Vertebrates at Pea Island NWR and Mattamuskeet NWR
(also Nags Head, Bodie Island Pond, Alligator River NWR,
and en route)
November 10-12, 2006
Weather
- November 11: warm, clear, hazy at sea with a light SE wind
- November 12: drizzle off and on with light wind until a stiff blow began
before lunch and then heavy rain after lunch
- Drivers: Jonathan Micancin, David Luther, Lindsay Berk, Pam Reynolds,
Nathan Putnam, Minna Wiley
Some highlights and notes ...
- Beautiful weather on Saturday -- but also lots of mosquitos! On
Sunday we dodged light rain and drizzle all morning.
- We found lots of species of ducks, herons, and raptors. The
weather allowed us to get great looks at many of them.
- Saturday started with a female Peregrine that
perched atop a utility pole and allowed close inspection in the sunshine
through our scopes. She had the pale breast and relatively narrow
sideburns of the arctic populations. And she was hungry -- twice she
showed her power in flight.
- The ducks on North Pond in Pea Island NWR included a
male Eurasian Wigeon, off course from across the Atlantic.
- A flock of American Avocets on South Pond demonstrated their feeding techniques with their unusual bills. We
noticed that many more had the straighter bills of males than had the almost
semicircular bills of females.
- On Sunday at Mattamuskeet the drizzling stopped while we watched at
least 8000 Snow Geese arrive to feed in a field
of black earth near US 264. Although we were not close enough to
count them, we could easily see the snow and blue morphs and many
heterozygotes.
- Although only a couple of people saw them, the 4 Greater White-fronted Geese that flew past Lake Landing
were a first for Vertebrate Field Zoology trips!
- Bald Eagles also set a record -- 26 for the
weekend -- 18 at the catfish ponds east of Plymouth on Friday afternoon
plus another 8 at Mattamuskeet.
- Piping Plover -- 4 immatures -- on the vast
beach south of Oregon Inlet late Saturday afternoon -- one of NC's federally
endangered species and the world's cutest bird.
- Not a single American Robin or Eastern Bluebird!
In the lists below . . .
- F = borrow ponds along US 64 from Tarrboro to Roper (Friday)
- A = Alligator River NWR
- N = Nags Head (near the Sea Foam Motel on the beach)
- P = Pea Island NWR
- B = Bodie Island Pond
- O = Oregon Inlet (jetty and nearby beach and dunes)
- M = Mattamuskeet NWR
Please send additions/corrections to
Haven Wiley
Reptilia
| | |
|---|
| Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys
scripta) | many (P, M) |
| Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra
serpentina) | at least 2 (P) |
| | |
Birds
| | |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 120 (F, P, M) |
| Northern Gannet | hundreds moving southward
over the ocean -- some plunging like spears into the sea (N,
P) |
| American White
Pelican | 19 on North Pond (P) where a small group
now spends the winter |
| Brown Pelican | many along the beach (P,
N) |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 3000
(N, P, M) |
| Great Blue Heron | many along ditches
and in ponds (F, A, P, M) |
| Great Egret | many around edges of ponds
(P, M) |
| Snowy Egret | 8 (P) |
| Little Blue Heron | 3 immatures
(P) |
| Tricolored Heron | 2
(P) |
| White Ibis | 70 (P, M) |
| Tundra Swan | 200 (P), 5000 scattered
(M), with lots of young |
| Greater White-fronted
Goose | 4 flew past Lake Landing (M) |
| Snow Goose | 200 (P), at least 8000
including all morphs (M) |
| Brant | 1 (P) -- unusual at Pea Island but
some spend the winter farther south |
| Canada Goose | scattered groups, pehaps
200 in all (P, M) |
| Wood Duck | 2 in flight (F) |
| Green-winged Teal | 200 (P, B) |
| American Black Duck | 150 -- many in
pairs |
| Mallard | 4 (P) |
| Northern Pintail | 5000 (P, B),
2000 (M) |
| Blue-winged Teal | 2 females
(B) |
| Northern Shoveler | 25 in small groups (P,
M) |
| Gadwall | 25 in small groups scattered among
flocks of wigeon |
| Eurasian Wigeon
| 1 male (P) |
| American Wigeon | 300 (P), 10000
(M) |
| Canvasback | 6
(M) |
| Redhead | one male (P) |
| Ring-necked Duck | 80 (F), 50 (M) |
| Greater Scaup | 40 flying south
over the ocean (P) |
| Lesser Scaup | 10 (F), 6 (M) |
| Black Scoter | 150 in small flocks
flying southward over the ocean (N) |
| Surf Scoter | 2 in a flock of Blacks
(N) |
| Bufflehead | 2 females in a flock of Black
Scoters (N) |
| Red-breasted Merganser | 40 in small
flocks flying southward over the ocean (N) |
| Ruddy Duck | 10 (F), 100 (P), 20 (M)
|
| Turkey Vulture | scattered on
the mainland |
| Osprey | 2 (M) |
| Bald Eagle | 26 total -- a record -- 18 (F), 8 (M) |
| Northern Harrier | 8 -- all females
except one immature male(A, P, M) |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | one (P) |
| Cooper's Hawk | one (M) |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 8 |
| American Kestrel | 3 |
| Peregrine | one female near Oregon Inlet
| |