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My daughter and I took our annual trip to northeastern North Carolina on a beautiful weekend in late January so that we could catch the Tundra Swans, Northern Pintails and Snow Geese.
A bonus was this lovely sunset over Bodie Lighthouse on the Outer Banks on our first evening.
Our first surprise was driving along Route 264 on our way to Lake Mattamuskeet. There was this temporary pond that was filled to overflowing with Tundra Swans who kept taking off and landing. They were off quite a distance except the flyovers. There were obviously some other ducks in the pond as well but not good enough to identify.
These are two of the Tundra Swans that flew over us. You can see what a beautiful day it was. We also saw a couple of fields filled with Snow Geese off in the distance (I am assuming they were Snow Geese as that is what I usually see off in those fields).
We weren't disappointed at Mattamuskeet as there were hundreds of Northern Pintails. We got a couple of pictures before the bright noon day sun was too much to get decent shots -- a common problem at Mattamuskeet for me. We did see many Northern Shovelers, Blue-winged Teals, and of course lots of American Coots and Canada Geese. We didn't spot our usual Bald Eagles though.
An unusual treat was to see two of those gigantic rat like creatures -- Nutria -- crossing the road and heading into the water. I had seen them before but never out of the water. They have very ugly gigantic blue buck teeth.
This is an American Bittern. We have seen this bird quite often here but he was in a slightly different place. He thinks he is hiding from us! Look at those big yellow feet.
He deserved a closeup in my blog and may find himself in a quilt eventually.
I was surprised by seeing this Meadowlark sitting on top of a small tree off in the field, luckily where the sun was good. What a handsome fellow.
We headed off to the Outer Banks from Mattusmuskeet. We had decided that Pocosin Lakes might be too muddy this year as there had been so much rain a couple of weeks before. Again this was a different angle from Bodie Lighthouse. I liked all the pastels -- my daughter declared sunsets boring.
The next morning we headed out bright and early to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. I might note that these are all national reserves and therefore unmanned while we were there and the only facilities were porta-potties which fortunately all had paper. I had gotten only about 4 hours of sleep because of the couple next door who woke me up at 3 and as I was intending to get up at 6, I didn't ask for another room but read for the rest of the night as there was no hope of sleep. I did take the Do Not Disturb sign off their door the next morning though!
The above picture and this one are of American Widgeons. There was so little wind and it was so early in the morning, the light was absolutely ideal for these wonderful pictures of the ducks with their reflections.
I believe this is a Blue-winged Teal female.
This is one of the many Gadwalls that were there.
This is a Greater Scaup.
This is a male Ruddy Duck. There were a lot more females than male Ruddy Ducks there.
This was just a fun picture of sleeping female Ruddy Ducks and their perfect reflections.
So glad we got to see at least one White Pelican and even got a decent picture before he left! There were a lot of Tundra Swans here as well. Off in the distance at Bodie, there was a large flock of Red-headed Ducks but the light was too poor to get pictures.
We hadn't seen any Bald Eagles until we were driving home on Rt. 64. I was asleep but my daughter spotted this one off in a field on my side of the car! So we saw our Eagle finally. We see one almost every time we go there.
I am getting less mobile each year but hopefully I will get something done about this before the year is out...
This is the Bodie Island Lighthouse at dawn on the second day of our trip up to northern North Carolina to see our winter visitors!
This is an American Kestrel which is a truly beautiful bird in the falcon family. He was quite a distance away and the light is always bad at the one end of Mattamuskeet when the sun is brightly shining. Hopeffully you can see his pretty plumage here.
We also saw a juvenile Bald Eagle, a Cooper's Hawk, a Northern Harrier and a Turkey Vulture at Mattamuskeet. You can always tell when an eagle is around as all the birds fly up off the marsh! We didn't see the eagles at the nest like we did in December though. It was a day for raptors although not a good day for pictures -- we were hoping for more overcast conditions!
We did see a lot of Northern Pintails when we went on the backside trail at Mattamuskeet. There were also a couple of Black Ducks in with them (the duck in the foreground).
This is the beautiful male Northern Pintail.
Here is a pair of the Northern Pintails.
I loved this shot from behind that shows this tail and the wing patterns from behind. There were a LOT of Pintails as you can see and the light was good on the back side of the trail!
We headed over to the Outer Banks that afternoon and went to Bodie Island Lighthouse. Last year there were 1000's of Redheads -- this year none!! This was a group of Lesser Yellowlegs that flew by.
A closeup of one of the Yellowlegs.
