My first summer trip to Hatteras

I had so much fun on my last Hatteras trip that when a friend invited me down to his house in Frisco for the weekend, I just couldn't say 'no.'

Hatteras is a whole different world of birds in summertime.  But vacationers also flock from all over the place for the abundant sand, warm water and legendary fishing.

Before I even got there though I saw a couple Gull-billed Terns while crossing the bridge over Oregon Inlet.  My 250th bird in North Carolina!

And then less than an hour later I found a group of Black-necked Stilts at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge for my 300th United States (and ABA) bird!

White-winged Dove

Far more unusual than the stilts (which are, afterall, featured on the Pea Island NWR logo) was a White-winged Dove I found in the Live Oak tunnel that covers part of the nature trail.  On my trip back through on Sunday I stopped in again and found the White-winged Dove again, this time at the bird feeders by the refuge office.  It was doing its best Mourning Dove impression, but the grackles weren't buying it. 

I last saw a White-winged Dove just minutes away, as the bird flies, during the Pea Island Christmas bird count last December (see my post for the photo etc.). But seeing one in June is probably even more unexpected than in December.  As far as I know (though I admit I don't know all that much; somebody set me straight) this is the first June record for NC.  I did find a record for June in South Carolina from 1998 on the Carolina Bird Club Website.

Anyway, I seem to have an affinity for finding this species.

On to Hatteras...

Great Shearwater

I was able to get a last-minute spot on Brian Patteson's boat and go out to the gulf stream on Saturday.  Conditions where perfect: partly cloudy with mild seas, though I have been told that a rough ocean often seems to bring out better birds.  Indeed, the birding was pretty average.  It could have been worse, but we certainly didn't see anything super-rare (3 White-tailed Tropicbirds were seen on the Sunday trip for example).  But these pelagic trips are always a roll of the dice, and given that this was my first one in summer, I really couldn't lose.  Great Shearwater, Audubon's Shearwater, Black-capped Petrel and a Pomarine Jaeger were all life birds for me, while Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Band-rumped Storm Petrel and Corey's Shearwater were added to my ABA area list.

Short-finned Pilot Whale

Unfortunately, my camera is pretty terrible at taking pictures of things against the ocean, so I didn't get any great bird photos.  I found napping passengers made for much more easily captured subjects (see Ali Iyoob's facebook page).  My luck capturing marine mammals wasn't that great either, especially given that many came swimming right up to the front of the boat to ride the bow.  We saw Bottlenose and Spotted Dolphins; and Cuvier's Beaked and Long-finned Pilot Whales.

After we disembarked Ali, Nathan Swick and I checked the salt pond near cape point hoping to see the Red-billed Tropicbird that had been reported there the day before.  We found no sign of any ABA logos, but there were Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Short-billed Dowitchers, a White-rumped Sandpiper, Piping Plovers, Black Skimmers, an American Oystercatcher and Least Terns all over the place to name a few of the more interesting birds present.  I checked for the tropicbird again the next day (three times just to be sure) without luck while Ali and Nate were out at sea busily seeing a few White-tailed Tropicbirds.

My stop to refind the White-winged Dove at Pea Island NWR earned me one final life bird (#1510!) for the trip in a pair of Red-necked Phalaropes on North Pond.  How convenient.  This was a pelagic species I was disappointed not to see from the boat.

Black Bear

In hopes of seeing a Glossy Ibis, I stopped into Alligator River NWR on my way back towards Durham.  Access to all the impoundment areas seemed to be blocked, but I was rewarded for my trouble by my first ever sighting of a wild Black Bear.  As I was watching in through binoculars from my car I glanced forward to see an adult Wild Turkey hustling across the road in front of me!

What a great trip: 6 new life birds and almost as many new mammals!  I'm sure I'll be back for another visit before long.

This weekend I'm off to the NC mountains where I have never before birded.  Getting 6 life birds may not be possible, but I hope to find at least a few!

My first trip to Hatteras

I tagged along with Jeff Pippen and 9 Nicnats (What's a Nicnat?) for my first ever trip to Cape Hatteras and my first North American pelagic birding trip.

We saw a Great Horned Owl fly across highway 64 around dusk on the ride down, which made the state list significance of my recent birding in Charlotte all the less.

So far so good.

Saturday morning we were up before dawn to meet Brian Patteson at the dock. We had tallied six gull species before even leaving the sound (the four you would expect plus Laughing and Lesser Black-backed). I knew our next gull would be a lifer for me.

I have a bad habit of whispering bird sightings rather than calling them out. And I mumbled to nobody in particular “hey check out this white gull…” Luckily Jeff was there to shout “ICELAND GULL!!!”

It turned out that there was really no need for urgency as there was almost always an Iceland Gull following the boat throughout the day and we saw four or five individuals.

Photographing a moving bird from a moving boat is not an art form I have perfected, so I took this video for those willing to brave the motion sickness.

Unfortunately there were no 8^th, 9^th, 10^th or 11^th gull species on the trip. We did see plenty of alcids including Razorbills (you’ll have to use your imagination) and Dovekies (you’ll have to imagine even harder as I didn’t get any pictures at all).

A steady wind kept us from getting out to the gulf stream, which was a real bummer. We missed a lot of reliable pelagic species: no Red Phalarope, Great Skua or shearwaters of any kind.

I did get three lifers out of the bargain (both alcids and the white gull), and I got to see my first breaching humpback whale (!), so I really can’t complain. I sure left myself with plenty of reasons to return for another voyage.

Sunday we started out birding Cape Point hoping for Western Grebes, rare gulls and Snow Buntings. Despite some generous help from Neal and his four-wheel drive vehicle we struck out on those targets. I later heard that others had found the Snow Buntings as well as Black-headed and Glaucous Gulls...so add those to my list of potential life and state birds missed on the trip. A consolation was a lone female Common Goldeneye at the pond which was NC bird #247 for me.

We birded our way up the banks through several spots over the next few hours seeing all sorts of ducks and shorebirds including a few dozen American Avocets at the Bodie Lighthouse pond. We also got some great looks at a cooperative Merlin in South Bodie.

No crazy rail sightings though. It seems like everybody has a ridiculous rail story for that spot.

We ended the day and our trip at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, which I had driven past several times but never visited. What a place!

Jeff Pippen was able to pick out a distant circling adult Swainson’s Hawk, which I was able to view for several minutes through my scope. Life bird #1458 (thanks Jeff!).

Jeff pretended to get lost on the network of gravel roads when he was really just setting us up for a dusk sighting of a Bobcat! No pictures unfortunately, but this was my first ever sighting of a non-captive non-domestic real wild cat.

On the whole it was a really fun trip. When the birding was slow, the group was there to pick up the slack. I’m already looking forward to next year!

Special thanks to Neal Moore for shuttling us all around Cape Point Sunday am, to Paul Chad for assisting Nicnats with funding and to Jeff Pippen for being a badass trip leader.