Vertebrates at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Mattamuskeet NWR
(also Nags Head, Bodie Island Pond, Alligator River NWR,
and en route)
November 13-15, 2009
Weather
- November 14: cloudy, foggy, intermittent drizzle, wind NNW 20
mph
- November 15: cloudy, foggy, wind NNW 15 mph
- Drivers and helpers: Rob Aldredge, Sumit Dhole, Lisa
Mangiamele, Alan Kneidel, Will Mackin, Minna Wiley
Some highlights and notes ...
- Arriving the day after the end of a a four-day nor'easter (the worst storm at Nags Head in 6 years), we found the
Sea Foam Motel still standing (with all letters of the roof sign in
place!) but with sand washed as far as the road and the sandbags in front
of the motel under assault by a ferocious surf. The Oregon Inlet
bridge had been closed because of impassible roads on the far side.
- Wintering waterfowl make the national wildlife
refuges in northeastern NC famous. We found 18
species altogether -- one species of swan, 2 species of geese, and
15 species of ducks. Diving ducks were scarce, but the Common
Eider showed us how they dive.
- After the strong northerly winds, it is not surprising that we located
one northern duck that was farther south than
usual, the female Common Eider at the Oregon
Inlet Fishing Center. It allowed close looks while it dived for
food, once surfacing with a Blue Crab to eat.
- More surprising were the species that had stuck out the storm farther north than usual in November ... Cattle Egrets,
Blue-winged Teal, and Barn Swallows. Another late migrant
that sometimes winters in coastal North Carolina was the Baltimore Oriole near Lake Landing at Mattamuskeet NWR.
The oriole sang simple songs and uttered its harsh notes.
- The party that returned to Oregon Inlet on Saturday afternoon had
great looks at a species that was off-course from Europe (Lesser Black-backed Gull) and a species listed as
endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Piping
Plover).
- At Lake Mattamuskeet, we found a large congregation of herons and
egrets along Lake Landing Canal, where a couple of fishermen were hauling
in cast nets full of Striped Mullet and small juvenile Atlantic Menhaden.
- The highlights at Lake Mattamuskeet included an immature Bald Eagle
harrassing flocks of Northern Pintail and Green-winged Teal.
Sometimes as many as 10,000 ducks filled the sky around
the hunting eagle.
- Later an adult Bald Eagle caught an American Coot (while we were not
paying attention) and then proceeded to dismember, disembowel, and
otherwise rip it to pieces to eat. Fish Crows gathered below the
feeding eagle to pick up scraps. The feeding adult eagle and its
nearby mate could not, however, stop a first-winter
immature eagle tackling the feeding adult and stealing its prey!
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 or over the ocean)
- B = Bodie Island Pond
- O = Oregon Inlet (jetty and nearby beach and dunes)
- M = Mattamuskeet NWR
Please send additions/corrections to
Haven Wiley
Birds
| | |
| Common Loon | 12 (N) |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 6 (B) |
| Northern Gannet | 60 or more moving
southward over the ocean (N) |
| Brown Pelican | 50 or so along the beach
(B, N) |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 60 scattered
(N, M) |
| Great Blue Heron | 20 (F, B,
M) |
| Great Egret | 10 mostly along the canal
at Lake Landing (B, M) |
| Snowy Egret | 80 mostly along the canal
at Lake Landing (B, M) |
| Little Blue Heron | 5 including 1
adult (B), others along the canal at Lake Landing (M) |
| Tricolored Heron | 15 including 10 along
the canal (B, M) |
| Cattle Egret | 3 at the Oregon Inlet
Fishing Center (an invasive species and late
migrants) (B) |
| White Ibis | 30 (B, M) |
| Tundra Swan | 30 (A), 6000
(M), with very few young |
| Snow Goose | 300 almost all "snow"
morphs (M) |
| Canada Goose | 400 in scattered groups
(F, A, M) |
| Green-winged Teal | 6000 (A,
M) |
| American Black Duck | 250 -- many in
pairs (B, A, M) |
| Mallard | 50 (B, A, M) |
| Northern Pintail | 1000 (B, A),
8000 (M) |
| Blue-winged Teal | 3 females (late migrants) (B, M) |
| Northern Shoveler | 12 (B,
M) |
| Gadwall | 300 in small groups scattered
