Ft. Fisher Birds Yet Again!!

Well, since it was a really icky cold day, I decided that there wouldn't be many fisherman at the boat ramp and maybe some birds would show up!!  There were very few but with the binoculars I saw that there were a lot out on the stone wall.  It was a very high tide again and most of the wall was under water but I headed out as far as I could (never did get far enough to see all the birds that I had spotted but was rewarded nonetheless.)  There was a large flock of Dunlins digging around on the Cape Fear River beach.  It is very brackish down this close to the ocean.

Way out I could see that there were quite a few Marbled Godwits but this one fellow was on the beach with the Oystercatchers and Dunlins.  It provided a nicer background for pictures than usual.

You can see how much bigger the Marbled Godwit is than the Dunlins in this picture.  It was windy enough that there were actually waves breaking and some foam which looked like snow (it wasn't).

I think this is my favorite picture ever of one of the Oystercatchers!  I can see he was banded as well in this pic.  There were several down there but he was the only one awake.  Of course some more people came and they all flew away!  You don't usually get to see the bills all nice and sparkly clean as they are usually digging energetically in the muddy shore by the ramp.

Heading back to the ramp, there was still one Red Breasted Merganser present who was diving like crazy -- you can even see his red foot in this pic.  

Two Ruddy Turnstones were pecking at the dock -- not turning stones like usual!  I saw some the day before as well in with the Dowitchers.

Last and least a juvenile Herring Gull.  Have seen a lot of these big birds lately.  There are also a ton of Laughing Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls trying to get hit by the car as you drive through!