Birding With Kyle

Pea/Bodie Island and Mattamuskeet CBCs: December 28-29, 2011

On December 28 Brian Bockhahn and myself traveled down to the coast for two days of intense christmas birding. We started at Pea Island, covering the Wanchese area. Just as it was starting to get light out, we had a Short-eared Owl fly over the marsh, a state bird for me. Other great birds seen at Pea/Bodie Island included American White-Pelican, Red-necked Grebe, Great Cormorant, and Peregrine Falcon (a state bird for me). We lucked out on my lifer Sora. But the best bird of the count, and the best bird of the trip, was an immature Pacific Loon found by Brian Bockhahn, myself, and Scott Winton. The three of us enjoyed observing this bird for an hour and a half, probably seeing it over a hundred times. This was a state bird for me. We tried for Long-eared Owl and Northern Saw-whet Owls that night, but had no luck with these.

At Mattamuskeet, we covered Gull Rock Gamelands and part of the lake, with our best birds being 5 Seaside Sparrows and 6 Nelson's Sparrows in the sound at the Gamelands. All in all, it was a great two days of birding. Below are some of the pictures I took.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6607563243/in/photostream- Great Cormorant video

Great Cormorant
Pacific Loon

Searching for Yellow Rails, Sparrows: December 23, 2011

Stay tuned!

Greater White-fronted Goose- December 19, 2011

On December 19, during the Durham CBC, Brian Bockhahn found a Greater White-fronted Goose on a pond with many Canada Geese. Being only 25 minutes away from me, I quickly drove over to the goose. This was a state bird (#301) for me, and the first time I have seen this species since 2004. When I went to see the goose it had already moved farther out into the pond for various reasons, and it was spending most of its time with its head tucked under its wings, appearing to 'sleep'. It did though thankfully swim around and lift its head up, and I got some great looks at it, able to see the white face, orange bill, etc. Attached are a couple pics that I took, one of which shows the bird curiously looking up at the sky (not sure why). I also attached a video of the goose swimming and 'sleeping'.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6535747053/in/photostream- video

Crane Tri-fecta: HOODED CRANE, WHOOPING CRANE- December 17

Extremely early on the morning of December 17, Brian Bockhahn, Ali Iyoob, Michael McCloy, and myself left Raleigh and traveled to Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, TN in the hopes of seeing the Hooded Crane and any of the Whooping Cranes reported in the previous days. With the possibility that the Hooded Crane might be a continental mega-rarity, we did not want to pass up this once in a life time opportunity.

As we arrived at the refuge, we could hear the calls of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead and landing in the nearby fields. Already a group of birders were at the gazebo with their scopes, and to our luck, the HOODED CRANE was out in the open. Within minutes all of us had our scopes on the Hooded Crane and gazed in wonder at this beautiful and mysterious crane. I asked if any Whooping Cranes had been seen and the birders pointed us in the direction of a lone juvenile DAR (Direct Autumn Release) Whooping, reddish in appearance due to its molt. In about 5 minutes we had seen our two target birds!

For the next couple hours we enjoyed terrific looks at the Hooded Crane as it foraged around, including in the open, with its fellow Sandhill Cranes. We also watched in awe at the hundreds to thousands of Sandhill Cranes that were in this one small area of the refuge, flying around, calling everywhere, foraging, etc.

All this activity allowed us some great photo opportunities. I took some pretty good pics of the Sandhill Cranes, including a spectacular image of one in flight, and only managed a distant image of the Whooping Crane. For the Hooded Crane, I got ok pics with my camera, but two spectacular videos (maybe the only ones of a Hooded Crane in the wild in the U.S.?) of the crane foraging, taken by digiscoping.

All in all, what a spectacular day and well worth the 14+ hours in the car. It was pretty awesome to have a crane tri-fecta, especially in the U.S. Below are some of the pictures and videos that I took today. If anyone is thinking about traveling to see the crane, I would recommend doing it, and on a day with good weather. Hopefully this Hooded Crane is the real deal.

Hooded Crane:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6529019471/in/photostream- video

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6529232391/in/photostream- video

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6528821549/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6528821491/in/photostream

Sandhill Cranes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6528781145/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6528780531/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6528780945/in/photostream

Whooping Crane:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6528800733/in/photostream

Birding Grand Cayman, Nov. 23-27, 2011

Hey everyone, birding in Grand Cayman was a blast!! I saw some fantastic birds, including Caribbean Dove and American Flamingo. All in all, I had 12 lifers and one North American Bird. Check out my flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/sets/72157628119735433/, for pics that I uploaded during my stay on the island.

