By Sally Siko
Tag Archives: obx bird watching
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
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
Spending time with Northern Pintails in eastern North Carolina
By Sally Siko
One of the best things about living in NC are all the interesting and beautiful ducks which arrive to spend the winter.
We’ve got Gadwalls, Black Ducks, Widgeons, Teal and Ruddy Ducks too but few can match the elegance of the Pintail.
They are truly unique looking birds and IMO are among the most visually striking ducks one can see here in the Tarheel State.
I’ve spotted a bunch of them this year while birding in the OBX and always look forward to showing them off to my tour guests whenever they make an appearance.
The drakes are easy to identify when swimming amongst large mixed flocks with their chestnut colored heads and namesake pointy tails.
The Northern Pintail boasts the widest range of any other duck seen in the United States. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, and are known to winter and breed on all continents except for Australia and Antarctica.
During the wintertime, large flocks of Pintail can be seen at many of our coastal refuge regions here in North Carolina, such as Bodie and Pea islands in the Outer Banks, Lake Mattamuskeet, Pungo Lake, the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, and parts of Pamlico Sound.
A surface feeding duck, they dine on aquatic plants, seeds, grass, small aquatic animals, and insects. Their long elegant necks enable them to reach deeper than other dabbling ducks for seeds, roots and tubers of underwater plants. During the wintertime, they’re also commonly spotted in eastern North Carolina feeding on the leftover grains found open farm fields situated near water. They’ll stick around here until late April and will return next September once more to spend the winter in eastern NC.
Aren’t they lovely?
Want to see these gorgeous ducks too?
I still have tour dates available for booking this year so if you’d like to join me for a birding trip in eastern NC, check the calendar for reservation and tour info.
Photo by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5
Marbled Godwits in eastern NC
By Sally Siko
Pleased to spend time with a resting flock of Marbled Godwits last week while birding in eastern NC.
I’d been scouting the area for newly arrived migratory waterfowl when I discovered this sleepy group snoozing on the shore of a large pond.
I ended up just chilling on the sand next to them for about 30 minutes taking in the nice view and of course a few photos too.
Marbled Godwits are an autumn and wintertime resident of North Carolina and found mainly looking for a meal on the mudflats in the shallow water tidal marshes and impoundments of our coastal counties.
Their diets mainly consist of marine worms and small crustaceans but they’ll also eat insects and other invertebrates when the opportunity arises.
When feeding, they’ll move slowly probing for food underneath the mud with their sensitive bill. If a Godwit finds prey deep down they’ll insert their entire bill into the mud, sometimes submerging their entire head if it means coming up with a snack.
Yes, muddy headed Godwits are a thing lol!
Standing at around 18 inches tall, these attractive cinnamon colored birds are relatively easy to ID in a mixed flock of smaller shorebirds such as sandpipers, Willets, Dowichers and plovers.
They’ll stick around the coastal counties of NC through late March so you’ve still got plenty of time to see one for yourself this year.
Aren’t they beautiful?
Photos & video by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5
Come live your Best Life Birding in the Outer Banks!
By Sally Siko
Hey, she looks familiar….
Yep that’s me Sally Siko and my friend Aspen Stevanoski featured in this commercial for the Outer Banks Tourism Bureau inviting you to come live your ‘Best Life Birding in the Outer Banks!
We had a lot of fun during this shoot and I was honored to be a part of this project.
The OBX of NC holds a special place in my heart.
Those sun bleached beaches, rich green marshes and sparkling blue waters are home to thousands of incredible birds which call North Carolina home throughout the year.
That being said now is the most wonderful to go birding along our coast as thousands of migrating ducks, swans, warblers and shorebirds arrive in North Carolina to spend the winter months.
So what are you waiting for?
Come with me and discover the enchanting world of birds in the Outer Banks of NC.
You’ll be glad you did!
To learn more about what makes the Outer Banks so special please visit the link below.
https://www.outerbanks.org/raw/#birding
By the way here are a few behind the scenes photos that Aspen and I took on the shoot day.
Enjoy lol!
Sunrise start to the day. Just gorgeous!
Just a couple of girls who love photographing birds and wildlife in eastern NC lol!
