Vertebrates at Pea Island NWR and Mattamuskeet NWR
(also Nags Head, Bodie Island Pond, Alligator River NWR,
and en route)
November 20-22, 2009
Weather
- November 21: some clouds, wind NNE 10-15 mph
- November 15: clear, sunny, wind NNE 10 mph
- Drivers and helpers: Rob Aldredge, Dan McGlinn, Cris Ledon-Rettig,
Alan Hurlbert, Alan Kneidel, Jonathan and Christine Micancin
Some highlights and notes ...
- Conditions had returned almost to normal after last week's storm.
The Oregon Inlet bridge was open again. On Saturday morning,
just as soon as we had crossed the bridge, we found 2
Common Eiders, 9 Brant, and an immature Great Cormorant, all in sight of each other!
- Wintering waterfowl make the national wildlife
refuges in northeastern NC famous. We found 22
species altogether -- 2 species of swans, 3 species of geese, and
17 species of ducks (8 up-ending ducks and 9 diving ducks).
Once again, the Common Eiders showed us their diving technique.
- Like last week, the Cattle Egrets were lingering farther north than
usual for winter. We located several species that normally spend
the winter farther south, but occasionally stay on the coast of North
Carolina -- House Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Baltimore Oriole.
The Common Eiders, on the other hand, were much
farther south than usual, probably having been blown southward by the
storm. One eider flew northward past the motel on Sunday morning,
no doubt heading back to its usual wintering area.
- We also located one bird far off-course from Europe, the beautiful
male Eurasian Wigeon on Lake Mattamuskeet, where it
was hanging out with
American Wigeons.
- The huge flock of Tundra Swans on Lake
Mattamuskeet huddled against a stretch of shore east of the old pumping
station. After some exploration we discovered that this shoreline
had no hunters' blinds, so it was a safe haven.
- We did get close enough to to this huge aggregation of swans to see
that it included very few young birds, 1% or less, just as we had noticed
last week when fewer swans were present.
- One spectacular sight of the weekend was the small flock of American White Pelicans soaring directly over our heads
against a clear blue sky! Although this species has become a
regular wintering bird at Pea Island and Mattamuskeet NWRs in the past few
years, they are still a magnificent sight.
- Mute Swans put on a show at Pea Island, where a pair charged and
supplanted several smaller Tundra Swans and then swam in "swan-boat"
display with lifted wings. This species has begun to nest at Pea
Island in the past few years. It is an invasive species spreading
southward along the east coast.
- Cattle Egrets are also an invasive species, which spread northward
from the Caribbean and Flordia during 1950-1970. This African and
south Asian species first appeared in northern South America in the
1940's. It might have crossed the Atlantic on its own, but more
likely it was assisted by a ship!
- Other invasive species included ... European Starling and Rock Pigeon.
We missed House Finch, a common bird throughout NC now. It spread
across eastern North America after a pet dealer released several illegal
birds (from California) in New York City before 1950.
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
| | |
| Red-throated Loon | 4 (N) |
| Common Loon | 22 (N) |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 25 (F, P, B, M) |
| Horned Grebe | 2 (N) |
| Northern Gannet | 100 or more moving
southward over the ocean (N) |
| American White Pelican | 8 (P) and 13
(M) including 11 soaring overhead against the blue
sky |
| Brown Pelican | 60 or so along the beach
(P, N) |
| Great
Cormorant | 1 immature on a piling with Double-crested
Cormorants (P) |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 90 scattered
(N, P, B, M) |
| Great Blue Heron | 20 (F, P, B,
M) |
| Great Egret | 100 incuding many in
marshes at Pea Island and along the canal at Lake Landing (B, M) |
| Snowy Egret | 60 mostly along the canal
at Lake Landing (P, B, M) |
| Little Blue Heron | 5 including 4 along
the canal at Lake Landing (P, M) |
| Tricolored Heron | 16 including 6 along
the canal (P, B, M) |
| Cattle Egret | 4 (B, M) late migrants,
including one beside the canal |
| White Ibis | 50 including 10 beside
the canal (P, B, M) |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | 1 immature
in a tree beside
the canal (M) |
| Tundra Swan | 3000 (P), 20,000 (M), with very few young |
| Mute Swan | 2 charged Tundra Swans then
swam with lifted wings (M, where it is an invasive species) |
| Snow Goose | 300 almost
all "snows" (P), 8000 mostly "snows" but with 10-20% "blues" and
heterozygotes (M) |
