Trip to Mattamuskeet and Pocosin National Wildlife Refuges Part 1 -- Mattamuskeet

The City of Wilmington Dept of Parks and Recreation sponsored this wonderful two day trip up north about three hours visit the Mattamuskeet and Pocosin National Wildlife Refuges.  It was a wonderful treat with two very full days of bird watching and Black Bear sighting.  You can see from the picture how beautiful the weather was -- we really lucked out as it is ugly out today!!  This is just a view of the habitat.  Lake Mattamuskeet is a very large very shallow lake so a nice habitat for the "puddle" ducks that just dip in to get their food rather than diving.  The first day we focused on Lake Mattamuskeet and stopped several times to do some bird watching.  There were scores of Black Ducks, Blue Wing Teals, Gadwalls, American Widgeons, Ruddy Ducks, Pied Billed Grebes, Ringneck Ducks, Green Wing Teals, American Coots,  Tundra Swans, Canada Geese as well as a few Red-headed ducks, Buffleheads and Scaup.  Somewhere in my pictures is a flock of Wood Ducks flying as well but I haven't found that one yet!!  I did see one Pin-tailed Duck but was too far away for pictures as were many of the ducks.  The light was unfortunately from the wrong
 direction a well!

This was an adult Black Crowned Night Heron.

At the pump station, there were lots of vultures and I finally can identify the difference between Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures when they are flying overhead.  They do hang out together.  These are three of the Black Vultures.  There were several others in this tree and surrounding trees and there were Turkey Vultures circling overhead as well.  I think the Black Vultures are a lot more attractive than the Turkey Vultures.  When in the air, they have much shorter tails than the Turkey Vultures and only  have white on the wing tips instead of the whole bottom of the wing like the Turkey Vultures.

A flock of Gadwalls taking off!

This is a Ringneck Duck in the rear. Not sure what the forward duck is but could be Green or Blue Winged Teal.  They were all at quite a distance and the light wasn't the best.

I think this is a flock of Ringneck Ducks very far away.

One of the Ruddy Ducks with his tail flipped up.

We saw a lot of Tundra Swans but they kept their distance.  Since this swan has some grey, he is still a bit of a juvenile.  We saw some that had a lot of grey.

We also managed to see two Grey Fox.  I had seen them only once before running through my yard here in Kure!!  This was taken through the window on the bus.

We headed to our digs for the night which was a 4H center in Columbia, NC which was really nice.  Mike Campbell who was one of our wildlife guides did an awesome presentation on the status and facts about the Black Bear which we hoped to spot the next day.  We fell into bed, setting our clocks for 4:30 so we could be on the road first thing in the morning!! Both Mike and Andy Fairbanks were super knowledgeable and wonderful guides for our trip. So far it far exceeded my expectations!

The Arboretum and Airlie Gardens

We have had guests for almost a week now with some overlap between the two sets!!  My neighbors from the north came last week and we wanted to find some new places for them to visit.  They had come down last  year and we had taken them to many of Wilmington's attractions.  One of my neighbors down here suggested that the Arboretum was well worth a visit if we hadn't been there so that was our first stop.  It is located very close to Airlie Gardens.  You never know what you will find this time of year as it is still a bit early for all the spring flowers.  This is a view into the very lovely Japanese Garden there.  The Arboretum was lovely and is a free attraction as well.  It was a nice start to our beautiful day.

This is a view into the large pond that greets you.

The pond was full of carp in all colors and very large.  They obviously expected us to feed them as they all swam over when we appeared by the side.  I liked the stars that formed from the sun shining on the water!

We then headed to Airlie Gardens which is always a "must see" here in Wilmington.  It is a gorgeous place with old Live Oaks, gardens, walkways and birds.  We actually discovered a path that we had never taken before and it was my favorite so far!  This is a view into one of the ponds.

The camelias were pretty much in full bloom with lots of varieties as always.  These camelia gardens are close to 100 years old.  

I even like looking under the bushes to see the petals from the flowers that have fallen probably that night!

There were lots of turtles out sunning on this lovely day.

Just a closer look at all the turtles (probably yellow bellied sliders).

There is one pond that has many species of ducks on it and we were not disappointed.  They do keep their distance but we were rewarded with some nice views on our new path which goes all the way around the pond.  In this picture you can see Scaups, Widgeons, Gadwalls and Hooded Mergansers, malles and females of all!

