrier island coastal reserve on April 4, 2016. This was my first visit to this outstanding National Reserve which has an excellent reputation for its great shorebird population. For a complete description of this Reserve, please see the main page for the site under National Refuges . I used the Island Adventures Ferry Service at the Beaufort, NC waterfront to access Carrot Island, where the primary trails are located. The ferry trip across Taylor’s Creek takes only 10 minutes, and they will then pick you up at the time you want. Because I was interested in shorebirds and wading birds, I walked the circle trail which goes around the perimeter of Carrot Island(about a 2 mile trek). At low tide, this trail puts you at the edges of the many mud flats, and allows you to walk across the shallows to Bird Island, a treeless sandbar to the south of Carrot Island. Bird Island is about 3 miles long, and less than a half-mile wide.

As soon as I came to the first oyster beds on the edge of Carrot Island, there were Oystercatchers sitting on the beds. In the mudflats, there were Plovers, Yellowlegs, Sanderlings, Willets, Dunlins, Gulls, Sandpipers, Ibis, and Herons. Terns were diving on small fish just offshore. I also saw Mergansers out on Bird Island. I walked to the west point of Bird Island, where I was told Black Skimmers hang out, but they were not home while I was there, There were birds all over the mud flats and along the sandy beaches. There were so many, it was hard to know where to point my camera! There was also the herd of Feral horses who live on the islands. It is recommended that you stay at least 50 feet away from them for safety, but about 20 of them decided to take the path I was on going in the opposite direction--so I moved about 10 feet off the path, and they single-filed past me, without so much as giving me a look--I was ignored! I did get a few pictures of them.

I was very impressed with the density and variety of birds here. If you are a bird photographer, you will love this site because of the numbers of birds and the photogenic environment they are in. I spent about 3 hours walking both Carrot and Bird Islands, and though I was tired, I hated to leave, but my scheduled time had arrived, so I met the boat and headed back across the creek to meet Glyn, my patient wife who is my taxi service and chief cheerleader-- We had a date for lunch at the Sanitary Restaurant in nearby Morehead City--great seafood!!
To see photos taken on this trip, see gallery below.