Tag Archives: rare bird nc

Birdwatching News

NC Rare Bird Alert: Black-legged Kittiwake on Wrightsville Beach, NC

By Sally Siko

Just got home after spending the day birding on Wrightsville Beach NC.
I’d set out early this morning with my friend Corie to see if we could lay eyes on a reported Black-legged Kittiwake which had been spotted on Johnnie Mercers Pier.



Normally I don’t chase gulls, terns or pelagic species (because the ocean is freak’n huge lol!) and since I live several hours away from the coast, the odds of anyone bird still being in the same spot, are generally slim to none by the time I arrive.
This time was different because the Kittiwake had been observed actually sitting on the pier over the last few days so against my better judgement I said screw it, I’m going lol!

Now I really had my doubts that the bird would still be there so I was really happy to spot this feathered gem swimming right offshore (at very close range!) within 30 seconds onto stepping onto the pier!
Oh my goodness what a relief haha 🙂
I quickly snapped off a bunch of photos of the Kittiwake paddling in the water below and thought that this was the best view I’d get of the bird.
But then, the Kittiwake took off, circled overhead and landed right next to us on the pier railing (bullying off a Laughing Gull in the process lol).
So freak’n cool I can’t even 😁



So why has this bird been enchanting onlookers in North Carolina over the past week?
To most folks it looks like any regular Gull that you’d see begging for a snack at the beach.
This guy is different though!
The reason why this is such a nice bird to spot on Wrightsville Beach is that Kittiwakes are true pelagic seabirds, spending virtually their entire lives on the open ocean, only touching down on solid grounds in the far North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Arctic regions during their nesting season.


To actually see one up close, perched on a pier in North Carolina was truly a remarkable moment.
Oh and yessss it was a lifer to boot!
Wooohoo!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty 50MP monster, the @canonusa #5Ds

Birdwatching News

NC Rare Bird alert: Snow Buntings at The Alligator River NWR

By Sally Siko

Every so often a new bird pops up on the North Carolina rare bird alert which gets my attention.
Even though I’ve seen Snow Buntings before, it’s always a joy to try and go find one year after year when they make their appearance in the Outer Banks.
That’s why I was so excited to spot a pair of these gorgeous birds at the Alligator River NWR this past weekend!
Laying in the grass next to the road, it was thrilling to get a bunch of good portraits of them at such a close range.

Dedicated cold weather birds, Snow Buntings breed in the high Arctic. They nest in the crevices and deep cracks of rocks which provide protection from the Arctic winds.Though their nests are thickly lined with grass, feathers and tufts of fur, due to the extreme cold temperatures the female is unable to leave the nest so her mate is wholly responsible for feeding her while she is incubating the eggs.
It’s a good thing that the females are picky about choosing their mates as their life depends on him caring for at that time.



Often seen with flocks of Longspurs and sparrows, Snow Buntings are using spotted feeding on the ground, foraging for a variety of seeds and buds as well as insects and other small invertebrates, including small marine crustaceans when spending time in coastal areas.This pair spent most of their time either picking at spilled seed along a gravel rd or on the shoulder area hunting for insects in the grass.

The Snow Buntings normal wintertime range extends from southern Canada down to Pennsylvania on the east coast, across the upper Midwest over to western Oregon.They are also an infrequent visitor to the coastal areas of Virginia, Maryland and of course right here in eastern North Carolina too which is pretty neat!Look for them hiding on the low dunes, short grass/ sand flats, and on rock jetty’s and along gravel roads throughout the OBX from now through mid February.

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

Google Maps pin drop to the Buntings exact location at the Alligator River NWR below…

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

A rare bird encounter: Gray Kingbirds at Ft.Fisher North Carolina

By Sally Siko

Last month I took a trip to Ft.Fisher NC to try and find a pair of Gray Kingbirds which had recently been spotted in the area.
These handsome birds normally range from Florida south through the Caribbean down to South America so spotting one of them here in North Carolina would be a win on my yearly list!



As it so often goes when looking for a rare bird, it can take some time to narrow down a location of where the species in question will most likely be seen.
In this case I used my general knowledge of Kingbirds to help find this one in relatively short order.
In my experience photographing the Eastern Kingbird (a locally common species here in the eastern US), I know that I’ve always had the best luck by looking for them on power lines and fence rails overlooking open fields.
Since the property around the museum at Ft.Fisher does have a power line going over a field I figured that would be the most fruitful place to look for the Grays.
As luck would have it, there it was perched on an overhead line peering down at me while I took as many photos as I could before he flew away.
So cool!

Like many others in the Kingbird family, Grays have a reputation for being fearless and are known for their territorial behavior and displays of aggression towards other other birds.
Even those much larger than themselves, such as hawks, owls and crows can’t escape the ire of a territorial Gray Kingbird.
Heck, in Florida (where they spend their breeding season) they’ve even been observed harassing mammals, such as cats, dogs or humans that dare to venture too close to their nests.
Crazy huh?

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Field Notes, The Adventures of your bird watching Admin

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in Charlotte NC

By: Sally Siko

This past spring, I took a quick trip to try and find my first Scissor tailed Flycatcher at Ft. Fisher NC.
That lone fly catcher was a vagrant in the area and I certainly didn’t expect to lay eyes on another one until next year when I head out to Texas for my spring migration tour on High Island.

But as luck would have it, a pair of Scissor tailed Flycatchers have shown up in the Charlotte North Carolina area in June!
So I met up with my friend Corie to see if we could capture some better photos of this beautiful species.
This time I think I nailed it and am very pleased with how the photos turned out 🙂



The Scissor tailed Flycatcher’s normal range extends south from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, in areas of western Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, all the way down into Mexico and Central America.
This species is a rare sight indeed east of the Mississippi and certainly not a common bird to spot in North Carolina!
That being said, there seems to be an increase in sightings of the aptly nicknamed ‘Texas Bird of Paradise here in the Tarheel state which I find absolutely fascinating.

