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Dare county CBC weekend (Part II) (The good part)



Hi again,

After a refreshing almost 7 hours of sleep, Jeff woke me up again to go 
owling. A mile from his house, he realized he didn't have his permit to 
be in ARNWR before sunrise, so he went back for that while I drove on. I 
was rewarded for remembering my permit by having a Bobcat scoot across US 
64 in front of my car as I crossed the refuge boundary.

The ARNWR staff had relented and allowed us to play tapes during the 
count; normally taping in NWRs is illegal. Not that it did us much good. 
Jeff and I taped around for about 45 minutes: no Saw-whets, no Screech- 
owls, not even a Barred! We did hear two Great Horned Owls, and saw two 
birds fly over - one in the headlights, one overhead as we played a 
Saw-whet call - that were both either Barred or Gt. Horned.

Jeff dropped me off back at my car at the intersection of Long Curve and 
Grouse roads. Then the fun started. A few minutes after Jeff's taillights 
disappeared, I heard a short, scratchy, slightly nasal "wahh!" 
Short-eared Owl! A second answered, and the two went back and forth for a 
few minutes. Another Great Horned hooted far away, and then another. 
Then, closer, a booming "whooooooahhh", Barred Owl. And then, closer 
still, an Eastern Screech-Owl! Four owl species all heard from one spot! 
Jeff also thought this spot was probably the best bet for seeing a Long- 
eared as it flew from its nightly hunt in the fields into a roost in the 
conifers, but no luck in that department.

Sunrise arrived, and the owls quieted down. I noted a few landbirds and 
the first of the day's many Northern Harriers before moving from that 
spot. I then drove to White's, the gas station in Manns Harbor, for a pit 
stop and a very tasty chicken, egg, and cheese biscuit. On the way there, 
I birded along 264 and picked up several landbirds, including a Pileated 
Woodpecker, an American Kestrel, some fly-over Northern Pintail, and my 
only kinglets of the day. After breakfast, I visited the northeast end of 
Link Road and was scolded relentlessly by a House Wren. I saw another 
Pileated, and scared a Common Snipe out of some wet grass.

After a quiet stretch, I parked at the intersection of Grouse and Bear 
roads, and started walking down Bear into the fields. Savannah Sparrows 
flushed about every fifth step, except when I left the road and walked in 
the grass, then they flushed about 3 per step. Saw one sparrow which 
looked suspicious, possibly a Henslow's, but it wouldn't give me a decent 
look. Also on this walk, I *finally* found the Rough-legged Hawk that 
seems to winter at ARNWR annually; I actually spotted it seconds after 
seeing my only Bald Eagle of the day. The eagle never returned, but I saw 
the Rough-leg two more times in the afternoon.

After that I hiked up the northeast part of Grouse Road. No grouse 
present, though I did pish a Marsh Wren out of the vegetation by the 
roadside canal, and found my only Hermit Thrushes of the day in the woods 
on the other side. Also, though I was no longer on Bear Road, I found a 
Black Bear scat and footprint, darn near as big as my own foot (the scat 
too)!

Took a break for lunch, returning to White's for a very tasty barbeque 
plate. Spent the next hour or so visiting the Atlantic White Cedar stands 
in hopes of finding a roosting Long-eared or Saw-whet Owl. No luck; the 
cedars were very densely foliaged, the undergrowth impenetrable with 
greenbriers, and there wasn't a single forest songbird there to mob if 
there was an owl! One Swamp Sparrow was the only bird anywhere near the 
cedars.

Proceeded into the fields, but found very little along Long Curve Road 
other than the Rough-leg again, a flock of 300-plus female Red-winged 
Blackbirds (not one male that I could find!), and more harriers. Actually 
observed a group of 5 harriers "mobbing" a group of American Crows! That 
was a reversal...

I was about to turn around and head back to 264, since that was the only 
place I'd had many landbirds that day. Then I remembered that Jeff had 
added Link Road to my area, and decided to try that instead. Saw Jeff 
himself, along with Marlene Schum, a little ways down the road from 
there, so drove down and said hello before parking at the intersection of 
Long Curve and Link. Exited my car and found a few Yellow-rumps and an 
Eastern Phoebe. Then spotted another flycatcher, which at first I thought 
was the phoebe again. Nope, a Myiarchus!

I watched briefly, lost sight of it, and sped back down the road to tell 
Jeff. We returned and, after a while, I spotted it again. We lost and 
re-found it a few times, and all three of us had at least two lengthy 
views in my spotting scope, with time to compare the bird with the 
Kaufman and Sibley guides. I had studied Great Crested Flycatchers a fair 
amount in Florida in trying to find a La Sagra's (which I still haven't 
seen). This bird had paler yellow underparts, which gradually faded into 
the white throat, no strong line of contrast, no dark gray. The lower 
mandible had only a very thin area of pale color at the base, and the 
bill overall seemed smaller. We finally agreed that this was an 
Ash-throated Flycatcher!

The light failed, and we headed back to the Elizabethan Gardens for 
another compilation. That's when we heard about Amelie's Eastern 
Kingbird, and another birder (I forget her name) reported a Broad-winged 
Hawk. Both species should have been in South America as of November; I 
think there are a few records of each from Florida on CBCs, but none at 
all further north yet. Neither birder realized at the time that they were 
seeing a potential first state seasonal record, but both detailed their 
IDs well as Jeff, Wayne, and I interrogated them. Hopefully someone 
chasing the Ash-throat will re-find and photograph one or both of these 
birds...

Ended my trip with a very good double cheeseburger at the Alligator River 
marina (the cook said their shrimp is also really good), and drove back 
to Durham.

Good birding!

Josh


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

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