North Carolina's Outer Banks: Pea Island NWR, Jeanette's Pier and Bodie Lighthouse

(Note: this wonderful day of birding happened on February 18th.)

Well before sunrise we left our slumbering hosts on Knott's Island and headed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In a little over two hours we made it to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) south of Nags Head on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The weather was bliss! Sunny and almost summery warm. We walked the wildlife trail along the  large ponds which were full of waterfowl.

 Among the scores of wintering waterfowl we saw a cute Pied-billed Grebe:

And a male American Wigeon:

After spending two hours at this wintering waterfowl hot spot, we drove a mile north to a viewing blind where we got a closer view of wading birds and waterfowl, most of which were resting in the afternoon sun.

Most of the American Avocets we observed were resting, but this one was probing the mud for an afternoon snack. The upturned bill is a very distinctive marking.
There were others in the blind and we waited our turn at the viewing ports. They were searching for a Eurasian Teal, a very rare bird from Asia and Europe. It had been spotted a couple of days before with a group of Green-winged Teal. One of the party found it, but it was so incredibly far away that it was barely distinguishable from the other teals. And way too far to photograph.
We continued northward along the Hatteras National Seashore stopping at the now unused coast guard life saving station before crossing the bridge.

We drove to Nags Head to check in to our hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express with an oceanfront view. I love low off-season rates which go hand in hand with winter shore birding!
We took advantage of the warmish weather but the sun was fading. It was time to take a long walk on a long pier: Jeanette's Pier. It sticks 1000 feet over the ocean. We saw dolphins and seabirds that like to be in the ocean and closer to the shore.

This female Red-breasted Mergaser looks like she's having a bad hair day as she paddles by the pier with her friend. The slight upward curve on the top of the thin bill which is low on a high "forehead" is a great field ID mark for the merganser family.

I watched this Common Eider swimming closer to the pier until he was right under it. This fellow is a first year male and will eventually find his way up to the Canadian Maritime provinces or farther northward to breed and spend the summer there.

Brown Pelican cruised off the end of the pier giving us great close views of these large birds in flight.

On the end of the pier the only other person there was a man looking through an impressive Savorski optics spotting scope and holding a camera with enormous lens. He kindly let us look through his scope at distant razorbills and other seabirds. He was able to identify what was basically a dot on the ocean horizon, with seeing a few crucial details. We enjoyed a brief and informative chat with him. He revealed to us that he regularly runs pelagic boat tours about 30 or so miles out in the ocean where lots of seabirds can be found. Another man walked up with his huge scope and we recognized him from the blind on Pea Island earlier that afternoon. He immediately went all "fan boy" when he saw the seabird expert and started gushing and telling us that we were in the presence of a local birding legend.

We left fanboy and the legend on the pier and headed to Bodie Lighthouse before the sunset to see if the pond there had much waterfowl. Gadwall, American Black Duck and lots of Northern Pintail were settled in for the night, heads tucked under wings.

It was time to call it a day and look for a good seafood place.
Unfortunately our evening was punctuated with bad news from home. Our son, Owen, told us that our old and beloved cat, Gyro, was very sick. Not long after midnight Owen took Gryo to the vet and was with the kitty he picked out when he was a little boy when he crossed the rainbow bridge. He told us not to bother to come home as he had taken care of everything and there was no need to cut our birding vacation short.
Wednesday was cloudy and very cold, so unlike Tuesday, and we decided to visit a place where birds inspired two men to make the first working human-powered flying machine.

Kitty Hawk is the home of The Wright Brothers National Monument, where the first flight took place in 1903. This is a replica of their Wright Flyer which was inspired by how birds fly. A fitting place to visit on our Outer Banks birding adventure.