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Biriding in Surf City & Ft. Fisher North Carolina – Video birdwatching adventures

A few days ago, I had the chance to head down to the Surf City, N.C. area to photograph a home for a real estate listing.
The interesting thing was that the owners and the real estate agent from Intracoastal Realty specifically wanted me to photograph the birds found in their yard and in the local area too!

A Red-winged Blackbird black-birding as hard as he can in a backyard of a home in Surf City N.C.


Knowing that this property was a fantastic place to view all kinds of shorebirds as well as Painted Buntings and Boat-tailed Grackles made me the happiest birder/ photographer ever! I couldn’t wait to get started

Love this view! Could totally picture sipping coffee and spotting winter migrants moving around in the marsh from here.
Great Egrets
Great Egret
Brown Pelican

I arrived at sunrise to capture pictures of the home, then spent the morning photographing the birds in the inter coastal marsh which was the backyard.

I thought it was really cool that this house was just a short walk away from the front door! No need to worry about finding a parking spot for 24/7/365 beach access. Priceless!

I also took a 3 min walk right across the street to take some photos of the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous out there!
From Snowy Egrets to Pelicans, a Painted Bunting and Purple Martins, I ticked 15 different species in under 10 minutes so all in all, a wonderful to start the day!

Surf City beach home for sale on Sandy Lane. Any place that boasts Painted Buntings right in the backyard is a birders paradise in my book!


It would be pretty awesome to live at this home if you’re a birder, that is for sure 🙂
If you’d like to see the house & property, here’s a link below…

VIEW HOME

After finishing up at the house, I headed out to nearby Kenneth Batts Family Park in Surf City to see what else I could find.

Boat Tailed Grackle
Black Skimmers

About two minutes after I my feet hit the boardwalk, I spotted a pair of Black Skimmers flying low over the water hunting for food. Check them out in action in the video at the top of this page!
So cool!

Hiding in the shadows, a Painted Bunting in a backyard in Surf City, NC

After a quick lunch break, I took a relatively short drive south to the Ft. Fisher SRA in search of the perfect Painted Bunting shot.
I’d found a couple earlier that day in Surf City but they were hiding in the shadows so the photos weren’t great, lol!

White Ibis at Ft. Fisher
A Willet at Ft. Fisher
Laughing Gull

I chose Ft. Fisher because it offers the ideal habitat needed for finding Painted Buntings and other wonderful shorebirds.

Painted Bunting at Ft. Fisher
Well worth searching for, a colorful male Painted Bunting at Ft. Fisher, N.C.


Within just a few minutes of walking, the scrubby dense brush piles and open areas yielded me what I’d been searching for, a gorgeous male Painted Bunting singing away on his perch in perfect light.
Success!

Photos by Sally Adams Siko
Canon 5Ds