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OBX for Thanksgiving



Hi Folks,

Like a number of other subscribers, my wife and I escaped the turkey 
massacre by heading to the OBX for live birds and beach-combing. This 
was my first trip to the OBX and I was completely blown away by the 
fantastic numbers of birds there. While my main center of attention 
was Pea Island, I also took the time to do some surf watching which 
reaped good rewards. So, no Tropical Kingbird or Ross' Goose showed 
up but I still notched up 13 lifers: one advantage of a first visit 
to a birding hotspot is that even some comparatively common local 
specialities are new and exciting sightings. Highlights included 
hundreds of Am avocets, which won both the beauty and grace contests 
with their synchronized feeding: a joy to watch. I managed to pick 
out the Eurasian wigeon amongst its hundreds of American cousins, and 
also got a nice surprise at seeing 2 peregrines perched and beading 
the smorgasbord laid in front of them on North Pond. Also got 
wonderful views of the Great cormorants up at Oregon Inlet. It's a 
peculiar experience seeing birds that are common from where I hail in 
the UK being given the superstar treatment over here: which they are 
rightly deserving both here and "back home". In the UK, great 
cormorants are at best ignored, at worst trapped, poisoned or shot in 
the erroneous belief that they deplete fish stocks. Eurasian wigeon 
can be found on almost every reservoir and pond in the winter. Yet 
the twitching reaches fever pitch when a ring-billed gull or a 
killdeer makes an appearance on the shores of the Green and Pleasant 
Land!
The sea watching brought me dozens of gannets in all plumages, some 
diving, most just flying south. But also there were several groups of 
horned grebes and a large flock of scoters that I am tentatively 
calling surf scoters as there was no white on the wings, but visible 
white on the head on at least some of the birds.

Quick Qs:

I saw dowitchers on Pea Island: was I seeing long or short-billed, or both?

Several peeps were around, but I could not ID them: what were the 
likeliest candidates?

Best wishes



-- 
Steve Perry

Receptor Biology Lab, Duke Uni Med Center, Durham, NC

stevep@receptor-biol.duke.edu