Tag Archives: birding tours nc

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

American Oystercatchers on Wrightsville Beach NC

It was so cool to spend a little time with an American Oystercatcher yesterday at Wrightsville Beach, NC.
These are gorgeous birds, always interesting to watch as they roam the beach in search of a snack.
They’re voracious eaters of mollusks, crustaceans, worms and other marine invertebrates which inhabit the intertidal areas of the Carolina coastline.


American Oystercatchers are a year round resident of southeastern NC.Each spring, they lay their eggs in shallow depressions in the sand among large nesting colonies of Terns, Skimmers and Plovers.

Unlike other shorebirds who hunt for fish above the water and dig for shellfish and marine worms on the sandy shoreline, Oystercatchers prefer to look for it’s namesake snack in exposed sand bars and mudflats during low tides. They’ll also forage on rocks, such as those found at jetties and around bridge pilings. Aren’t they beautiful?

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

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

New Birding trips are here just in time for migration

Now that spring has sprung in the Carolinas, it’s an exciting time to be a bird watcher!
Migration is getting underway and with it brings tons of beautiful birds into our state.
They’ll be a lot to see over the next few weeks and you can bet I’ll be out there birding and trying my best to grab some cool photos along the way.

Want to join me?
I’ve got 9 birding tours available for booking in destinations in North Carolina & South Carolina between now and June 30th.
Space is limited for these trips so reserve your spot today!
Looking forward to going birding with ya and cheers to a wonderful season ahead 🙂

Details and trip calendar links are found below!!!

Go Birding With Me: Best Life Birding Trips, Guided Group Birding Tours & Bird Photography Workshops



-Sally Siko
Best Life Birding

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

Spending time with a Yellow-throated Vireo at Brumley Nature Preserve

Every once in a while, I start seeing certain species of birds more often than others.
In this case I’ve noticed Yellow-throated Vireos seem to be flying around NC in greater numbers than in the past 5 years.
I spotted this one snacking on a caterpillar at the Brumley North Nature Preserve this past weekend.


While I don’t know the exact reason for the influx (it could just be luck-right place/right time scenario) I’m certainly happy to to have the opportunity to photograph them again without much effort.

Yellow-throated Vireos favor a different habitat preference to their more often seen relative, the White-eyed Vireo. They tend to shun pine barrens are best found foraging in the high canopy’s of the treetops in old growth deciduous forests and occasionally near wooded streams.
Interestingly, the Yellow-throated and White-throated Vireos share similar calls so finding one isn’t too difficult if you know what to listen for depending on if your in the woods vs. the field.



These cheerful little guys will stick around NC for just about a week or so before heading to their wintering grounds in Central and South America, south Florida and on through to the coast of Texas.
Get out and enjoy them while you can!

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the mighty mirrorless monster of a camera, the @canonusa
#R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, Field Notes

Summer Tanagers at the Pee Dee NWR

One can hardly hike more than a few minutes in the woods here in central NC without hearing the cheerful call of the Summer Tanager.
This was the case when I spotted this male singing in the trees at the Pee Dee NWR in Wadesboro NC last week. He was easy to find with that bold red plumage, especially when he landed on the bare branches of a dead tree near the shoreline of the lake.
Such a gorgeous bird!

Did you know that the Summer Tanager is the only entirely red colored bird found in the United States? Northern Cardinals and Scarlet Tanagers come close however both of those species also have black feathers on their bodies.
All three species get their bold red hues from carotenoid compounds which produce the red (and sometimes yellow) colors seen in the birds feathers. These are acquired through their diets (mainly through fruit), and are then processed in the body into pigments that are deposited in the growing feathers.

Summer Tanagers are generally spring and summertime residents of North Carolina.
They arrive in April and hang out until September before migrating south to Mexico, Central and South America. That being said, there are small but growing numbers of Summer Tanagers that stick around for the entire winter in the eastern part of the state provided that they have a reliable food source available to them via a feeder.
Pretty cool huh?
🙂

Oh btw, I’ve posted new birdwatching tours to the Pee Dee NWR (where I photographed this Summer Tanager) here on this website.
Wanna join me?
Check out the link below for booking details.

