It's been a while!

Ok, it's time to catch up on what's happened in the last three or so months. In mid January we took a trip to the eastern part of the state for a late Christmas present. One the first day we saw lifer Orange-crowned Warbler at Mattamuskeet NWR, our lifers Lesser Yellowlegs, Wilson's Snipe, and a self-found Lapland Longspur at Alligator River NWR. The longspur was a great find for the area and was not relocated after we found it that day. It was definitely an unexpected surprise finding that bird! On the second day we found a large flock of our lifer Snow Goose at Pea Island, along with another lifer Great Comorant. We finished with sixth lifers on the trip and two nice birds for the state (Lapland Longspur and Great Comorant). We didn't get any more lifers in the month of January. In the month of February, we only went birding once. It was again to Mattamuskeet and to a place called Palmetto Peartree Preserve to look for the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker. We went to Palmetto first. We found the "supposed woodpecker trees" that were marked by a white band at the base of the tree. After sitting there for about an hour with NO activity whatsoever we decided to go ahead to Mattamuskeet. There wasn't much to see there either, except for a self-found rarity that was never relocated, a very interesting Blue-winged Teal X Cinnamon Teal hybrid! Unfortunately, you don't count hybrids as lifers so we totally struck out in the month of February. Weeks later a Northern Lapwing turned up in Person County, NC, about an hour away from my house. This was it. I had to go see it, this is a bird that is accidental anywhere in the US. We set out Sunday morning to it's location, a small church in Roxboro. When we arrived, there was a couple that drove all the way from Ohio to see this bird! They had not located the bird yet, but about five minutes after we arrived, they did. It was about a half-mile away from us and the scope that I brought made the bird just look like a tiny dot! We had to use the other couple's scope to even see the bird, but it was definitely the European beauty. Now came the challenging part, getting a photo. Right as I was about to attempt to digiscope it, it flew half way across the field out of view. Fortunately, there was a dirt road leading right to where it was heading. We quickly ran to the car and got on the dirt road, but we couldn't find it. Around ten minutes later, I saw it fairly close to us on the bank of a lake behind the church! We got great looks and half-decent photos at our very rare lifer! This is a ABA code 4 bird which is extremely rare and it was a real treat to see this bird!

Stay tuned until we go on our next outing, and enjoy!