SOUTHEASTERN COAST FIELD TRIP

MOREHEAD CITY / BEAUFORT AREA

DEPARTURE FROM BEHIND WILSON HALL, 8:00 AM, SATURDAY (APRIL 16)

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

*** NO GUARANTEES -- IN THE FIELD EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! ***

Saturday
8:00 AM DEPARTURE
12:00-4:30 Croatan National Forest (longleaf pine savannas)
along Millis Road, Little Road, or Catfish Lake
(Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman's Sparrow, Swainson's Warbler)
also picnic lunch (sandwiches!)
5:00-7:00 North River marshes (north of Beaufort)
(rails, willets, terns, sparrows)
also "a little something" to hold us until a late dinner!
7:30 dinner in Morehead City or Beaufort
spend the night at Institute of Marine Sciences dormitory
Sunday
6:00 everybody up ... for breakfast and packing
and for early morning birds!
7:30 departure
8:00-10:00 Fort Macon State Park and ocean piers
(loons, gulls, seabirds)
10:30-3:30 Bird Shoal (opposite Beaufort)
(Piping Plover, Wilson's Plover, sandpipers, terns)
also picnic lunch!
8:30 PM RETURN TO CHAPEL HILL -- late!

Our targets will be spring migrants, southeastern coastal specialities, and species restricted to salt and brackish marshes, estuarine mud flats, and long-leaf pine savannas.

Spring migrants might include sandpipers (and relatives), terns, and warblers.

Southeastern coastal specialties include Painted Bunting (will we be too early?), Chuck-Will's-Widow (too early?), and Wilson's Plover.

Species restricted to estuarine flats include plovers, sandpipers, Gull-billed Tern (and many other terns)

Species restricted to salt marshes include Clapper Rail, perhaps other rails, Long-billed Marsh Wren, and Seaside Sparrow, and both species of sharp-tailed sparrows.

Species restricted to long-leaf include Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman's Sparrow.

Federally listed endangered species include Piping Plover and Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

And who knows what else!