I did manage to get a picture of Green-winged Teals despite the rather poor light. There is a broad green stripe on the head of the male.
At the crack of dawn we headed back to Bodie Island and found quite a few Avocets feeding in the low water.
A close-up of one of the Avocets.
This was a picture of two of the Lesser Yellowlegs who were also feeding in the shallow water. Loved seeing their reflections in the still water. I should note that there is a boardwalk that takes you to the observation tower and it was covered with frozen dew. My dear daughter held onto me the whole way so that I didn't take a tumble on this very slippery walk. Luckily there was no wind (like the day before when we froze to death) so even though chilly, it was tolerable.
A close-up of one of the Yellowlegs.
Next we headed down to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and got there just as a nature walk was beginning. There were ducks of almost every variety there that day. I found out later that the local camera club (Cape Fear where I live) was up there for pictures - no wonder we saw so many expensive lens!! This picture has a male Redhead in the foreground as well as an American Coot (always plenty of those). In the background is a female Canvasback.
I must say that in my many visits to this area, I had only seen one female Canvasback and no males before this trip (did see one male down here locally) but this time, there were lots of them at Pea Island. This male posed for me as I was heading back to the car.
More Canvasbacks. There were a lot more females than males.
This is a Wigeonl, another pretty duck.
This is a Ruddy Duck. We saw some of these at Mattamuskeet as well. There were also Northern Shovelers, Lesser Scaups and a Pied-billed Grebe in the mix. Black Ducks were off in the distance and of course a lot of Tundra Swans -- probably more than I had seen there before. We didn't spot any White Pelicans though. A couple of days later, a Snowy Owl was also spotted at Oregon Inlet (nearby this refuge). There is incredible construction going on at the inlet so really impossible to stop although I had wanted to as there is also a Great Horned Owl nest there I wanted to see. They are building a HUGE new bridge that is about four times as high as the current one.
We stopped at Pocosin on the way home and were really surprised to see a field filled with 1000's of Tundra Swans. We had seen other fields filled with white birds on our way to the Outer Banks which I had assumed were Snow Geese. Now I am wondering.... I didn't realize that Tundra Swans grouped like the Snow Geese. The water was high at Pongo Lake so we didn't see a lot of the shore birds you sometimes see -- just lots and lots of Tundra Swans.
Each year I head up to northern North Carolina to see the Snow Geese and Tundra Swans which winter here each year. This year I went with my oldest daughter and we were not disappointed. The only bad thing was the light. The birds seemed to know where to stand so we could not get good pictures!! These were three Tundra Swans flying over early in the morning.
We were lucky enough to see two Bald Eagles way off in the distance in the drive across Lake Mattamuskeet. This was the female on the nest (at least my guess is that it was the female).
This is the male Bald Eagle hanging out on the tree nearest the nest. Lisa spotted both of these birds from the road and made us stop. They were very far away!
This was a female Kingfisher standing guard some distance away. They are hard to capture in pictures.
Two Wigeons also visited the Bald Eagle area.
We spotted this bird in very poor light and tried to guess what it was as all it looked like was a big blue bird in the light. With some tweaking, found it to be a Kestrel which is one of my favorite hawks.
A Great Blue Heron and two Cormorants were resting along the canal.
Driving back to the hotel from Mattamuskeet along the scenic route (the western road from the top of the lake), we found a huge field filled with Snow Geese. It was the first we had seen this year. Last year, I think we only saw one or two.
A closeup of some of the Snow Geese.
First thing the next morning, we went to Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge. Lots and lots of Tundra Swans there and a roar from Pungo Lake with all the other birds although we could not get close to the lake for some reason. We were treated to seeing one bear cross in front of us and five River Otters including a family of four.
Just one of the River Otters swimming away.
This is a picture my daughter too of the family of River Otters. They were very distant and the light was just after dawn. She said they looked like they were posing for a family Christmas card!! I agree! Best picture either of us took from the trip. This is the first time we have seen the otters as well!
Back home, I spotted this immature Red-shouldered Hawk down at Ft. Fisher.
Yesterday, I went down to the pond by the aquarium as someone had spotted some Goldeneye ducks there. I have seen these before but only one other time. This is a picture of several of the Hooded Mergansers which frequent the pond each winter. The males are certainly beautiful.
These are a couple of female Buffleheads, a frequent visitor to our shores and sometimes the pond.
Right in the center of this picture is the 1st year female Common Goldeneye. I was surprised to see how different her coloring was and had to look her up on my bird book to make sure what she was!
There were also a couple of Ruddy Ducks there, another common visitor in the winter.
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