Tag Archives: birding tour north carolina

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

Canvasback Ducks in eastern NC

By Sally Siko

Few species of waterfowl capture my attention quicker than a Canvasback.
I photographed this pair while birding in the Outer Banks region of NC.
The largest species of diving duck in North America, these birds are absolutely regal looking as the glide across the water.
One of my favorite things about the Canvasbacks drake’s appearance are their vibrant blood red eyes paired with that dark red head.
 When you make eye contact with them, it feels like they’re staring directly into your soul haha!
The hens are quite lovely too dressed in soft tan, cream and warm brown plumage. Their understated elegance is much appreciated when watching them glide through a flock of raucous wigeons and coots.

A wintertime resident of North Carolina, Canvasbacks are found in our coastal counties from late October through early April. They are usually spotted in large bodies of shallow slow moving waters such as marshes, estuaries, lakes and bays. The large freshwater ponds here in the OBX are perfect examples of their preferred habitat. Voracious consumers of aquatic vegetation, their favorite food is wild celery.
So much so that the Latin species name of the Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) is similar to that of the wild celery (Vallisneria americana). A case of “you are what you eat” in feathered form lol!
They are also fond of eating pondweeds, water lilies, sedges, mollusks, small crustaceans, minnows and insects.

I’ll be returning to the OBX this weekend to learn another birding trip and am hoping that I’ll have another opportunity to catch a few shots of them this winter before they depart for their breeding grounds in the spring.
I can’t wait to get back out there!
By the way, if you’d like to see this species for yourself, I’ve added 40 new dates of Birding trips in the Outer Banks between now and the end of the year.
Reserve your spot now as these tours fill up quickly.
Check the calendar below for more information or shoot me a DM anytime with questions.
Happy birding!
-Sally



Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, The Adventures of your bird watching Admin

Common Eiders in the OBX

By Sally Siko

While birding in the OBX last month, I ran into a fellow bird photographer friend, Jeff Lewis. We chatted for a few minutes about all the cool birds out there when he mentioned that he’d just seen a pair of Common Eiders at Jeannette pier on Nags Head.
Thus, thanks to him I was able to spot these beauties swimming, right underneath the pier.
Although I certainly wish I could have observed this beautiful bird from a lower vantage point, the opportunity to photograph the species was simply too good to pass up.
Big shoutout to Jeff for putting me onto these ducks!



Measuring 25-27 inches in length with a wingspan stretching 41 inches, Common Eiders are the largest species of duck in the northern hemisphere.
Their size non withstanding, Eiders are agile swimmers. They spend a great deal of their time at sea diving beneath the waves in search of mussels, clams, scallops, sea urchins, starfish, and crabs resting on the ocean floor or clinging to rocks and jetty’s.
 Because their prey is often located in shallow water, they are more easily found then other sea duck species when birding on the shoreline.



Common Eiders are a wintertime visitor to the coastal areas of NC.
Interestingly, 95% of sightings of this species in the Tarheel State comprise of adult females and immature males while the bulk of adult males appear to spend the winter in New England and Newfoundland.
Look for Eiders in coves, near inlets and especially around bridges, piers and rock jetties. Basically anywhere along the oceans edge where mussels and crabs are present.
These beautiful ducks will stick around NC until early April. I can’t wait to get back out there this winter to see them again!


Aren’t they wonderful?

Photos by Sally Siko of @bestlife_birding captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

Spending time with the Snow Geese in eastern North Carolina

By Sally Siko

While birding in the OBX, I was enjoying photographing a pair of Northern Shovelers when in the distance, a large flock of birds caught my eye as they came in for a landing.
They appeared as tiny specks on the horizon but as soon as I put my 600mm lens on the flock, I instantly knew that finally the Greater Snow Geese had arrived!
I quickly hopped back into my car drove a little further south to where I’d seen the birds touch down.
Wow!
It was so worth it to drive a few minutes because when I pulled off of the road to get a better look, I found a couple hundred of the Geese foraging in the mudflats right next to the hyway.
It was absolutely thrilling to be so close to these gorgeous birds as they picked and prodded through the mud to find a snack.



The Greater Snow Goose is a wintertime visitor to the coastal regions of North Carolina and are often found in great numbers (by the thousands!) at the Pungo Unit, Lake Mattamuskeet and at the Pea Island NWR in the OBX.
Interestingly, only one population of Greater Snow Geese exists in the world. In addition, the species movements as a whole is almost entirely confined to the Atlantic flyway of North America.
Greater Snow Geese breed in the Canadian High Arctic, and on the western coast of Greenland. This makes the Greater Snow Goose one of the most northerly breeding geese in the world.


