[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Purple Gallinule @ Ft. Fisher - Yes



Hello C'birders.
    Having to get up at 4:30 this a.m. to put my wife
at the Wilm. airport at 5:15, I decided to ride down to
Ft. Fisher to see if I could see the Gallinule.  
    Got a biscuit at Hardees in Carolina Beach but I
was still early for a bird that had been seen by govt.
employees who come to work at 8:00 a.m.  So I drove
past the aquarium entrance to where the entrance used
to be by the sharp right turn in the road that is
straight now to the ferry.  I parked here and spent a
few minutes looking in the taller snags for either one
of a pair of Great Horned Owls that I had seen earlier
this Spring when they were foraging for more than just
themselves.  No luck on the owls so on down to Battery
Buchanen and the "rocks" area.  Nothing  but the usual
suspects here so at about 6:30 I headed back toward the
"spit" parking area stopping twice for singing Painted
Buntings high in hurricane salt spray killed snags. 
Oh, 1 Fish Crow as well.
     At 6:45 I turned the corner toward the Aquarium
and the parking area and as I approached the parking
area there was the Gallinule feeding in the cropped
grass on the right side of the road abeam the parking
area.  I pulled into the parking area to where I could
watch it through my passenger side window opening.  He
didn't seem phased so I drove around and parked head on
looking at it.  I got out after a while and walked
laterally away from the bird as I was hearing a
Northern Bobwhite male calling abeam the Gallinule and
a little bit deeper in the brush.  I didn't get to see
the quail but it would stop calling when I got too
close and resume when I ceded it's space.  Also noted a
pair of Blue Grosbeaks, an Indigo Bunting male in some
sort of molt phase, several Cowbirds and a White Ibis. 
Early morning joggers were sending the gallinule into
the phragmites, but it would come back out once they
were safely past. Finally at a little before 7:15, the
bird dated into the reeds for some joggers and didn't
come back out for 5 minutes or so and I left having had
my fill of the bird. 
Looks like he's found a home for a while.

Bruce Smithson
318 W. Blackbeard Rd.
Wilmington, NC  28409
(910) 799-5083
___________________________________________________
The ALL NEW CS2000 from CompuServe
 Better!  Faster! More Powerful!
 250 FREE hours! Sign-on Now!
 http://www.compuserve.com/trycsrv/cs2000/webmail/