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Putting the Wow! in W.O.W.



Hi C-birders,

First, thanks to the many who responded with Outer Banks dining 
suggestions. I actually tried and enjoyed a couple.

Due to a friend's birthday, I didn't leave Durham until 10 PM Thursday. 
My wife, who had been planning to come with me, changed her mind and 
stayed home. I arrived at the Sea Oatel around 2:30 AM.

The next morning I awoke disoriented and still sleepy. I went first to 
the kickoff breakfast, but my info packet wasn't there. Kieth Watson was, 
though, and told me about the "Western" Kingbird that was potentially a 
Tropicouch's. Ate breakfast at the Grits Grill in the Outer Banks Mall; a 
few folks remarked that most of the OBX places were lunch and dinner 
only and fairly pricey, here's a place that opens at 6 AM (too late for 
pelagic participants, but fine for regular birding) and is pretty cheap.
I collected my packet at the Comfort Inn, unexpectedly discovered that I 
was leading a trip that afternoon, and headed for Pea Island.

A Peregrine was perched on the Osprey platform right outside the PINWR 
visitors' center. I found John Wright and Ricky Davis inside the gift 
shop; they confirmed Keith's rumour, that the Kingbird really was 
Tropical-ish. So I immediately drove down the highway to South Pond, 
stopping where I saw several cars by the side of the road. Kent Fiala, 
Jeff Pippen, Toni Rexrode, and some other birders were already there. I 
followed their scopes and saw a gray bird in the shrubs. It turned its 
head to reveal a HUGE schnoz, as big as any three Western Kingbirds' 
bills. The drive out there was now officially worthwhile. Carol 
Williamson and Patsy Bailey joined us there later. A Common Snipe poked 
around in the mud only about twenty feet in front of us, and just as Jeff 
and Toni were leaving an immature Sora swam across the nearby marsh pool. 

While basking in the bird, I found out that I was actually co-leading 
that afternoon's trip with Kent, so eventually we ate our lunches and 
drove back to North Pond. The Peregrine was still there, and remained 
there with only occasional calls and changes in posture through the 
entire afternoon. We later saw a second Peregrine in flight on the far 
end of the pond; it perched in a large dead tree near the maintenance 
building, and stayed there for hours. While lending my bug repellent to 
some tour participants, I glanced back behind us and saw another Sora, an 
adult this time, standing in a gap in the grass; it stayed in view and 
gave everyone great looks. One person reported a heron flying across the 
pond, which turned out to be an American Bittern. It landed and stalked 
into the grass before all could see it; fortunately, another one was 
foraging in the marsh just south of the south dike right at the edge of 
one of the observation platforms! And this one, while foraging, flushed 
yet another Sora. Big day for the cryptic marsh birds...

I had to make a rest stop and arrived at the north dike after the rest of 
the group. As I approached them, a Merlin skimmed over all of us. Later 
we saw *another* Peregrine! The original was still on the Osprey 
platform, but we were too far from the second bird's perch to tell if 
this was the second bird wandering, or a third one. Alas, the Eurasian 
Wigeon, which Kent had seen from that dike in the morning, were gone. We 
did see a few Tundra Swans.

>From there, I collapsed back to my room for a nap. I sadly woke up late 
and arrived halfway through the Stokes' talk. I also arrived as they were 
removing most of the food. I did find out from other birders that the 
Sprague's Pipit had been re-found. I stopped at Dune Burger (not nearly 
the R&T Grill) to supplement my dinner, and crashed again.

I was leading a Bodie Island trip Saturday afternoon. Not knowing Bodie 
very well, I registered for that morning's trip, which wound up being led 
by Kent. One other person showed up, a man named Dennis. We had a very 
good morning with the winter arrivals, including a Winter Wren, at least 
one Pine Siskin, and a dizzying number of Red-breasted Nuthatches. There 
was at least a dozen in the big pines around the intersection of the 
driveway and the maintenance road. We couldn't turn up too much of a 
landbird variety beyond these and the untold thousands of Yellow-rumps, 
but Dennis spotted a Great Horned Owl in one tree that gave us killer 
looks. We also managed to pick a couple of Stilt Sandpipers out of the 
pond. Dennis wanted to see a Willet, so we wrapped up the morning with a 
visit to Coquina Beach. A short sea-watch yielded a few Northern Gannets, 
three Surf Scoters and one Jaeger (either Pomarine or Parasitic), all 
southbound, as well as several Willets on the beach.

