A Birding Blog - Yearly Trip to Mattamuskeet and North Carolina's Outer Banks

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...

Outer Banks Birding Trip -- Day 2 - the Outer Banks and RAIN!!

 As you can see the weather was beyond terrible for our second day of birding on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  I hadn't known that there were so many wildlife refuges despite having vacationed there for years.  All of these refuges are south of Nags Head and included Bodie Island (above the view from the lookout), Pea Island, Oregon Inlet, and Buxton Woods.  Most of the ducks in the picture are Red-headed Ducks.

Our first stop was the Bodie Island Lighthouse.  There is a bit of a shelter there so we were not standing in the pouring rain.  The light was beyond awful and all the speckles you see in the pictures is rain.  Despite that, we saw lots and lots of Northern Pintails including this nice male and female.

We also saw lots of American Avocets including these two who were fairly close -- notice all the raindrops!  It was very early in the morning and there was no light to speak of so a good thing that the birds are black and white!

Another of the Avocets standing in the shallow water.

One of the birders spotted this American Bittern in the high grass.  He actually was more visible than they usually are because the grass colors were not the usual tan.  The picture is not great but at least you can see him!

 

After returning to the bus with a damp camera, the day went downhill as my telephoto lens fogged up (as everyone's did) but mine did between the filter and the lens.  The filter has somehow gotten jammed on so I was out of luck for pictures except those I could get with my little

point and shoot camera. (I always have backup!!)

This is the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

We next stopped at the Coast Guard Station where we saw some gulls and a Lesser Yellowlegs.  We barely got out of the bus though as weather was terrible.

Not on the agenda, but we made a quick stop at the south end of the Oregon Inlet bridge where we spotted some Semi-palmated Plovers, Dunlins, Greater Yellowlegs and an Eastern Meadowlark.  It was pouring rain by now, my good camera had fogged over completely but I did get a couple of pictures with my "point and shoot".  These are the Dunlins.

Here is a closeup of one of the Dunlins.

He was quite a distance away but this is the Eastern Meadowlark.  Even without enhancement, you can see the bright yellow breast.  I haven't seen one of these since living in Batavia many years ago!

I did not venture any further as the rain was getting heavier but three of the group went closer to the water and spotted a Dovekie!!  This is a rare occurence close to shore in NC and was a Life bird for our wildlife leader, Andy Fairbanks.  I had seen one in late March in 2013 down at Ft. Fisher or I would have been really disappointed not to see this one!!

Next we headed to the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge but the weather was too bad to trek the entire area but we were not disappointed in our sightings which resulted in a life bird for some of our party.  This was the second time this day we saw a large flock of Red-headed Ducks.  There were 1000's at Bodie Island out pretty far.  In the middle of this flock, however, you can see one lone Lesser Scaup.  He is a bit smaller than the Redheads and has a smaller (and black) head.  I also saw one lone female as well.

There was a large flock of Ruddy Ducks as well.

Here is a poor shot of the life bird for a few of our group -- a White Pelican.  I had no idea that some wintered in NC.  We saw quite a few of these huge birds.  I had seen many in Florida however and there are occasional sightings even more local to here.

Some Whitetails wandered by wondering what was going on!

This is the famous Cape Hatteras lighthouse located in Buxton.  Last year there was a Snowy Owl that spent quite a bit of time there.

After lunch in Buxton, we headed to the Cape Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry where we would spend the next hour before arriving at our motel in Ocracoke.

We saw quite a few Northern Gannets on our ferry ride.

The ferry blew its horn and this enormous flock of Cormorants flew out of the water!!  It looked like a black island.  There are certainly large flocks of birds this time of year in the Outer Banks.  The crossing was a little rough as you can see by the whitecaps.

Finally we arrived in beautiful Ocracoke just as the sky was beginning to clear.  We settled into our motel rooms and we headed out for dinner (my second blue crab cake dinner in two days!!).