My view from the kayak heading out over the Roanoke Sound
Uh oh…. so I accidentally stepped in a hole underwater and my boots got filled with water and mud.
Aspen trying to get my boot off after the shoot. My socks swelled up with water and made it damn near impossible to remove my boots from my feet. Lol it took two people to pry them off. Thanks Nic and Aspen lol!
Some equipment for the commercial
The view from the bird platform on Pea Island
Hi ya!
Spending time with a Eurasian collared Dove in the OBX
I’ve always held a fondness for pigeons and doves. When I was a kid I even had a flock of homing & fancy pigeons plus a few doves to care for as well.
That’s why I was so happy to add this Eurasian Collared Dove to my yearly list earlier this month while birding on Ocracoke Island in the OBX.
These lovely birds are not native to NC.
Back in the 1970’s the species escaped from an aviary in the Bahamas and then spread into Florida. From there the doves continued to move north into Georgia and South Carolina.
Finally in 1994, the first recorded sighting of a Collared Dove in North Carolina occurred in the Outer Banks at Salvo.
By the early 2000’s, a few breeding populations were established in our southeastern coastal towns.
Today, though there are a few reports of Collared Doves appearing inland, their steady march north appears to be halted for the time being as they appear to only occur along our south barrier islands.
Though there aren’t many of these beauties here in NC, they are relatively easy to find through the year in the southern OBX. They are best spotted in suburban areas in the same types of areas where rock doves and Mourning doves occur such as in parks, on sidewalks and back yard lawns.
They’re also commonly seen up high, perching on power lines and on the tops of limbs in dead trees.
Even if you can’t see them just listen for their calls of kuk-kooooo-kuk which is pretty loud and distinct from the familiar cooing of other dove species.
Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved 50MP beast, the @canonusa #5Ds
A Crow encounter in the OBX
Now here’s another bird I’ve seen about a zillion times yet have very few decent photographs of, a Crow.
As common as this species may be, they are wicked smart and often camera shy despite their boisterous and often inquisitive personalities.
That’s why I was stoked to be able to snap off a couple shots of this one from my car while driving through a campground last week on Cape Hatteras.
Sure, these are not the most epic of outdoor nature photos since the crow is chilling out on top of a picnic table but I sure was glad to be able to spend a few precious minutes photographing this handsome fellow at a relatively close range.
With their glossy black plumage and familiar croaking calls, even when at a great distance the American Crow is one of the easiest birds to ID in the field.
Or so you might think, lol!
In fact we’ve got another species of Crow here in North Carolina which can muddy up the waters of a definitive ID.
The second species is the Fish Crow and unfortunately they look nearly identical to the American Crow.
Other than the fact that Fish Crows are usually found near water (hence the name) it’s almost impossible to tell these two species apart other than by their call (fish crow- a horse sounding ca, caw ca caw vs. cawwww caawww of the American) and (sometimes!) upright or huddled posture while calling.
The truth is that despite the fact that I spotted this bird in the dunes near the ocean I’m not 100% certain weather this is a Fish or American Crow because it never vocalized.
Whichever the species I was glad to spend some time with him 🙂
Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved 50MP beast, the @canonusa#5Ds
Spending time with Boat-tailed Grackles on Jennette’s pier in Nags Head NC
Spending time with a Common Eider on Jennettes Pier in Nags Head NC
By: Sally Siko
Last week, I returned to the OBX of North Carolina to lead a birding trip.
As always, I arrived a couple of days early to scout out the area to make sure all of the expected species were where they were supposed to be.
After spending the day on Pea Island, I headed up to Jennettes Pier to see if I could catch a glimpse of some sea birds hunting for a meal on the Atlantic.
There was plenty to see including Black Scoters, Common Loons, Gulls and Grebes but most of them were flying far offshore. Only the Brown Pelicans were swooping in at close range.
By 4:45, daylight fading fast I was about to leave when this lovely Common Eider hen flew in and landed alongside the pier.
Although I certainly wish I could have photographed this beautiful bird from a lower vantage point, the last few minutes of golden hour light was simply too good to pass up for catching these portraits.
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 so we’ve still got plenty of time to enjoy them.
Aren’t they wonderful?
🙂
Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5