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MORE UNUSUAL DOVEKIE SIGHTINGS



A slightly tardy post, but I wanted to report that multiple DOVEKIE sightings continued at least through Sunday on the Outerbanks. Brian Patteson already noted that we had eight Dovekies on the Saturday pelagic out of Hatteras. However, some of us also had two very unusual DOVKIE encounters on Sunday afternoon.

After birding Cape Point for gulls on Sunday, Wayne Irvin, Jeff Lewis, Joan Kutulas and I headed back north on Rt. 12. In addition to the thousands of Cedar Waxwings along the telephone wires, we found a roadkill DOVEKIE on Rt. 12! It must have tried to land there Saturday night thinking the road was water. The bird had been run over repeatedly, so there was no use keeping the skin for the NC museum.

We continued on and stopped at Pea Island visitor center. While Jeff checked the bird sightings sheet, I ran across the road to scan the ocean. I saw four Great-black Backed Gulls attacking something in about 1 foot of surf. They grabbed it and threw it in the tidal zone. I immediately knew what it was and ran down the beach screaming at them. They flew and, when the waves subsided, I ran down to the water and grabbed a live Dovekie out of the sand. The poor thing had a broken right leg and was bleeding badly from the bill. It was very active and alert though. I brought it back across the street for everybody to see. I took lots of photos. Unforfortunately there was nothing we could do to save it though. We are providing the DOVKIE to the NC museum for their specimen collection.

I never imagined that I would get to have a Dovekie in the hand!

- Brad Carlson
Winterville, NC
BradCarlson1@hotmail.com








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