Lifers: Greater Antillean Grackle, Antillean Nighthawk, Vitelline Warbler, Cuban Bullfinch, West Indian Whistling Duck, West Indian Woodpecker, Rose-throated Parrot, Thick-billed Vireo, Western Spindalis, Loggerhead Kingbird, Caribbean Dove, La Sagra's Flycatcher

North American Bird: American Flamingo

Allen's Hummingbird!!!- Nov. 20, 2011

This morning I traveled with Nate Swick, Robert Meehan, and Ali Iyoob to Riverbend Park to see the Allen's Hummingbird. We did not have to wait long before we saw the bird come to the feeders. It seemed to appear every 20 or so minutes. The hummingbird had several favorite perches that it frequented, only coming to the feeder itself for maybe half a minute every time. Nonetheless, we had terrific views of this spectacular bird. I have posted links to some of the pics that I took, which turned out okay (possibly due to photographing through the window), and a video of the bird feeding at the feeder. This was a lifer for myself, Nate, and Ali, and a state bird for Robert. Allen's Hummingbird is actually my 300th state bird, a good milestone with a fantastic bird.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6371323831/in/photostream- video

It is pretty amazing to me that I was able to see two super rare hummingbirds for the state this weekend: 2nd record Allen's and 3rd record Anna's.

Anna's Hummingbird, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, and more!- Nov. 19, 2011

This morning a friend and I traveled down to New Bern to view the Anna's Hummingbird. We arrived at the house around 8:30 a.m. and soon heard the hummingbird vocalizing. The bird appeared sort of skittish, disappearing for times and calling from secluded perches. It was pretty neat to hear the Anna's vocalizing: it was pretty loud and unique. We did have some great views of the bird at various perches (and also saw the beautiful pink on the head in the right light), and finally the bird went the feeder and drank for several minutes, allowing me to get some decent pics. Below are links to various photos of the Anna's and a video, which you can hear the bird vocalizing if you turn the volume all the way up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6365971635/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6365971413/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6365948139/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6365948067/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6365938797/in/photostream- video (not super quality, but can hear calls)

After having great looks at the Anna's Hummingbird, a state bird for my friend and myself, we continued to Millis Road in Croatan National Forest, where we hoped to find Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Finding the right location, we walked a short distance to some cavity trees. We heard a Red-cockaded Woodpecker calling, and when I played an RCW call, I called the bird in to us. And it wasn't just one bird. We seemed to get the whole RCW colony interested, as we had 4 woodpeckers at a time in our view, all within 100 yards, and there was probably 6 or so birds total. I got some great pictures and videos of the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, a lifer for me!!! and a long time nemesis of mine (never thought it would be that easy to see that bird!). We also saw a Red-throated Loon flying over the area, which was a little strange being some distance from the coast. Below are pictures and videos of the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (you can see a yellow leg band in one of the pictures).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6366061499/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6366061701/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6366061859/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6366144749/in/photostream- video (can hear calls too)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6366176887/in/photostream- video (can hear calls too)

After Croatan we headed down to Fort Macon to see if we could find any good shorebirds or sea ducks. We did not find any of these, though we did have about 25 or so Red-throated Loons, 80 or more Horned Grebes, and 20 or so Northern Gannets.

Nashville Warbler!!- Oct. 30, 2011

This morning I traveled to NC State to search for a long time nemesis of mine, the Nashville Warbler. I reached the pond southeast of the track and started to search for signs of the warbler. There were lots of other birds present, including White-throated and Swamp Sparrows and Yellow-rumpeds, and there was a Mallard in the pond, but no sign of the Nashville. I started to play pygmy-owl calls to get the birds riled up and try to call in the Nashville. Sure enough, as I was standing on the left side of the pond, a warbler flew in to the vegetation near the pond. I could tell that it had a yellow chest, but not much else due to the thick vegetation. The warbler flew out into the open and perched on a branch, and I raised my binoculars to gaze at a gorgeous looking Nashville Warbler: yellow breast, gray face, white eye-ring. Yes! Lifer!! I was only able to look at my lifer for several seconds before it dropped down into the vegetation. I tried to call it back out into the open again, switching from pygmy-owl to Nashville calls, but with no luck. I did however call a Baltimore Oriole in to the area while I was playing the warbler calls.

Ross's Goose!- Oct. 22, 2011

This afternoon I traveled over to Cary to search for the Ross's Goose, a state bird for me. As I was walking down to the pond I saw the Ross's Goose, with some Canada Geese, push off from the land and join the rest of the geese on the pond. For half an hour I enjoyed gorgeous views of this spectacular bird, which came within about 10 feet of me at one point (no need to bring a scope, just your bins and a camera!). Towards the end, the Ross's Goose, with all the other geese, began to feed on the algae floating on the surface of the pond. As of 4:30 the goose was still on the pond. I took many pictures and a video of it feeding, which you can view at the following links.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk-eagle/6270821134/in/photostream- video

Cape May Warbler- Oct. 16, 2011

This afternoon as I was leaving my orthodontists off of Creedmoor Rd. I saw some warblers flying around a small tree at the corner of the parking lot. Upon getting closer I noticed 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, an adult and juvenile, at the top of the tree. Then, foraging in the middle part, I watched a brilliant Cape May Warbler, probably best looks I have ever had of one. The other warblers I believe were Yellow-rumped, but I am not sure if there were other species with this small flock. Pretty nice find for an urban parking lot!