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Morehead City, NC CBC Highlights



The Morehead City NC CBC was held on Sunday, December 16th.

The weather was fairly nice, although a little windy.  Actually, the
weather seemed great to me, contrasting greatly with the intense
thunderstorms and 20-40mph winds of the 2000 CBC.

The unofficial species total for the count is 156 (still don't have
lists from some persons who have departed the area for Christmas), which
is pretty good.  Because of the warm weather before the count, waterfowl
were low in numbers and variety.

The most interesting sighting of the count was an observation of 3
Sandhill Cranes by Doug and Nancy Wolfe and Carolyn and Don Hoss.  The
birds were seen in a short-grass marsh adjacent to North River for
several minutes.  They then flew off in the direction of expansive
farmlands.

Other unusual records were 1 White-winged Dove in Beaufort (one of the
population that has been resident since about early May 1998), 1
Whip-poor-will, and 1 Indigo Bunting.

Other noteworthy records were 1 Great Cormorant (locally scarce), 1
Green Heron, 1 Bald Eagle (locally scarce), about 96 Red Knots, 13
Purple Sandpipers, 25 American Woodcocks, about 3000 Laughing Gulls
(warm weather), 28 Eurasian Collared-Doves (species continues to
increase), 1 Barn Owl (first record of this species in several years),
several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, 3 White-breasted Nuthatches (species
continues to become established in Croatan NF portion of count circle),
3 White-eyed Vireos, 1 Prairie Warbler, 4 Purple Finches, and 3 Pine
Siskins.  The latter two species have become quite unusual in recent
years.

Count week species were Wild Turkey, Whimbrel, and Painted Bunting.

The count was also somewhat notable for two species that were hanging
out on a farm that is partially in the count circle but that refused to
venture into the count circle section of the farm.  These two species
are Horned Lark and Lapland Longspur, both of which are very rare in
this county.

John Fussell
Morehead City, NC
jfuss@clis.com