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LARK & CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS



My wife Pat and I just arrived home from a fantastic weekend on the NC 
Outerbanks.  We thought we would take in possibly the last really nice warm 
weekend on the beach before Fall sets in.  It was everything we hoped for!

Saturday morning we did a little birding in the area surrounding Elizabethan 
Gardens.  There was not a migrant to be heard or seen.  The only warblers we 
saw were a couple of Pine Warblers.  We tried to stir up some activity by 
performing some pathetic Screech Owl calls, and much to our surprise, we 
ended up with three Screech Owls calling back to us!  Unexpected in broad 
daylight, and I guess our calls were not that bad after all.

We stopped next at the Old Coast Guard station.  Here we immediately had a 
LARK SPARROW perched on the fence in front of the building.  It then worked 
through the bushes in the adjacent area.  Also in the vicinity were three 
Baltimore Orioles, about five Prairie Warblers, many Palm Warblers and a 
Red-breasted Nuthach.

We moved further down Pea Island were we saw the recent influx of waterfowl. 
  Large numbers of Northern Pintail are in the refuge.  Mixed with them were 
other puddle ducks such as Shovelers, American Wigeon and Teal.  A large 
group of Marbled Godwits were in North Pond.  The trees near the rest area 
had male and female Redstarts and a Northern Parula.  On the way back to the 
car, we found a second LARK SPARROW in the grass by the two Purple Martin 
houses adjacent to the parking lot.  This bird had apparently also been seen 
by Jeff Lewis earlier in the morning.  The Lark Sparrow was very 
approachable, and did not seem bothered by the numerous hikers strolling by 
it.  I took some nice photographs.  These we only my 2nd and 3rd Lark 
Sparrows in NC.  Not bad at all for one day!

At Buxton Woods, the only migrant we saw was a male Black-throated Blue 
Warbler.

At lunch time we took the ferry to Ocracoke where we spent the rest of the 
weekend.  On Saturday we had a female Merlin in the southern ferry terminal 
parking lot.  This morning (Sunday), we had a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW at the 
southern ferry terminal parking lot.  Near the town proper and the Ocracoke 
lighthouse, a few other migrants were around such as Northern Parula, 
Red-eyed Vireo and numerous Palm Warblers.

All in all the birding was slow, but a couple of nice sparrows.  The beach 
and sunsets were great!!!

-Brad & Pat Carlson
Winterville, NC
BradCarlson1@hotmail.com






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