Black Scoters and Razorbills

Instead of heading to my usual Carolina Beach Lake, I decided to head down to Ft. Fisher and walk back to the secret beach to see if I could see the Razorbills or something else interesting!!  I was rewarded although it was again late in the day and the birds were pretty far off!  There were several female Black Scoters by the coquina rock beach.

The coquina rock was formed during the Pleistocene era and is found primarily in Fl but obviously there is some in NC!  It is a sedimentary rock made up of shells.

This is a Great Cormorant which I saw yesterday.  There are two of these Cormorants sitting on this matched set of old posts for a pier that was washed away during one of the hurricanes in Carolina Beach.  Usually we see the Double Crested Cormorants but this one is a bit bigger and I think darker.

I was very happy to wander back to Ft. Fisher, running into Bruce Smithson again and spotting not only two Razorbills but a Horned Grebe (I didn't get a picture of this one as it was just too far out).  The two Razorbills were literally riding the surf, diving frequently.  Bruce said he had never seen ones in so close to the shore!  It was very late in the day so again the light wasn't great but you can certainly recognize it!!

The wave is just about ready to break over him in this shot!

Here are the two Razorbills.  These are not frequent visitors down here but have been spotted consistently down in Sanibel as well.  

There was a huge flock of Double Crested Cormorants that flew overhead.  The weather has been very nice with lots of sunshine which makes even the cooler days feel warm as long as the wind keeps down.