Saturday, January 8, 2011

An Afternoon Walk at the Carolina Beach Lake

Okay, I have no idea what this sleeping bird is! It appears to be some sort of heron and my best guess was an immature yellow crowned night heron but I may be way off. He simply refused to wake up and was quite a distance away.




It's hard to call this a lake as it is really a small pond with a nice walkway around it (less than a mile) but there are always a variety of ducks and gulls there. The water has been relatively high lately when I drove by so I thought today would be a good day to take my camera and see what was there! Imagine my surprise when I found that the lake was almost completely drained and mostly just black muck remained. However, the good news was that the birds just loved it!! I got closer to some species than I ever have before (they had nowhere to run and hide). There were a plethora of birds of all kinds and even one I hadn't seen before! I felt like I was back in Florida as there were herons, snowy and great egrets, ibis and lots of Coots!


This is a pair of Lesser Scaups. Again according to my Stokes Field Guide to Birds, they can be differentiated by the shape of their heads and beaks with the Lesser Scaups having a peak on their heads while the Greater Scaups don't. I see the Greater Scaups on Lake Ontario. The male has the prettier black and white plummage.



I couldn't resist these Canada Geese who common as they are, still are quite a sight close up.

These are the American Coots which I have seen many times but usually at quite a distance.



Many many coots!



This is one of the Ruddy Ducks that were constantly diving while I was there. Here he perked up his tail just for picture taking.





Again another Ruddy Duck.






Even a Turkey Vulture flew right over my head!






Of course a snowy egret with his reflection in what little water there was.
There were also a lot of pelicans, gulls, a tri-color heron, fish crows and cowbirds. It was a nice afternoon treat!

9 comments:

  1. Your sleeping bird looks like a Limpkin?

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  2. That was one of my thoughts as well except they don't seem to be common up here and supposedly the heron in its juvenile phase looks like one so it was a guess. Saw lots of palm warblers, pine warblers and Savannah sparrows today on my walk down at Ft. Fisher.

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  3. Your pictures are wonderful! I am so jealous being stuck up in the very very snowy north!

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  4. I'm not sure what species the picture is of, but I do know that it is beautiful! Oh, and to the previous commenter, don't be jealous! I lived in ND for the longest time and now I'm in Carolina Beach. You should come down...it is a beautiful place. I found a link of pet friendly vacation rentals, if you decide to bring your four-legged friend too (mine insists on going anywhere I go!).

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  5. John, it is a juvenile black crowned night heron which I identified a few weeks later when it final awoke. I have seen them down there many times since then but never an adult!

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  6. I am not in to photography but i love seeing your picture,

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