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OBX trip report: bittern, r.n. grebe, etc.



Ever since the extremely good coastal trip with the CHBC in Jan., I've been
planning to get back to the Outer Banks for more winter birding. I'd been
warned not to expect to see as many birds this late in the season, but
neither that, nor ice storms at home deterred me from going through with my
plans to get in one more trip to the greater Manteo area. While it's true
that we saw fewer than 50% of the number of species that I logged on the
CHBC MLK weekend trip, it's also true that I had some extremely memorable
views of several species that I really wanted to see, and I got to show
somebody some of the wonders of birding. That's the key thing.

The trip highlight was seeing an Am. Bittern at 50mph along the highway S.
of S. Pond on Pea Island. The bird stayed stationary right on the shoulder
of the road long enough for me to put the truck in reverse and come back up
even with him . For 8-10 minutes we had this bird solidly in our binos just
a mere roadwidth from us. He stayed there while we observed him at extreme
close range, and didn't even flinch while other vehicles drove right past.
He was simply hilarious. In trying to blend with the vegetation behind him,
he pointed his bill straight up and simply froze. After awhile, he started
to undulate his neck to simulate blowing reeds. The funny thing was that he
wasn't really in the reeds, but was in front of them, which basically
highlighted him instead of camoflaging him. It was a hoot. It was really
hard to decide to start the truck and leave such a fantastic, silly bird. I
could've watched him for a very long time. He made me laugh, and didn't
even take flight when I did laugh at him. A mile or so down the road, we
saw a Peregrine sunning on an old abandoned bridge near a boat launch. 

At Pea Island North Pond we were treated to Tundra Swans, Snow Geese,
pintails, gadwalls, a tri-colored heron and a meadowlark that posed for us
in absolute picture perfect light. We also ran into Rick Knight at the
visitor's center, who mentioned seeing a Red-necked grebe back across the
bridge at the marina on the opposite side of Oregon Inlet. We took our time
getting up there. Along the way, we met another birder who was interested
enough in the red-necked grebe sighting to head straight to the marina.
Meanwhile, we poked around the South side of the Oregon inlet and were
rewarded for our tardiness with an American Oystercatcher and a pair of
red-breasted Mergansers.

When we finally got to the marina, we did a slow cruise around the parking
lot and determined that there wasn't anything out on the water. Once again
we ran into the previous birder. This time he was distraught. He'd left his
Kowa scope set up at the marina, but had left to make a phone call. When he
came back it was GONE! I thought about this poor guy losing his entire
spotting scope rig all weekend. Folks, keep good track of your equipment!!!
I've heard of this kind of thing happening to another birder, and in both
cases, it didn't take very long at all for the scope to disappear. 

At Bodie Island pond we had a spectacular view of 5 White Ibis. They flew
slowly in front of us and seemed to want to make sure that we got a very
good look at them as they lazily banked around us. Oddly, we did not see
one single "shorebird" at this location. No dowitchers, no sandpipers, not
even a killdeer. That's how the whole trip went. We only saw one single
Willet. It was the only typical shorebird of the entire weekend. However,
various waterfowl were still plentiful, and by the end of the weekend, we
were confidently IDing pintails, N. shovelers, buffleheads, gadwalls,
ring-necked ducks and green winged teal even at fair distances. 

After the absolute worst shrimp salad that I've ever had, (at T.L.s in
Manteo -- NOT recommended!!!), we again headed south to Pea Island, since
it seemed like there was more happening there than on Bodie. At the SOUTH
side of Oregon Inlet, off the rock jetty, we did finally see the Red-necked
grebe in non-breeding plumage. It was WAAAY out there, and it took 50x to
really get a good look. Note, that this is NOT where the bird was seen
earlier in the day. Poking around the general area of the Old Coast Guard
station, and the beach in front of it, still didn't turn up any shorebirds.
But we did see some starlings chase a Kestrel off the roof.

Coming back to Manteo, we found a little fishing pier jutting out into the
brack just past Whalebone Junction. While sitting at the table there, we
were treated to a Kingfisher battling the wind. He'd fly up to the same
exact spot in the air and hover. After a minute, he'd dive. After several
false dives and low pullouts, he finally plunged headfirst into the water
right beside an uneasy looking Great Blue Heron. Finally, the Kingfisher
came up with a small minnow in his beak and flew to a foam chair floating
in the marsh. He sat there on that plastic chair looking like he was
extremely pleased with himself. 

At Alligator River NWR, the Milltail Rd. area again proved to be N. Harrier
heaven. There were one or two in just about every field. In fact, it was
possible several times to get 3-4 of them in one binocular FOV. The real
find here, for me, was seeing half dozen N. Bobwhite walking along the road
just mere feet in front of the truck. They knew enough to be wary, but
barely enough to get out of the way. Seeing them at such close range was
fun. The other real find at ARNWR, was finding the Sandy Ridge Wildlife
Trail at the very end of Buffalo City Rd. Walking the boardwalk trail
through primordial forest, we felt like we were pushing a Pileated
Woodpecker ahead of us. At the very end of the trail, I did indeed get a
good look at him as he flew away from us. Also at the end of the trail were
hundreds and hundreds of yellow-rumped warblers. There were so many that
the air was alive with them in the way that it can be alive with gnats.
Coming back the boardwalk trail, I glimsed a nanosecond view of a very
small round black bird that ran, (not flew) under the boardwalk. Could this
have been a Black Rail? It was definitely a bird on obvious stick legs,
(not a mammal), but I didn't have a long enough or good enough view of it
to really see anything else. This Sandy Ridge trail might well be a good
place for migrating warblers later in the season.

All in all this was a very rewarding trip, and the biggest reward to me,
was that the sightings above did just a little bit more to push my
girlfriend solidly into being enthusiastic about birding. ;-) The thing
about this trip wasn't WHAT we saw, but the context that we saw it in. 

Mike Swaim
Orange County, NC