On Saturday, May 28th, 2005, my parents and I began an 11-hour drive to New Bern, North Carolina, from our home in New York. We were going to visit my mother's brother and his wife (or, my uncle and aunt). we planned to stay for 3 whole days, and with the drive to and from their house, would be a 5-day vacation. All through the trip I kept watch for birds of all shapes and sizes. It has certainly paid off!
Day 1: The 11-hour drive from New York to North Carolina's central coast leaves me with nothing to do but stare out the window. Stare I did, as I spotted Common Grackle, European Starling, American Crow, Laughing Gull, and a lot of other species. After all this, we finally arrived at my uncle's house.
Day 2: Our first full day at my uncle's house would turn out to be a joy. Late in the morning, I stood outside on the backyard (which overlooks a canal, where every house has a 30-foot boat...) and spotted a "vulture" soaring overhead. When the bird got between me and the sun, the pattern of the feathers on the wings, as well as the facial patterns, made me change the "vulture" to Osprey, a year-bird for me. An hour or so earlier, I was happy to see a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird drinking nectar from my uncle's feeder.
After seeing the Osprey, all of us went for a ride on my uncle's boat, and headed through the canals. Several birds flew in front of us, but nothing good, so we continued on. We came upon a nest on a river-trench sign (anyone who owns a boat probably knows what I'm talking about, those bright green and orange signs that show the best line through the river). As we got closer, an Osprey parent poked her head up to see what was making all the noise. My uncle almost made the mistake of getting too close, as the parent Osprey spread its wings and made a chipping sound to keep us away. I attempted to get some spread-wing shots, but the boat was rocking so much, every time I pressed the shutter button, the picture would end up with the wings clipped out of the shot... And when I finally was able to get a decent shot, my aunt's hair got in the shot, obscuring it entirely... D'Oh!
After we got home, we viewed the pictures, and we all got good, decent-quality shots.
Day 3: A rainy day. Not much went on, so nothing much to report. I hooked my laptop up to a monitor (the light for the LCD screen on my laptop had died). My dad and I downloaded the pictures we took the previous day. We then viewed the photos and when we got to the Osprey photos, we were surprised to see two young Osprey (they had red eyes as opposed to the yellow of Adults) being fed by Mama Osprey just before we approached.
Day 4: A memorable trip out to Cape Lookout National Seashore, and surrounding areas. Our first stop was Cedar Island, where we stopped just before the ferry out to the island. On the beach, we saw Laughing Gulls, Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, and Brown Pelican. A trio of gulls caught my eye, so I looked in their direction. I watched as they flew very low across the top of a tiny lake about 50 yards or so from the waves. As I watched the "gulls", my mouth curled into a smile from ear to ear, as I realized I was seeing Black Skimmers! I snapped a picture, and was able to get the skimmers and one more sandpiper before my batteries died. Also seen here was a Least Tern, and American Oystercatcher.
Next, we went to Harker's Island, and using binoculars, I spotted a group of Royal Terns. Next to this group were two dark birds, which I then looked at through the binoculars and realized were more American Oystercatchers.
Finally, we visited Cape Lookout National Seashore, where we saw loads of good birds, including at least half a dozen White Ibis, a single Sandwich Tern, a Boat-Tailed Grackle, and some Great Egrets.
On the way back to my uncle's house, we stopped at an Italian restaurant to have dinner, and it was on the water. I watched as a Killdeer, several each of American Coot, and other species foraged for food in several medium-sized puddles just off the walkway leading into the restaurant.
Day 5: Finally, we had to head for home. We headed north on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and after crossing, my father wanted to see the Bald Eagle I had seen there the day we came down. Unfortunately, I didn't see a thing this time, but we pulled over into a parking lot by the shore just after crossing the entire 17.6 mile span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Through the binoculars, dad pointed out to me a pair of black-and-white headed birds. I snapped a picture of them, and recognized them as Ruddy Turnstones. A bunch of Brown Pelicans flew out over the water. One separated from the group, and went high into the air. I realized what it was doing, and readied my camera. I watched as it plunged into the bay and snapped a picture of the splash it made. I also spotted a lone duck swimming in the bay, so I took a picture of that as well. It wasn't until I looked at the pictures in the car did I finally realized what it was: a Common Loon!
Sorry for the long read, but thought people would be interested.
Overall, I am extremely happy how the vacation turned out, especially in terms of birds.
Feel free to leave your comments!
Looks like you had a lot of the same ocean birds as I did on Padre Island in South Texas. I would like to have seen an oystercatcher. The sandpipers were so tame. They let me come so close and I could spend lots of time looking back and forth between my book, my list of common South Texas birds and them. Boy- they are hard to Id. Terns aren't as difficult.
Yep, they sure are. So far, I've seen some of the shorebirds that we get on the east coast:
Semipalmated Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Sanderling, Solitary Sandpiper and Lesser Yellowlegs.
I still have some birds to ID.