Birding Tours at the Pee Dee NWR

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the full frame beast of an SLR, the mighty @canonusa
#5Ds

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, Birdwatching News

Rare Bird Alert North Carolina: Roseate Spoonbills spotted in Raleigh at Lake Lynn

By: Sally Siko- Admin Birdwatching NC

Yesterday I received a rare bird notification from @eBird that a pair of Roseate Spoonbills had been spotted at Lake Lynn in Raleigh NC so I decided to go see if I could get a look at them with my friend Corie @calatta
We met up an hour later in the southern parking lot and walked to the north end of the lake where we were happy to find these beautiful birds hunting for a snack in the shallows with a Little Blue Heron
Nice to get a win so easily!


Roseate Spoonbills are normally found in southern Florida and along the coast of Texas during the summer which is why it was so unusual to find these two at Lake Lynn.
That being said, sightings of Spoonbills here in North Carolina have been on the increase in recent years though most of those have occurred in our southern coastal regions.



These lovely birds are best spotted in marshy areas foraging for a meal in the water or mudflats.
Sweeping their namesake spoon-shaped bill side to side in the shallow water, the Spoonbills mouth is partially open as their bill probes into the mud. When they stir up a fish or invertebrate, they’ll clamp that bill shut to capture their prey.
Their diet mainly consists of minnows, but they’ll also eat shrimp, crayfish, crabs, aquatic insects, mollusks, and slugs. Spoonbills will also snack on plants including the roots and stems of sedges.

I have no idea how long these two will stick around the Triangle for so if you can get out within the next day or two you might be able to find them as well.
For reference, I’ve included a Google Map pin drop showing the exact location of these birds at the north end of Lake Lynn (as of yesterday & today) to the end of this post.
Hope you are able to see them too!
Happy birding!
-Sally

Photos & Video by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the full frame beast of an SLR, the mighty @canonusa
#5Ds

By the way, check out the video of the Roseate Spoonbills in the Instagram version of this post below!

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

Grasshopper Sparrows at Mid Pines rd

My favorite bird from the trip to Yates Mill Park & Mid Pines Rd yesterday wasn’t a brightly plumaged warbler, rather it was this sweet Grasshopper Sparrow with a colorful personality!


I was thrilled to see this sweet little guy puffing out his feathers and singing his heart out on a fence post. He’d hop around and crouch low every so often then stand up straight to belt out his buzzycall of “tic tic tic pzzzzzzzzz”.
No doubt, he was doing his level best to attract a lady lol!


Grasshopper Sparrows prefer dry, open grassy habitats to hunt for a meal. As you may have guessed, their favorite food are indeed grasshoppers but they’ll eat any insect that they can catch as well as seeds.
These round sparrows aren’t the strongest flyers (something I noticed on this windy day as this bird struggled to fly at a distance greater than a few feet) so usually they tend to hunt for a meal on the ground. This makes them kinda tough to find (especially in favorite habitat of tall, thick grass) so the best way to locate one is to listen for their call.
I actually got pretty lucky here to catch a photo of one up on a fence post out in the open!

Though they do spend the wintertime in North Carolina, Grasshopper Sparrows are found in greater numbers during the spring and summer. Look for them in thick grassy fields, under power lines and recently clear cut areas through mid October here in the Tarheel state.

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the full frame beast of an SLR, the mighty @canonusa
#5Ds

Birdwatching News

Bird Watching NEWS: Birding tours now offered in the Raleigh-Durham N.C. area

By: Sally Siko

Come birding with me! Birdwatching NC now offers birding tours in central North Carolina.
I’ve just posted the Birdwatching NC spring birding trips schedule to the website.
Your guide for these first few trips will be me (the admin of of this website) Sally Siko.

A Wood Duck at Bass Lake Park in Holly Springs, N.C.


For now, I’m sticking to local tours in the Triangle area of central NC so locations included will be Yates Mill Park, Bass Lake Park and Jordan Lake Park.
That being said, I’ll be adding additional tours on the coast with expanded itineraries soon. Here is the link to see the upcoming tours.

Go Birding With Me: Best Life Birding Trips, Guided Group Birding Tours & Bird Photography Workshops



The first trip of the year will be at Jordan Lake on January 26th. We will set out in search of wintertime birds including, Bald Eagles, Cormorants, Kinglets, Gulls, Woodpeckers, Herons, Red-shouldered Hawks, cold weather Warblers and more.
Space is limited, check link below for tour details!

https://birdwatchingnc.com/birdwatching-n-c-trips-birding-in-north-carolina/birding-at-jordan-lake-park-trips/
A juvenile Bald Eagle soaring above Jordan Lake in apex, N.C.




Cheers to new adventures in the field in 2020!

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc
Canon 5Ds