A lovely male American Widgeon with his irridescent green head and a white stripe down the front of his face and just a touch of black on the end of his bill.

A male Hooded Merganser with his female companion not far behind.

The female Hooded Merganser all fluffed up.

The male and female Gadwalls were there as well.  We saw all the indigenous ducks except the Wood Duck and the Green Winged Teal which has eluded me.

As I was taking so many duck pictures, the others were resting on a bench waiting for me.  Here are Sharon and Warren.

Secret Beach Pictures

Hard to believe, but yesterday was one of the first days where the tide was low and there were birds to be found down on my secret beach, so named because it has a public entrance but is effectively hidden so you kind have to know about it!  It butts up to the Ft. Fisher beaches and for some reason is covered with sandstone and seaweed at low tide.  It is now almost unwalkable at high tide because Hurricane Irene this year washed away a lot of beach.  


These are one of my favorite beach birds -- the Ruddy Turnstones with their bright orange legs.  There were a lot of them on the beach.

There were a lot of the common Willest as well.  I keep hoping for a more interesting sandpiper!

All the Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones and Willets were in a feeding frenzy today.  

Of course all my Buffleheads were offshore in two rather large groupings.  I had hoped to get a better picture of the Black Scoters but they weren't there.  Instead there was one Surf Scoter but I couldn't get a good enough picture to post, only good enough to identify.  I think I have seen all the different varieties of Scoter now although I haven't seen the White Winged one down here, only in Rochester.  I think the Surf Scoter was the unidentified brown bird from the day before as well.

I am determined to get borders done on existing tops before I launch into a full scale attempt to design and finish the next Serendipity quilt.  This was my first attempt at borders for the first quilt.  The outside fabric was just too busy and didn't work although the color was good.  It was just too medium a value.

I finally decided on using the dark green that is in the quilt.  Luckily I think I have enough of it.  It is just a solid but helps to frame it.  I have just enough of the other two (the red and the pink) to make the skinny inside borders -- the red being a little wider.  Not only will I be using fabric I brought down, but I literally won't have any scraps left after doing these quilts.  The quilt police will probably get me for adding seams in my borders though.

Ducks and Quilts

Hard to show the whole quilt because of the lack of decent design walls but have added some borders to the last Serendipity quilt.  I added medium blue strips to either side and then a thin strip of the darker blue and then a slightly wider strip of a navy blue and then a four inch strip of the fabric I made last year.  I think it calms it down a bit and frames it.  I will use the navy blue for the binding as well and probably in the corners.

These are the background hexagons for the next Serendipity quilt.  I have decided to use a version of the block I used for the last quilt as it is the most complex of the blocks in the two books and therefore has the most design possibility.

They are hard to see but in among the Buffleheads, there are Black Scoters (with a bright orange lump on their bills).  There were both males and females.  There is also a mysery brown duck with is to the right kind of in the middle.  These ducks were way out this afternoon!
It wasn't until I got home that I could identify the Scoters.  If you click on this, you can probably spot them in the middle back.

You can see a little bit more of the Black Scoter males and females here.  The males have that orange lump while the females just have a whitish head and a brown body.  The ducks with the striking white are of course Buffleheads.

Duck Soup....

Got a big kick out of all the ducks hanging out together giving you a good view of all the mallard and black duck varieties -- left to right, Pekin (domestic white) duck, female mallard, an Indian running duck (domestic non-flying duck), an American Black Duck, a White Crested (domestic) duck and then a male mallard.  A few minutes later, an American Coot swam by as well.

These are the first of the American Coots on the scene!  There were three altogether today but in another couple of months there will be a huge flock on the lake.  You could tell the lake was being pumped out again.  It is either because of the algae bloom or a fear that the tropical system heading our way will cause flooding here again.

These were really far away but I think they are White Winged Scoters from the white patches on their face but I could be wrong here.

I think this is a female Blue Winged Teal but could be very wrong here.  In another picture, there is a distinctive light blue wing patch.  Hopefully I will get pictures closer as time goes on.  Let me know if I am really off base here!


There was one other duck which I think might be a Lesser Scaup from the shape of the head (and the fact I have seen lots of those here).  Last winter, I think I saw almost every domestic duck native to the area, even some of the more  unusual ones.