| Brant | 9 including a family with
3 young (P) |
| Canada Goose | 400 in scattered groups
(F, P, M) |
| Green-winged Teal | 2000 (P,
B, M) |
| American Black Duck | 500 -- many in
pairs (P, B, M) |
| Mallard | 30 (P, B, M) |
| Northern Pintail | 2000 (P, B),
5000 (M) |
| Northern Shoveler | 70 (P, B,
M) |
| Gadwall | 400 scattered
within flocks of other species (P, B, M) |
| American Wigeon | 50 (P, B), 2000
including many far out on the lake with Canvasbacks (M) |
| Eurasian
Wigeon | 1 male hanging out with American Wigeon but way
off-course from Europe (M) |
| Canvasback | 20 or more far out on
Lake Mattamuskeet (M) |
| Ring-necked Duck | 200 on a
borrow pit east of Plymouth (F), 80 (M) |
| Lesser Scaup | 60 (P) |
| Common Eider | 2
females at close range (P), a third flew northward over the
ocean (N) |
| Black Scoter | 20 flying southward over
the ovean (N) |
| Bufflehead | 100 (P)
|
| Hooded Merganser | 10 (P)
|
| Red-breasted Merganser | 5 (N)
|
| Ruddy Duck | 100 (M)
|
| Black Vulture | 15 (F) |
| Turkey Vulture | 80 or more scattered on
the mainland |
| Osprey | 1 (F) |
| Bald Eagle | 26 including 11 (F, east of
Plymouth), 1 (P), 14 (M) |
| Northern Harrier | 7 immatures (P, B,
M) |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 2 (B, M) |
| Cooper's Hawk | 1 (F) |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 13 (F, M)
|
| American Kestrel | 8 (F, M) |
| Peregrine | 1 (P) |
| American Coot | 300 (P, M) |
| Black-bellied Plover | 3 (P,
N) |
| Semipalmated Plover | 1 (P) |
| Killdeer | 6 (P) |
| American Avocet | 12 (P) |
| Greater Yellowlegs | 6 (P) |
| Willet | 40 on the beach (N,
P) |
| Marbled Godwit | 3 (P) |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 1 on the jetty
(P) |
| Red Knot | 2 on beaches (N,
P) |
| Sanderling | 60 on beaches (N,
P) |
| Purple Sandpiper | 1 (P) |
| Dunlin | 70 (P, M) |
| Wilson's Snipe | 3 (P) |
| Laughing Gull | 15 (N, M) |
| Ring-billed Gull | 150 scattered (N, P,
B, M) -- |
| Herring Gull | 150 scattered (N,
P, M) |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 200 scattered
(N, P, M) |
| Caspian Tern | 2 (adult followed by
begging young) lingering before heading southward (M) |
| Royal Tern | 2 also
lingering (N) |
| Forster's Tern | 20 (M) |
| Rock Pigeon | feral pigeons around
highway bridges and piers |
| Mourning Dove | 15 scattered inland |
| Belted Kingfisher | 5 (F, P, B, M)
|
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 1
(M) |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1
(M) |
| Downy Woodpecker | 2 (M) |
| Northern Flicker | 2 (B, M) |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 1 (M) |
| Eastern Phoebe | 3 (M) |
| Tree Swallow | 200 (M) mostly near
Stumpy Point
| | American Crow | 30 scattered
inland |
| Fish Crow | 20 (B, M) |
| Carolina Chickadee | 4 (M) |
| Brown-headed Nuthatch | 1 (B) |
| Carolina Wren | 2 (N, MM) |
| House Wren | 1 (M) |
| Marsh Wren | 2 (B) |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 4
(M) |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 6 (M)
often with flocks of chickadees and warblers |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 2
(M) |
| Eastern Bluebird | 10 (F) |
| American Robin | 20 (M) |
| Gray Catbird | 2 (P) |
| Northern Mockingbird | 4 (F,
N, M) |
| European Starling | flocks everywhere!
|
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 120 (P, B,
M) |
| Palm Warbler | 2 (M) |
| Common Yellowthroat | 1 (M) |
| Northern Cardinal | 2 (M) |
| Savannah Sparrow | 5 (P, M) |
| Song Sparrow | 10 (P, B, M) |
| Swamp Sparrow | 15 in marshes and beside
canals (P, M) |
| Swamp Sparrow | 4 (M) |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 700 in several
large flocks (F, P, M) |
| Eastern Meadowlark | 5 (P, M) |
| Boat-tailed Grackle | 80 including
both males and females (N, P) |
| Common Grackle | few (F) |
| Baltimore
Oriole | 1 heard (simple songs and harsh train) late migrant, near the same place as last week
(M) |
| House Sparrow | 4 (F) |
| | |
| TOTAL SPECIES | 109 |
| | |
Fishes
| | |
|---|
| Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus
(Clupeidae) | many small juveniles in Lake Landing Canal
(M) |
|
| Striped Mullet Mugil cephalus
(Mugilidae) | large
numbers in Lake Landing Canal (M) |
Amphibia
| | |
|---|
| Southern Toad Bufo terrestris |
(M) |
| Squirrel Treefrog Hyla squirella
| (M) |
| | |
Reptilia
| | |
|---|
| Yellow-bellied Slider Trachemys
scripta | many (M) |
| Rough Green Snake Opheodrys
aestivus | 1 (M) |
| | |
Mammals
| | |
| Gray Squirrel | 1
(M) |
| Nutria | 1
(M), an invasive species) |
| Gray Fox | 1 in clear view
(M) |
| White-tailed Deer | 1
(M) |
| Bottlenose Dolphin | few
(N) |
|