They’ll stick around in N.C. through late March before they make the trip north again so you’ve still got time to see these beauties for yourself too.
I’m actually headed back east tomorrow and again this weekend to lead a couple birding tours.
I’ve also got several more birding trips scheduled in eastern NC in 2024 too so if you’d like to join me out there check the calendar for trip reservations & info.
Happy birding!
-Sally



Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

Spending time with Ring-necked Ducks in Wilmington NC

By Sally Siko

One of my favorite wintertime species to see year after year is the Ring-necked Duck.
I photographed this one last week paddling around a small pond at a High School in Wilmington, N.C.
It was neat to watch him and his companions swimming, diving, quacking and flapping as they strutted their stuff on the open water.
As seen here, the adult males have a glossy purple, blue and green-ish colored black head, a black back, with well-defined gray sides and a white stripe of plumage between the sides and the breast.
Their bills are a light gray with a white ring and a black tip.
Their namesake cinnamon-colored neck ring is usually not visible but occasionally you can see it if they have their next stretched out, and lighting is just right! 
Check out the photo below in this post to see that sneaky ring for yourself 😉



These good looking birds breed in small areas of Alaska, across central and eastern Canada, south throughout the northern United States and into northern California and Colorado.
They spend the winter along the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts and and across the southern U.S. all the way down south into Mexico, Central America, and even the the Caribbean.

Lucky for us, Ring-neck’s are among North Carolina’s most commonly found diving ducks during the winter months from the mountains to the coast.


You can see Ring-necked Ducks here from mid to late October to late March and early April throughout the state.
Look for them foraging for a meal in large ponds and wide lakes, with forested shorelines.
Interestingly, they usually forgo inhabiting the deeper middle portions of large lakes and open waters, preferring to find a meal much closer to the shoreline.
This makes them a bit easier to see (and photograph) than other species of other diving ducks, something I am immensely grateful for!

By the way, I’ve added over 80 new groupbirding tour dates to my trip schedule. If you’d like to join me out there, check out the link in bio for booking information 🙂

Photos by Sally Siko of @bestlife_birding captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, The Adventures of your bird watching Admin

A Tricolored Heron encounter at Ft.Fisher NC

By Sally Siko

Check out this gorgeous Tricolored Heron. I spotted him a couple days ago while birding in the Wilmington area at Ft.Fisher NC.


I’d just finished photographing a Coopers Hawk when I spied this guy hanging along the edge of a small pond (more like a big puddle) in the marsh.
For the most part the heron stayed still as a stone until it let out a big yawn, then started staring intently into the water below. After about a minute it shot its bill into the water striking at a fish. Unfortunately the heron came up empty yet remain undeterred in its focus to catch another meal.
What a beauty!



Though Tricolored Herons are a year round resident of North Carolina, they are technically a migratory species which tend to over winter here in lesser numbers than which are found during the summer.
They prefer to hunt and nest in salt and brackish water areas such as tidal marshes and mudflats found along our coastlines (the habitat here at Ft.Fisher is absolutely ideal) but Tricolored’s may also occasionally be spotted looking for a meal in freshwater environments (especially marshes & shallow ponds) in the inland areas of eastern part of the state.

Photos by Sally Siko of @bestlife_birding captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY, Field Notes, The Adventures of your bird watching Admin

Photographing Bald Eagles at Jordan Lake Dam

By Sally Siko

Each December a large flock of Bald Eagles make their way south from eastern Canada to come spend the winter at Jordan Lake Dom at the mouth of the Haw river.
Photographing these eagles is not easy though.



The Eagles usually start their day hanging out relatively close to the dam.
The problem comes in when the sun rises over the river, causing the entire scene to be harshly backlit when trying to photograph the birds downstream.
This means that cloudy (flat light) conditions are much better in the mornings for photography unless there is fog.
Plus if it’s too cloudy you’ll have to bump up your ISO values to brighten your exposures which can lead to grainy looking images.
Of course you could shoot at a slower shutter speed and lower aperture number (to lighten up your dark exposures) but then ya risk blurry images without utilizing a fast shutter speed, combined with a deep depth of the field.
Tbh, this is frustrating.
When it comes down to it, the key to success is to keep coming back and experimenting with your camera settings at different times during the day during different types of weather conditions.



Today was the first time in many years where I was rewarded with good cloudy lighting combined with little fog and multiple birds.
I’m still chasing that “epic” Bald Eagle photo, today wasn’t it but as always this was a learning experience.
Here are my camera settings (on a Canon R5 paired with a Sigma 600 mm contemporary lens) so that you can see the choices I made to get these shots.

*ISO 3200
(to brighten the dim lighting)

*Shutter speed 1/1000
(to capture the fast moving eagles in flight)

*F-9
(allowing a deeper depth of field for my auto focus to work with, as the birds flew towards and away from my position)

I’ve also included a screenshot of the weather conditions I recorded (via RainCrow) while I was shooting to give you an idea of what I was dealing with.
I hope that this helps others who want to get photos of these beautiful birds.
They truly are magnificent!



Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

Wintertime Purple Sandpipers in North Carolina

By Sally Siko

Finally saw my first Purple Sandpiper last month while birding in the OBX.
It was so exciting to get a great look at this lovely little bird as it hunted for a snack on the pier abutments next to the cove of Oregon Inlet.
Purple Sandpipers are not a common sight along our coast. I’d been trying to see one for years but just hadn’t been at the right place so laying eyes on this one felt really good!



