After many threats of birdwatching adventures, Mandy and I opted to celebrate her birthday with a very long day spent on the east-facing Outer Banks of NC. We’ve been down to the south-facing coastline many times in my six years here, usually just to go to the beach but we have seen some nice birds on the way to Cape Lookout (Common Nighthawk, Ibises, etc). Saturday was our first venture over towards Roanoke and Hatteras, though.
We began the day at the unearthly hour of 3:00 am. I do not recommend this time to anyone. I can only express my sympathy for my brother, for whom this is a daily occurence with his work schedule being what it is. We promptly fell asleep soon after the four alarms were turned off and didn’t actually get up until 4. Not the ideal start. We gathered our stuff together and were out the door by about 4:45.
We made a quick stop at the store for extra supplies and saw our first bird of the day – a Cardinal. Very exciting I know. The trip was already worthwhile!
The drive was long and mostly promised to be tedious, with the vast bulk spent on one fairly straight road out to the coast. As the pre-dawn light filled the sky we saw a familiar shadow on an exposed branch. Despite the fact that we were running late and it was not a good place to turn around, we did. I pulled off to the side of the road and looked on at the best view I have ever had of a mature Great Horned Owl. He sat there looking magnificent before flying as Mandy tried to capture him through the binoculars and camera method. I don’t think I will ever tire of seeing owls.
Fortunately the opportunity to turn back around was just a mile down the road. It probably set us back five minutes but it was well worth it. We saw no other birds until we started hitting the bridges over the vast expanses of water. The first was the Laughing Gull. No great excitement there. We also saw a large number of Greater Black Backed Gulls. I’m always stunned at how large they are. I know I shouldn’t be by now, but when you see Laughing Gulls all the time you get used to that being the size of a gull, so when another one comes along which is up to double the size it takes you by surprise.
Videos were taken of the size of Alligator river, which is just as well, because my writing would not do it justice. Needless to say that when you begin to cross you can barely see the other bank on the horizon. It is immense, and the bridges offer wonderful views, especially when they are elevated to allows ships to pass under. From the top of the bridge you can see a very long way indeed.
Our first stop was at the Bodie Island Lighthouse. It looks like this:
As we pulled into the car park we added Robin, Mockingbird, Mourning Dove and Kildeer. We also saw our first little group of proper waders (I don’t include Kildeer in that discussion). After much inspection and reference to our bird book we believed them to be Sanderlings still in their summer clothes. Having encountered literally dozens of the chaps later, all wearing their winter outfits, we are left confused as to what they may have been. Really need to brush up on our wading birds.
At the parking lot we also saw a Great Egret flying overhead, and a mystery white bird which we could not lock in the binocs properly. We eventually got an ID on him later. We were able to see one new bird in the parking lot, though, and that was the Solitary Sandpiper. This was another one which took an awful lot of studying in the book before we could accept it.
Across the road from the lighthouse is Coquina Beach. When we arrived it was nearly deserted by humans but teeming with birds. We were able to add the Brown Pelican, Double Crested Cormorant and Willet (there were a lot of Willets), in addition to all the Sanderlings. The real highlight of Coquina, though, was the terns.
A little way down the beach was a mixed flock of terns. We slowly crept up towards them and identified four of the species, though there may have been more. We added Royal Tern and Common Tern to our BY list, and Least Tern and Sandwich Tern for the day. After a good time to look it became clear the Royal Terns were the white birds we had seen earlier.
Our next stop was on Pea Island, a National Wildlife Refuge, and part of Hatteras Island. The refuge is about 13 miles long with a few key stopping points along the way. Our first port of call was a viewing platform between two large lakes. There we encountered Audrey, perhaps our greatest piece of luck all day.
Before we were able to fully take advantage of Audrey and her magnificent scope, we added Red-Winged Blackbird, Grey Catbird and the Boat-Tailed Grackle to our list. We were at 21 species for the day, but just three new species at that point. With Audrey’s assistance we added several wading birds, many of them lifetime firsts – Black-Bellied Plover, Short-Billed Dowitcher, Marbled Godwit and the fantastic Black-Necked Stilt. The plovers and stilts are fantastic to look at, very striking. The stilts are very amusing too.
At that same platform I was finally able to add another of my Pokémon birds, one I should have added a long time ago – the Snowy Egret. That put me at 9/12 for the heron family. It also took us to 27 for the day and eight new species. Things were looking up.
We decided we would try to get a little further down the path beyond the platform, but quickly abandoned the plan after being mobbed by large biting flies. We later we informed they were Asian Striped Tiger Mosquitos, but looking at the pictures of them I’m not convinced. Either way they were unpleasant and biting and very resistant to swatting. Video evidence will back this up.
We finally arrived at the visitor centre for the refuge and were very pleased we did. The centre overlooks a lake and they very kindly provide four high-power, high quality spotting scopes – free to the public to use. We’d heard mutterings of the possibility of another bird I was eager to see there – the Reddish Egret – and this was confirmed at the centre. There was one out on that lake. We scoured the water in the last known location of the bird without success but added quite a number of species while there – Eastern Kingbird, Tri-Coloured Heron, Barn Swallow, Osprey, Forster’s Tern and some new ones – Ruddy Turnstone, Black Skimmer, Black Tern, Greater Yellowlegs. The Tri-Coloured Herons were so amusing – we probably saw a dozen or more of them, and they were japing around in the shallow water, they’d flap and jump and take a quick stab at the water. It was a magnificent display.
We decided we needed to risk the bugs again and head down the path on the other side of the lake in search of the Reddish Egret. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of buglife and instead were rewarded with some wonderful views of some lovely birds. We added the Carolina Wren, Brown-Headed Cowbird and new species in the form of the Lesser Yellowlegs, Herring Gull and Semi-Palmated Plover (he looks a lot like a Kildeer but actually does the shorebird thing).
We also saw an immature Reddish Egret!
Like the Tri-coloured herons, he was very amusing to watch and it really was a thrill to see he in action.
We added just one more bird for the day, the humble Starling, but despite seeing almost nothing new after noon we felt like the day was a storming success. Total count was 43 species, 17 of them new and many of those lifetime firsts.
The rest of the day also happened, but I feel Mandy will tell that better. For now I will say that the day was a fantastic experience and I would not be surprised if we try to make it out there again. Certainly we’ll be looking to take the Parental Units there on their next visit here. There’s plenty to keep everyone entertained.
Total count: 148
My Big Year 