Going Where The Sun is Shining and The Birds Are Plentiful

Wednesday was quite gloomy on the Outer Banks. Our thoughts frequently turned to our beloved kitty and our heroic son who was now in a house for the first time in his twenty-five years without a pet. He was bouncing back with take out food and lots of movies. One of his good friends even sent him an edible arrangement and two of our wonderful neighbors brought him food and kind words. He was well taken care of emotionally and gastronomically.

We visited Roanoke Island and Manteo finding a raised boardwalk path that wound on the edge of the marsh. The clouds were so thick and dark so for us photography was impossible but we enjoyed this out of the way path in the marsh and saw a few birds despite the harsh wind and cold that had set in overnight.

After lunch we drove west over the bridge at Roanoke Island to mainland North Carolina and Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Its a mix of flooded agricultural fields and forest. A huge population of Black Bear live there, one of the largest concentrations in the entire country. Dawn is the best time to see them. We did see birds of the duck variety in the flooded fields but it wasn't easy with the dense overcast. A Northern Harrier flew low over the fields searching for mince and voles, its white rump patch and distinguishing field marking for this raptor.

The Outer Banks weather prediction for Thursday and Friday, our last two days of this birding adventure was dismal. Lots of dense clouds and gale force winds for Friday ahead of snow Thursday night. We made the somewhat drastic decision to find the sun. That was going to be north, over 180 miles north, in Chincoteague, VA on the Eastern Shore. Their Friday weather prediction was windy and cold but sunny all day! We packed up and drove 3-1/2 hours north in anticipation of what birds we would discover in Chincoteague arriving mid-day Thursday.

This island is famous for its wild ponies which are rounded up and auctioned to raise funds for the volunteer fire department. What interests us the most. naturally, is the abundance of wintering waterfowl and other birds found in profusion in the marshes, ponds, watery impoundments, and Atlantic shore. Thursday, as we knew, was cloudy. We headed straight to the beach which is actually called Assateague National Seashore at Tom's Cove which is east of and attached to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.
Among the scores of Ring-billed Gulls  looking for a handout from the few other humans braving teh brisk gloomy weather were saw ten Willet runnig along the foamy surf probing the sand with their long slender bills for tiny crustaceans revealed by the outgoing surf.

These shorebirds actually breed over a thousand miles to the west in the prairies. They like to spend their winter vacations at the beach, apparently, where the crustaceans that they crave are in abundance. You can tell this is a Western Willet by the dark tail feathers and the drab almost monochrome non-breeding plumage.

Overnight it snowed about two inches. We awoke on Friday morning to intense 17 mph winds but very sunny and bright skies, oh, and snow! After breakfast we hurried out to the wildlife refuge to see birds and more more in the snowy morning. The Chincoteague lighthouse looked so great poking out from the snowy treetops. We walked up the little hill through the woods to see it with a snowy carpet around it.

Soon we found our way back down Beach Road heading for the ocean shore. The watery ditches on either side of the road gave us unique views of birds in the winter landscape. Snow at Chincoteague was new to us as we've seen all seasons here except for summer (too crowded) and being here with a rare snowfall was incredible.
This Great Blue Heron stood sentinel by the waters edge as the wind dusted the air with snow from the pine boughs above.

A Great Egret fished nearby.

And speaking of fishing we finally got a decent photo of a Belted Kingfisher hunting from a branch over the water. These birds fly back and forth over the water hoping to scoop a small fish into their large spear-like bills. They are easily spooked by humans and are quite camera shy. We spotted this one on the other side of the wide ditch and remained in the truck to get these shots.

The edge of the open truck window makes a great tripod!

At the end of Beach Road to the north of the road is Swan Pond. Hundreds of Northern Shovelers dabbled in the shallow water, occasionally flying up in unison when a Bald Eagle would flyover. These ducks with the unique wide bill spend winter here before migrating either to southern Canada or to the north western U.S. and as far north as Alaska.

 We left the refuge and drive into town stopping at a restaurant parking lot to view a Snowy Egret crouching down in the grasses.

This heron is identified by its dark bill with bright yellow around the eye and base of bill.

We spent some time after lunch walking the Marsh Trail, one and a half miles through pine woods and open marsh. We were the only ones on the trail and got nice and distant views of American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, and even five Eastern Meadowlarks feeding on the muddy waters edge.

A Red Fox warily observed us before bounding through the snow and into the brown marsh reeds out of sight.

Yellow-rumped Warblers, wearing duller winter plumage, darted through the snowy tree branches looking for tiny seeds or a wayward insect. The wind blew a bit strongly on this one, fluffing up his pale yellow feathers.

At the beach shore a lady was trying to photograph Ring-billed Gulls. A juvenile Ring-billed Gull stood like the joker he was on top of her SUV.

On that jovial note our vacation week of birding the Atlantic coast ends. Being outside is just bliss and perfect for the soul. Feather questing is never ending and always, always full of surprises!