I ran up to Nags Head and had lunch at Bad Barracuda's, on someone's 
recommendation. Great crab soup, ok fish and chips. Then returned to lead 
my own Bodie Island walk, attended by a couple from Asheville named Rich 
and June. We didn't get quite as much variety as in the morning, as the 
Siskin, Wren, and others were no-shows. Still loads of RBNuts though. I 
got a little embarassed when two more birders pulled up in a car to ask 
what we'd seen, I asked if they were with the festival, and they 
responded "We're the keynote speakers." It was Don and Lillian Stokes! 
Oops... Numerous accipiters passed overhead all afternoon. At the pond 
overlook, ran into Chris Eley and his tour, two women who remembered me 
from last year's W.O.W. With some difficulty, we scoped out a Stilt 
Sandpiper for them, and decided that a passing peep was a Western 
Sandpiper. I tried very hard to make one large, distant, sleeping 
shorebird into some kind of godwit, but when it started moving around it 
turned into a Greater Yellowlegs. Ten Tundra Swans appeared in the sky 
and glided down into the pond.

Rich and June left, but I kept birding. Returned to Coquina Beach. I 
don't think it was five minutes before another Jaeger whizzed by; this 
one was definitely NOT a Pomarine, as it attacked some Laughing Gulls and 
revealed its wingspan to be no greater than theirs. I wanted to call it 
Long-tailed, but of course, it had no tail streamers of any sort; my 
jaegers never do... Ended the day at the north roadside platform 
overlooking the Bodie Island marshes. I was hoping for a Short-eared Owl, 
no such luck. Did see, in the failing light, numerous diving ducks in the 
nearby pond; there had been no divers at all in the lighthouse pond, and 
only two at Pea Island Friday. These looked like Ring-necks, at least 
25-30, plus two Ruddy Ducks. A V of 17 Tundra Swans few by over the 
sunset, hooting to each other, and a few Black-crowned Night Herons also 
passed over.

I wanted to attend that evening's talks in Hatteras, but was too sleepy 
to make the drive down there and back. Jeff Pippen said he was hitting 
the old coast guard station to see what the cold front would bring in the 
next morning; but I tried that last year with little to show for it, so 
instead signed up for the Swamp Sampler. On Ricky Davis' suggestion, I 
had dinner at Dirty Dick's, ok crab soup, great gumbo.

Next morning hit Alligator River NWR. The Swamp Sampler was fascinating; 
I had no idea that so many unusual wetland communities - quaking Sphagnum 
bog, White Cedar swamp, Bald Cypress swamp, Everglades-style Sawgrass 
prairie, etc. - could all be found in such close proximity to each other. 
We saw a Red-cockaded nest tree, but not the bird; apparently at ARNWR 
they nest in Pond Pines in pocosins rather than their normal Longleaf 
Pines in savannahs. Not many other birds: a Green Heron here, a pair of 
Pileated Woodpeckers there. We did see one of the biggest Bald Cypress 
I've ever come across, we guessed at least 600 years and more likely 1000 
or more!

After that, I grabbed lunch at White's, the gas station just east of 
Alligator River NWR. They surprisingly had some of the best barbecue I've 
tasted in quite some time. I ended my weekend looking in vain for Ricky 
Davis' reported Rough-legged Hawk, seeing a riDICulous number of Harriers 
and a few Kestrels, Red-tails, and Black and Turkey Vultures. Then John 
and Paula Wright showed up and told me what I'd missed at the coast guard 
station that morning... Next year I'll know better than to register for a 
trip the morning after a cold front!

Good birding!

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/