Vertebrates at Pea Island NWR and Mattamuskeet NWR
(also Nags Head, Bodie Island Pond, Alligator River NWR,
and en route)
November 17-19, 2006
Weather
- November 17: cloudy with a stiff NNE wind tearing up the ocean
- November 18: sunny with a light NNW wind
- Drivers: Jonathan Micancin, David Luther, Courtney Endres, Buddy Whitman
Some highlights and notes ...
- The nor'easter on Saturday made the eastern side of North Pond the
sheltered side, so the geese and ducks were piled up close to the highway.
- The stiff northerly wind gave the Northern Gannets a tail wind, and they
were migrating southward at a rate of 50-80/minute on Saturday morning.
That's about 4000 Northern Gannets in the
hour we watched.
- Double-crested Cormorants that roosted in Oregon Inlet struggled northward
against the wind on their way to feed for the day -- at least 10000 on
Saturday and 15000 (with less headwind) on Sunday.
- White Pelicans again on North Pond -- they are
becoming regulars there in winter.
- Two male Eurasian Wigeon on the wrong side of
the Atlantic joined big flocks of American Wigeon on North Pond.
Their chestnut and golden heads glowed in the sunlight.
- A weird teal, with some characteristics of
nearby Blue-winged Teal and some characteristics of Cinnamon Teal (in female
or basic male plumage), made us study our books for awhile! We decided
that we could not determine its identity for sure. Perhaps it was a
hybrid!
- Two male Hooded Mergansers put on a show of diving in their best clothes!
- Bald Eagles set another record number -- 18 at
Mattamuskeet in one morning!
- A Merlin nearly caught one freaked out Yellow-rumped Warbler near Oregon
Inlet on Saturday afternoon.
- Four Piping Plovers once again ran with the
Sanderlings on the vast beach south of Oregon Inlet -- shaking their feet
on the sand when they paused -- a trick to locate invertebrates to eat.
Still the world's cutest birds!
- A Red-necked Grebe, much bigger than the
familiar Pied-billed Grebe, rode the flood current in Oregon Inlet, late
Satuday afternoon.
- A Horned Grebe joined PBGs in the canal at Lake Landing, close enough
for us to see the red of its eye.
- Pileated Woodpeckers and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker fed on dark berries,
while hanging upside down, in the crown of a tree at Mattamuskeet.
- Great clouds of Snow Geese were frustratingly far away in the eastern end
of Lake Mattamuskeet. Also undetermined thousands of Tundra Swans
flecked the lake like falling snow -- also frustratingly far away.
- In contrast, the usually good area near the former lodge had almost no
swans on Sunday. Perhaps the strong NNE wind the day before had
brought all the swans to the eastern end of the lake for shelter.
During a nor'easter the area north of the lodge would have been exposed to the
full force of the wind and waves. Evidently the swans had not
redeployed by the time we reached Mattamuskeet on Sunday.
- On an exploration into new territory for Vertebrate Field Zoology --
into Gull Rock Gamelands on the edge of Pamlico Sound -- we discovered few
birds. One of them though was a distant swallow with a buffy rump
-- no doubt one of the Cave Swallows that Ricky
Davis had seen there a couple of hours earlier. The bird we saw
was too far away for us to be sure it was not a Cliff Swallow -- although
at this time of year a Cliff Swallow (a migrant in coastal NC but
wintering in South America) might be less likely than a Cave Swallow (a
wanderer from southern Texas).
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
Amphibia
| | |
|---|
| Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris) | one calling (A) |
| southern Leopard Frog (Rana spenocephala) | one calling (A) |
Reptilia
| | |
|---|
| Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) | 1 (P) |
| Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys
scripta) | many (P, M) |
| | |
Birds
| | |
| Common Loon | 1 (N) |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 80 (F, P, M) |
| Horned Grebe | 2 (P, M) |
| Red-necked Grebe | 1 in Oregon Inlet Saturday evening (P) |
| Northern Gannet | 4000 migrating southward (N, P) |
| American White
Pelican | 22 on North Pond (P) where a small group
now spends the winter |
| Brown Pelican | many along the beach (P,
N) |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 15000 in huge flocks flying northward (N) -- scattered elsewhere (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 | 6 immatures, including one molting into adult plumage (P) |
| Tricolored Heron | 6
(P) |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | 4
(M) |
| White Ibis | 20 (P) |
| Tundra Swan | 400 (P), 10000 mostly in the east end of Lake Mattamuskeet (M), with lots of young |
| Snow Goose | 250 beside the highway (P), at least 8000
including all morphs (M) |