Yellowbelly Sliders and Pied-Billed Grebes

Carolina Beach Lake just never disappoints me!  Each day I go down for my walk, there are different things to observe even though I am always sure there will be nothing!  Today was another beautiful day down here and as the weather is supposed to deteriorate tomorrow,  went for my walk a little earlier than usual.  I was very surprised to see these two Pied-Billed Grebes swimming and diving on the south side of the lake.  It's like the birds all know to have a different species each day and hopefully as winter comes closer, there will be more resident birds like the Coots.

Looking over to where the Great Egret was the other day, I thought I spotted some rather large turtles but they were pretty distant.  Sure enough, looks like there are three here, each at least a foot long if not longer so among the largest of their species.  I am assuming that these are the same kind that are in the following picture -- the Yellowbelly Slider which is not particular about its habitat!  

Still more turtles on one of the side ponds at Carolina Beach Lake.  You can see the yellow belly and the stripes on the neck.  As I got a little closer, they headed for the water!

This is another shot of the two grebes (yes, I am getting desperate!).

Yesterday, I walked down to my "secret beach" which clearly has seen the effects of Hurricane Irene and some of the other tropical systems that have dumped on us.  The steps down to the sand have been replaced -- there used to be about 3 steps which would sometimes be covered by sand -- now there are at least nine steps and you can see that the condos down there are really exposed.  I still love the exposed sandstone beach though and can't wait for the winter waterfowl to come and dig in the seaweed covered sandstone.

This is a closeup of the seaweed which looks like wonderful soft grass.


Later this week, I will continue my quest for Colin Firth.  Thanks to some industrious digging, I know where he might possibly be filming on Wednesday and Thursday  -- I know they are filming in these locations, just don't know whether Colin Firth is in these scenes. Now my old challenge motivation is kicking in!
(When working, bosses learned that if they framed a task as a challenge, I would get pretty persistent and almost always succeed despite the obstacles that were thrown in front of me.)

White Crested Duck - Huh?

Yes, it actually is a different kind of domestic duck although this one was in the wild.  I had seen him the other day but thought it was an immature white (or Pekin) duck but seems it is a separate duck originally bred in Great Britain or Holland but found with different breeders here in the US.  So ta da, the White Crested Duck!  You will note one of the interbreeds behind him -- a white and brown colored duck.  All of the domestic ducks originated from the common mallard so  you see them together often and they interbreed frequently.

Over in one of the swampy areas at Carolina Beach Lake, a Great Egret was feasting on dragonflies I suspect as well as some small fish.

If  you look closely, you can see the lump in his neck, which is some recently swallowed critter -- pretty good sized.

This is the first time I have seen the fountains up and running at Carolina Beach Lake.  It was a gorgeous day and very very comfortable for walking.  While I was there, I checked out the two motels where Colin Firth will supposedly be filming (I hope) in a couple of weeks -- an easy walk from the lake.

Carolina Beach Lake

Well, the weather finally cleared after many many days of clouds and rain so it was time to take a walk.  Last year I walked in the afternoons down at the fresh water lake in Carolina Beach which had been drained.  For a month I saw a spectacular array of birds (January).  Having driven by several times, I hadn't seen any birds but I took my camera anyway and was pleasantly surprised!  Even though a little warm still, it was nice to see the sunshine!


This was a tricolored heron which was fishing on the south side of the lake.  I have seen this species before down here.  They are about halfway between the Great Blue and the Little Blue in size and more colorful (orange on the neck and lots of spots on the chest).

This was an American Black Duck which was frolicking with the white domestic ducks (Pekin) and the mallards.  They share a range with the mallards and do interbreed with them as do the domestic ducks. You do get some very odd combinations of feathers with this interbreeding.  This swimming was taking place in a large puddle rather than the lake.  This lake has a habit of overflowing anytime there is a lot of rain (which there has been this last week) and the pumps were going like crazy to take down the lake level.

You can see the beautiful day here.  The lake is really quite small but it has a nice paved walk and is home to many different kinds of  fresh and salt water birds in the winter.

I loved the reflection of the reeds in the water.


Tomorrow is my 4 hour nature tour of the Black River.  Hopefully the weather will hold and I will get some nice pictures!


I have managed to finish two (7 to go) of the quilts I brought down to machine quilt and so the king sized bed will be prepared for winter!  I am working on one of the "One Block Wonders" now -- I have four to finish.  I am freehand quilting around each of the motifs within the hexagon on this quilt -- looking okay so far!

Just another view of the tricolor heron.  He allowed me to get pretty close!