Winter Most Fowl: Knotts Island, Mackay NWR, and Back Bay NWR

Monday arrived with sun and slightly brisk breezes on Knotts Island, North Carolina. After breakfast we all headed over to Ashleigh and Cabes' neighbor Buzzy's property on Currituck Sound where we saw a lot of Tundra Swan and other waterbird activity farther down the bulkhead on the shore. White Ibis foraged in a patch of lawn near the water.

White Ibis are year round residents on the coast from North Carolina to Mexico down to Panama. They forage in shallow marshes, wetlands, and damp grass sticking their long curved bills into the soil or muck and using them pincer like to take up a tasty insect or small crustacean. They rest by roosting in trees. We saw some taking a little mid-morning siesta in trees high above the water.

In the same area of Buzzy's property we saw a pair of Eastern Bluebirds investigating a nesting box.
The male checked it out for a longer time than the female who preferred to observe from a nearby snag.

Buzzy's neighbor was pulling out of this driveway and gave us permission to access his property and dock. That was a good thing as Buzzy's dock was missing quite a few pieces of decking and had a wonderful group of terns and gulls on the end of it.

A Forester's Tern in non-breeding plumage takes command of a post surveying others of his kind and a few Ring-billed Gulls. Out on the water Tundra Swans cruised around joining other smaller groups forming a fleet of white. They spend winter along the mid-Atlantic coast before migrating north at winter's end to Arctic breeding grounds.

We jumped into our cars and headed for Mackey National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) a few miles away. The marsh along the gravel road had a few interesting waterbirds including a lone American Coot.

This fine fowl will find its way to northern Canada to breed in marshes, but is content to winter here where the water rarely freezes and the marsh muck yields tasty treats.

We decided to head up to Back Bay NWR and see what the ocean may have for us to view as well as the marshes on the other side of the dunes. Back Bay is south of Virginia Beach and Sanderling and we drive though a beach neighborhood crowded with summer homes some looking as if they were competing for height and ocean views. I felt sorry for the owners of smaller older properties which at one time had an ocean view until a new house over thirty feet tall was built blocking the view. At the end of the packed residential area was the entrance to Back Bay.

We walked to the raised path over the dunes to the ocean. The brisk breeze was not too bad and the sun was very welcome.

The ocean gave us a great show way off shore of hundreds of Red-breasted Mergansers riding the swells before all diving under in unison and coming up at the same time. It was great to see such feathery synchronization!