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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.
This was the star of the trip -- a very pudgie Black Bear who took his time lumbering across the field and into the Pocosin. There is a very large population of Black Bears in this part of Eastern North Carolina -- Pocosin and Mattamuskeet Wildlife Refuges. The farmers are allowed to farm this state land if they leave half the corn crop behind which feeds these bears. We saw 20 altogether the day we went. It was a gorgeous couple of days and it was great to be outside even if we had to get up at 4:30 to make sure we were there at dawn which is when you get to see the bears.
The next three pictures were ones my daughter took of a mama bear and the two cubs who were play fighting. Towards mating season, she will push the cubs away and they have to find their own territory as the adult males will kill them if they are near mom.
Although tough to see in detail, there are five Bald Eagles in this tree - two adults on the left and three juveniles on the right. Again, the Eagle was the hawk that we saw the most frequently up here. Northern Harriers were second.
An Eastern Phoebe.
A Palm Warbler.
A lot of Black Ducks.
There are actually three Snipes hidden in the rushes. Can't believe one of our group spotted
these off in the distance!
We didn't see anywhere near as much variety in the ducks as we have in the past. There were Gadwalls and some Northern Pintails but the lighting was impossible to take pictures. An Eagle had scared off many of the ducks just as we got there and the Tundra Swans were really really far out also. There were a few Snow Geese but not the 1000s that are sometimes there -- maybe later. It has been a very very mild fall which I think accounts for the sparcity. I haven't even seen American Coots down at Carolina Beach Lake and they are always there by now. There were quite a few at Mattamuskeet so maybe later!
Mattamuskeet and Pocosin are wildlife refuges in the northeastern part of North Carolina most famous for being the winter home of 75% of the world's population of Tundra Swans and 60,000 Snow Geese. There is also incredible populations of Northern Pintails and other dabbling ducks. Above you can see the work it takes for the Tundra Swans to take off. The noise of the wing flapping can be heard over long distances. This was at Pocosin Lakes.
They are just gorgeous in the air and are constantly talking!
I had gone on this guided trip sponsored by the City of Wilmington and booked through Halyburton Park. My oldest daughter and I had planned to go by ourselves as the trip was supposed to occur when i was in Fl. However, because of the big storm, it was postponed and they were looking for more people. It is always fun to take these trips despite the very early morning rising!!
This is one of the first birds we saw at Mattamuskeet (a large lake which is only about 3 feet deep). It is not common to see these birds out where you can get good pictures. This one darted in and out of the reeds (where they are almost invisible). I had seen them before but this was the closest I have gotten.
Just a closeup of his face and feathers.
There were lots and lots of ducks at Mattamuskeet -- more than I think I have seen before. Here are several Northern Pintails which I think are a gorgeous bird.
Here is a closeup although his tail is in the water.
This is a male and female Northern Shoveler -- another beautiful colorful duck with those huge bills.
These are male Ring-necked Ducks. None of us has ever seen a ring around the neck but there is certainly one around the bill!
This a Northern Harrier who was chasing the ducks and forcing them into the air. You can always tell when either these or the Bald Eagles are around! The Northern Harrier is easy to identify by the wide white stripe on his tail.
We headed on the road that crosses the lake and spotted several Bonaparte Gulls which were standing still in the wind as they weren't strong enough to make much forward motion. It was great for picture taking!
There were also several Forster's Terns hanging out with the Gulls having the same problem.
There were a lot of Coots both at Mattamuskeet and Pocosin Lakes.
For some reason, I mentioned to my friend John (who was in the back seat of the van with my daughter) that I was curious where he had gotten pictures of a Cattle Egret down here. Right around the next corner, what should appear but a Cattle Egret. It is about the size of a Snowy Egret but has a yellow shortened beak, is a little stubbier in stature and has faint beige feathers on its head. They are normally found hanging out inland with cattle (what a surprise there...). It was the first Cattle Egret I have seen outside of Florida.
We didn't see any bears this trip (it was pretty chilly) and missed seeing the bobcat and the river otters by just a little! The bobcat was evidently stalking some Coots that had left the water at Mattamuskeet and the river otters were crossing the road in front of the second van (I was in the first) at Pocosin, My daughter and I will return in the fall to see if we can see the bears who are most common when feeding for their winter naps.
Only four Snow geese were spotted altogether -- they seemed to have left VERY early this year, perhaps a better harbinger of early spring that the groundhog. Last year we saw 1000's. We also didn't see the Trumpeter Swans that some had seen but it may have been because the birds were backlit at Mattamuskeet. We ran into others who had spotted them. We also saw a few Bald Eagles and of course vultures -- both Turkey and Black.
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