| Canada Goose | scattered groups -- 200
(P), 200 (M) |
| Green-winged Teal | 200 (P, B) |
| American Black Duck | 150 -- many in
pairs (P, B, M) |
| Mallard | 16 (P, B, M) |
| Northern Pintail | 8000 (P, B),
10000 (M) |
| Blue-winged Teal | 1 female and 1 male in basic plumage -- plus one aberrant teal possibly a hybrid Blue-winged X Cinnamon Teal (P) |
| Northern Shoveler | 60 in small groups (F, P) |
| Gadwall | 30 in small groups scattered among
flocks of wigeon |
| Eurasian Wigeon
| 2 males (P) |
| American Wigeon | 4000 (P), 3000
(M) |
| Canvasback | 100
(P, M) |
| Redhead | 5 (F, P) |
| Ring-necked Duck | 50 (F), 2 (P), 20 (M) |
| Lesser Scaup | 4 (P) |
| Long-tailed Duck | 8 flying southward over the ocean (N) |
| Black Scoter | 400 in small flocks
flying southward over the ocean (N) |
| Surf Scoter | 2 in a flock of Blacks
(N) |
| Bufflehead | 1 female in a flock of Black
Scoters (N), 2 females (M) |
| Hooded Merganser | 3 diving in North Pond (P) |
| Red-breasted Merganser | 70 in small
flocks flying southward over the ocean (N) |
| Ruddy Duck | 10 (F), 40 (P), 30 (M)
|
| Black Vulture | 3 west of Raleigh |
| Turkey Vulture | scattered on
the mainland |
| Osprey | 1 (F) |
| Bald Eagle | 25 total -- 6 (F), 1 adult (P), 18 almost all immatures (M) |
| Northern Harrier | 18 -- all females
(A, P, M) |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 2 (P), 1 (M) -- as usual elusive |
| Cooper's Hawk | 1 (P), 1 (M) |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 3 (F, M) |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 12 (F, M) |
| American Kestrel | 10 (P, M) |
| Merlin | 1 hunting Yellow-rumped Warblers (P) |
| Peregrine | 1 on Oregon Inlet bridge at dusk (P) |
| American Coot | in dense flocks -- in total
10000 (P), 20000 (M) |
| Black-bellied Plover | 4 (N, P) |
| Semipalmated Plover | 1 (P) |
| Piping Plover | 4
south of the Oregon Inlet jetty (P) |
| Killdeer | 5 (F) |
| American Oystercatcher | 3 south of the
Oregon Inlet jetty (P) |
| American Avocet | 50 sleeping and briefly in flight (P) |
| Greater Yellowlegs | 4 (P) |
| Willet | 4 on the beach (N) |
| Marbled Godwit | 1 on the beach (N) |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 1 on the beach
(N) |
| Sanderling | 350 on beaches (N,
P) |
| Dunlin | 50 (P, M) |
| Laughing Gull | 200 (N, P, M)
lingering before migrating southward |
| Bonaparte's Gull | 4 (N) --
the first to arrive from northwestern Canada for the winter |
| Ring-billed Gull | the most numerous
gull, on the beach and inland |
| Herring Gull | scattered (N, P,
M) |
| Great Black-backed Gull | numerous
everywhere -- harrassing coots (N, P, M) |
| Royal Tern | 10 (N, P, M)
including young following adults -- about to head south for the
winter |
| Forster's Tern | 15 (N, P,
M) |
| Rock Dove | feral pigeons around highway
bridges |
| Mourning Dove | 10 scattered on
the coast and inland |
| Belted Kingfisher | 10, scattered
|
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 1 (M) |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 (M) |
| Northern Flicker | 20 (P, M) |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 1 (F), 3 (M) |
| Eastern Phoebe | 4 (M) |
| Tree Swallow | 20 (M) |
| Cave Swallow | 1 in the distance at Gull Rock WMA -- previous sighting here 3 hours earlier |
| Blue Jay | 3 (M) |
| American Crow | scattered
inland |
| Fish Crow | lots (N) |
| Carolina Chickadee | 2 (P, M) |
| Tufted Titmouse | 1 (F) |
| Brown Creeper | 1 (M) |
| Carolina Wren | 3 (M) |
| House Wren | 2 (P, M) |
| Sedge Wren | 6 called in short
marsh (P) |
| Marsh Wren | 1 called in cattails
(P, B) |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1
(M) |
| Eastern Bluebird | 6 (M) |
| American Robin | 1 in pocosin in Gull Rock WMA |
| Northern Mockingbird | 3 (F, M) |
| European Starling | flocks everywhere!
|
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 100
(P, M) |
| Palm Warbler | 1 (M) |
| Northern Cardinal | 4 (M) |
| Eastern Towhee | 1 (M) |
| Vesper
Sparrow | 1 on Saturday afternoon (P) |
| Savannah Sparrow | 1
(P) |
| Song Sparrow | 5 (M) |
| Swamp Sparrow | 25 in marshes and beside
canals (P, M) |
| White-throated Sparrow | 4
(M) |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 6 (M) |
| Red-winged Blackbird | scattered
flocks (F, P, M) |
| Eastern Meadowlark | 2 (F, P) |
| Boat-tailed Grackle | many
(N, P) |
| Common Grackle | in flocks with other
blackbirds |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 1 at least (M) |
| House Finch | 1 (M) |
| House Sparrow | 2 in Tarrboro, 1 (N) |
| | |
| TOTAL SPECIES | 112
|
| | |
Mammals
| | |
| Gray Squirrel | 1 (M) |
| Nutria | 2 (M) -- introduced to the Outer Banks from South America |
| Raccoon | 1 (M) |
| White-tailed Deer | several
(F, M) |
| Bottlenose Dolphin | 2 (N) -- hard to follow in whitecaps |
|