Birding lady

When we were at Swanquarter NWR the other day Terry was playing with his camera. He got this of me checking out some Brown Pelicans and Hooded Mergansers. This scope, a Raven by Eagle Optics, is awesome. We have lots of fun with it and it has allowed us to identify many more birds than we could with just our binoculars. Terry is learning how to use his camera with the scope for bird pictures.

So many birds

Yesterday we went to Pungo Lake, which is located in the Pocosin Lakes NWR, and Swanquarter NWR. It was a beautiful, sunny day and just a little on the cool side. When we first got to Pungo Lake we were not sure about the place. It was dirt roads and we really were not seeing or hearing anything, and did not want to get stuck. When we found some protected water we were all set and watched birds for an hour or so. Among the Tundra Swans we saw some Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers and Coots. My favorite finds for that spot were finally seeing some Snow Geese and spotting an American Wigeon. While we were observing those birds a flock of hundreds of Snow Geese took off from the lake behind turning the sky white. Talk about a racket!! As we were making our way out of the Refuge the sky in front of us darkened with hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds. They were also very noisy. When we looked in the field where they came from we noticed that it was corn that had not been harvested. They were feasting. A little further down the road we spied a hawk. It was nice enough to sit still for several minutes and then when it took off it stayed close by so we were able to get some more field markings. We were quite excited when we were able to say that it was a Northern Harrier. That was a first for the both of us.---- When we left there we ended up at Swanquarter NWR. They had a pier there that really went out into the bay. Terry and I were amazed at how peaceful it was there. We met a nice local gentleman who gave us some fishing pointers and told us of some good birding spots. We saw some Buffleheads and Ruddy Ducks and a beautiful sunset. It was a really great day.

Different route

The sun decided to show it's face this morning so I went for a walk. I wanted to do a different route because I was getting a little bored with what I usually do. I had a wonderful surprise. There were lots of birds- eastern bluebirds, robins and juncos. The one bird that took me by surprise was Cedar Waxwings!! The tree was full of them. I almost stopped my walk to go get Terry, but I kept going. There had to be a dozen of them feeding in the tree. I was so glad that I changed my route this morning.

Pea Island NWR

On Friday Terry asked, "You want to go to the Outer Banks and go birding?" Well of course I did and away we went. We ended up at Pea Island NWR and had a great afternoon. There were a couple of places to park and walk in on nice boardwalks. There was also some nice elevated spots to do some great observing. We saw lots of Tundra Swan, they were so beautiful. I set up my scope and waited patiently and was able to identify Coot, Green-winged Teal, Bufflehead, Northern Pintail, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall, Ruddy Ducks and Red-breasted Merganser. We were also lucky to see some White Pelicans. They are usually not this far east so it was a great treat. We are looking forward to doing some more birding out there soon!!