among flocks of other species (B, A, M |
| American Wigeon | 4000 (B, M)
mostly on Lake Mattamuskeet |
| Canvasback | 4 far out on
Lake Mattamuskeet (M) |
| Ring-necked Duck | 300 on a
borrow pit east of Plymouth (F) |
| Greater Scaup | 20 (N) |
| Common Eider | 1 female at
close range at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center (B) |
| Black Scoter | 150 flying southward
over the ovean (N)
|
| Red-breasted Merganser | 15 (N)
|
| Ruddy Duck | 200 (M)
|
| Black Vulture | 1 (F) |
| Turkey Vulture | 60 or more scattered on
the mainland |
| Bald Eagle | 17 including 2 (F) and 15
(M) |
| Northern Harrier | 8 -- all immature
(A, M) |
| Cooper's Hawk | 3 (F, A, M) |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 12 (F, A, M)
|
| American Kestrel | 7 (B, A, M) |
| Merlin | 2 (M) |
| American Coot | 5000 in dense flocks,
one killed and eaten by Bald Eagles (M) |
| Black-bellied Plover | 4 (N) |
| Piping Plover | 1
on the much reduced beach Saturday afternoon (an endangered species) (B) |
| Killdeer | 30 (B, A, M) |
| American Oystercatcher | 1 flying over
Lake Mattamuskeet (an unusual place for this coastal species)
(M) |
| Greater Yellowlegs | 9 (A, M) |
| Willet | 100 on the beach (N,
B) |
| Marbled Godwit | 1 (N) |
| Sanderling | 300 on beaches (N,
B) |
| Dunlin | 80 (B, A, M) |
| Wilson's Snipe | 2 (B, A) |
| American Woodcock | 2 (A) |
| Laughing Gull | 5 (N, M) |
| Ring-billed Gull | 75 scattered (N, B,
M) -- most have yet to arrive for the winter |
| Herring Gull | 60 scattered (N,
B) |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 250 scattered
(N, B, M) |
| Lesser Black-backed
Gull | 3 off course from Europe (N, B) |
| Caspian Tern | 6 lingering
before heading southward (M) |
| Royal Tern | 3 also
lingering (N) |
| Forster's Tern | 8 (M) plus
some 50 seen by Will Mackin in Kitty Hawk |
| Rock Pigeons | feral pigeons around
highway bridges and piers |
| Mourning Dove | 70 scattered on the
coast and inland |
| Belted Kingfisher | 8 (F, B, M)
|
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 2
(M) |
| Downy Woodpecker | 1 (A) |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 1 (M) |
| Northern Flicker | 6
scattered (B, A, M) |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 2
(A) |
| Eastern Phoebe | 4 (A, M) |
| Tree Swallow | 200 (A, M)
| | Barn Swallow | 4 late
migrants (all others are already in South America!) (P) |
| American Crow | scattered inland |
| Fish Crow | 80 (N, M) |
| Carolina Chickadee | 3 (M) |
| Carolina Wren | 2 (N, M) |
| House Wren | 3 (M) |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 1
(M) |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 (M) |
| Eastern Bluebird | 4 (F) |
| American Robin | 120 (F, A, M) |
| Gray Catbird | 1 (M) |
| Northern Mockingbird | 8 (B,
A, M) |
| Cedar Waxsing | 20 (F) |
| European Starling | flocks everywhere!
|
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 150 (B, A,
M) |
| Palm Warbler | 1 (M) |
| Common Yellowthroat | 2 (M) |
| Northern Cardinal | 1 (M) |
| Eastern Towhee | 1 (P) |
| Song Sparrow | 12 (F, N, A, M) |
| Swamp Sparrow | 6 in marshes and beside
canals (A, M) |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 8000 in several
loarge flocks (F, A, M) |
| Eastern Meadowlark | 2 (A) |
| Boat-tailed Grackle | 20 including
both males and females (N, B) |
| Common Grackle | 2000 mostly
in one flock (A) |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 50 (M) |
| Baltimore
Oriole | 1 heard (simple songs and harsh train) late migrant (M) |
| House Sparrow | 10 (F, N) |
| | |
| TOTAL SPECIES | 96 |
| | |
Fishes
| | |
|---|
| Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus
(Clupeidae) | many small juveniles in Lake Landing Canal
(M) |
|
| Summer Flounder Paralichthys dentatus
(Paralichthyidae) | 1 caught in Lake Landing Canal
(M) |
|
| Striped Mullet Mugil cephalus
(Mugilidae) | large
numbers in Lake Landing Canal (M) |
Amphibia
| | |
|---|
| Unknown toad Bufo
(unknown species) | called
briefly (A) |
| | |
Reptilia
| | |
|---|
| Yellow-bellied Slider Trachemys
scripta | many (M) |
| | |
Mammals
| | |
| Nutria | 1
(M, where it is an invasive species introduced from Argentina) |
| White-tailed Deer | 1
(M) |
|