Purple Sandpipers breed farther north than any other birds that stay on the shore in the winter.
In the winter, they are found from the coast of Quebec and Newfoundland in Canada to the coast of New England, and as shown here as far south as the Carolinas.
They are even found along the eastern coasts of the Great Lakes in the central US.
Outside the Americas, their breeding range extends through Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and from northern Norway to southern Belgium. They also live in parts of Europe, including Faeroe Islands, Britain, Ireland, Norway, eastern Russia, the coast of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, western and northern Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

Unlike other North Carolina shorebirds they are found exclusively on wave-washed rocks and bridge pilings.
This makes them a little easier to rule out an ID from a distance if you’re viewing a similar looking species on the beach.
Yet, because their habitat is restricted to a handful of jetty and rock pile sites along several hundred miles of our coastline, it is believed that only 30-60 individuals are found in the state each year.
Some of the best locations to spot a Purple Sandpiper in the Carolina’s include the basin pond at Fort Fisher, the rock jetty’s and pier at Oregon Inlet, Ft.Macon SP in NC and the jetty at Huntington Beach SP in SC.
They’ll stick around from now through early April so you’ve got plenty of time to see one

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Birding Tours in the Outer Banks
Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, North Carolina rare bird alert

Vesper Sparrows on Mid Pines Rd. Raleigh NC

By Sally Siko

Here’s another uncommon bird I spotted while birding in Raleigh NC, the Vesper Sparrow.
I’d set out to find one of these beauties along Mid Pines road and was rewarded with some great close up looks as they perched on the fence line.
I’ve seen this species before in the same area but the only photos I’d ever managed to take were terribly lit and from below so it was nice to actually capture a couple shots at eye level.
I know sparrows don’t typically catch anyone’s attention but I absolutely adore these tiny birds.
Aren’t they sweet?



Although they do breed in the western counties of the Tarheel state, the Vesper Sparrow are an uncommon sight here in NC. Usually they are spotted during migration but unfortunately numbers of this species are in overall decline so seeing one is indeed a treat at anytime of the year.
As with many other sparrows, the Vespers favor weedy field habitats with sparse grass cover mixed with bare ground. Interestingly they seem to like hanging out with Song Sparrows and Savannah Sparrows so it’s worth double checking who’s who when ya encounter mixed flocks.
The easiest way to ID these guys is to look for a streaky breasted sparrow that has prominent white eye ring combined with white outer tail feathers which are most noticeable when they’re in flight.



These lovely feathered gems should hang out in central North Carolina until mid March.
If you’d like to find these birds at Mid Pines Rd, I’ve included a couple screenshots of their exact location in this post.
I hope that you get to see them too!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa

Birdwatching News

Rare Bird Alert North Carolina: Vesper Sparrows at Mid Pines Rd in Raleigh

By Sally SIko

Here’s another uncommon bird I spotted this week while birding in Raleigh NC, the Vesper Sparrow.
I’d set out to find one of these beauties along Mid Pines road and was rewarded with some great close up looks as they perched on the fence line.
I’ve seen this species before in the same area but the only photos I’d ever managed to take were terribly lit and from below so it was nice to actually capture a couple shots at eye level.
I know sparrows don’t typically catch anyone’s attention but I absolutely adore these tiny birds.
Aren’t they sweet?

Although they do breed in the western counties of the Tarheel state, the Vesper Sparrow are an uncommon sight here in NC. Usually they are spotted during migration but unfortunately numbers of this species are in overall decline so seeing one is indeed a treat at anytime of the year.
As with many other sparrows, the Vespers favor weedy field habitats with sparse grass cover mixed with bare ground. Interestingly they seem to like hanging out with Song Sparrows and Savannah Sparrows so it’s worth double checking who’s who when ya encounter mixed flocks.
The easiest way to ID these guys is to look for a streaky breasted sparrow that has prominent white eye ring combined with white outer tail feathers which are most noticeable when they’re in flight.

These lovely feathered gems should hang out in central North Carolina until mid March.
If you’d like to find these birds at Mid Pines Rd, I’ve included a link below of their exact location.
I hope that you get to see them too!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa#R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

Spending time with the American Wigeon in eastern NC

By Sally Siko

One of my favorite visitors in NC are the American Wigeons.
I absolutely love their plumage patterns featuring that striking mix of bright green, white and warm brown feathers.
They are fun to photograph too!
These guys have boisterous personalities, constantly stirring up trouble in a mixed flock in an effort to snatch a meal from their rivals lol!
I captured these images last year while birding in the OBX. It’s been a long year waiting for December to roll in and I can’t freak’n wait to get back out there next week to enjoy these beautiful feathered gems again 🙂



A wintertime resident of the Tarheel State, the American Wigeons breeding range extends from the state of Alaska south through Canada’s Prairie Provinces and down through the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region.
Each autumn they fly south to spend the cooler months in Mexico and the Caribbean Islands as well as locations along the Pacific, Gulf and Atlantic coasts here in the United States.



Preferring large open bodies of water away from the woods, large flocks American Wigeons are a fairly common sight in the eastern Piedmont region and coastal areas of North Carolina.
Look for them in wide open freshwater marshes, lakes, rivers, ponds, brackish bays, impoundments and estuaries from now through late March/early April.

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5