The flycatchers appeared to be a bonded male & female pair which makes me wonder if they’ve got a nest in the area.
I’d learned that they prefer to nest in trees or tall shrubs, usually on horizontal limbs about 7 to 30ft above the ground so I did spend some time checking the trees in the area to see if I could locate a nest but to no avail.
I plan to revisit the spot in a couple weeks so perhaps I might get lucky and confirm a nest site then.
We’ll see I guess 🙂



Btw, if you’d like to see these birds for yourself, I’ve included a Google Maps screenshot of their exact location in the last photo of this post.
*drawn purple lines show where the birds mainly hang out near the pin drop.
Be respectful of the property owners though as the land the birds are on is actually an Amazon distribution center!
Best advice is to stay on the side of the road where the drainage pond is.

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Birdwatching News, Out There with the Expert

North Carolina Rare Bird Alert: A mountain Bluebird at Wrightsville Beach, NC

Are these the prettiest pics of a Mountain Bluebird you’ve ever seen?
Lol, nope!
Yet, these are the photographs of the first Mountain Bluebird I’ve ever laid eyes on so they are beautiful in my eyes.
Better still, since my mighty megapixel beast the 5Ds is out of commission and I’ve loaned out my R5 and 600mm lens, I took these photos with my old warhorse team, the Canon 5Dmkii & a Canon 200mm lens.



Due to the distance limitations of the 200mm, I had to crop the photos but could only do so much.
Yet, it surprising how well my aged gear holds up against my contemporary equipment in regards to image quality.
Goes to show ya that the best camera for the job is the one you’re carrying at the time.
On this day, it is the capturing of the memory which counts most and I could not be happier with the results 🙂



Mountain Bluebirds are typically found in the Rocky Mountains and in other areas of the western United States and Canada.
That’s why I was so excited to have an opportunity to photograph this one close to home in Wrightsville Beach North Carolina!
What this little blue feathered gem was doing all the way out here is anyones best guess.
Happily though, this Mountain Bluebird displays similar behavior to our friendly native Eastern species so it was quite amicable to having its photo taken at a relatively close range.

Special thanks to @wrightsvillesup for their hospitality in allowing me to photograph this bird on their property 🙌

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the the (alive and still kicking!) @canonusa #5Dmkii

Birdwatching News, Out There with the Expert

North Carolina Rare Bird Alert: A Snowy Owl encounter in the Outer Banks

Each winter, a very special sort of tourist shows up in OBX of North Carolina, the Snowy Owl!


I’d seen reports two weeks ago that the bird was back in the Nags Head & Ocracoke areas so I hit the road to see if I could find this shy high Arctic visitor.
On our first trip I spent 4 days looking but came up empty.
I’ve had this bird on my target list for years but never seem to be in the right place at the right time to see it.
Once again I’d come up a day late and a dollar short on the Snowy Owl hunt.
Sigh…

Disappointed (but not unhappy because birding in the OBX during the winter is awesome owl or no owl haha!) I figured that I’d try again to find it whenever it popped up again in NC.
I kinda assumed that would be next year but as it turned out, I didn’t have to wait that long!
In fact, I was only home for about 24 hours when another alert was shared that the owl had been spotted near Pea Island again.
So, I repacked the bags (which had just been unpacked, lol!) and headed straight back out to Nags Head to try once more.
Day after day, I searched but with no luck.
Until the very last hour before heading home that is…

Finally, after a couple hundred miles of driving over two weeks, dozens of miles on foot hiking on sand, through snow, rain, wind and biting cold temperatures, my persistence paid off as my sweeping searching of the dune trail south off of Ramp 4 at Oregon Inlet yielded our first look at this elusive owl.


It was a real rush to be able to snap off a few photos of a bird I’ve been hoping to see for years. Although the encounter was brief, I’ll never forget twisting the barrel of my lens to zoom in on the birds white head poking up from behind a tuft of grass. That moment of realization that the search was over once the owls head was in focus was exhilarating.
It was also a tremendous relief to be able to exclaim out loud “I got it”!
Woohooo!



Special thanks to @apexbirdluver for the heads up 😉

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved 50MP beast, the @canonusa #5Ds

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, Birdwatching News

Rare Bird Alert North Carolina- Snow Bunting at Oregon Inlet OBX

This past weekend, I led a birding trip to the OBX and was pleased to show my guests a rare wintertime visitor to NC, the Snow Bunting!
It was such a joy to see how happy this bird made the people on the tour, so many big smiles, what a great way to cap off the day.

Snow Bunting at Oregon Inlet on Pea Island in the OBX, North Carolina



Dedicated cold weather birds, Snow Buntings breed in the high Arctic. They nest in the crevices and deep cracks of rocks which provide protection from the Arctic winds.
Though their nests are thickly lined with grass, feathers and tufts of fur, due to the extreme cold temperatures the female is unable to leave the nest so her mate is wholly responsible for feeding her while she is incubating the eggs.



Often seen with flocks of Longspurs and sparrows, Snow Buntings feed on the ground, foraging for a variety of seeds and buds as well as insects and other small invertebrates, including small marine crustaceans when spending time in coastal areas.
This particular bird spent most of its time either on the rocks overlooking the water or on the ground eating grass seed under the bridge along Oregon Inlet.



The Snow Buntings normal wintertime range extends from southern Canada down to Pennsylvania on the east coast, across the upper Midwest over to western Oregon.
They are also an infrequent visitor to the coastal areas of Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.
Look for them hiding on the low dunes, short grass/ sand flats, and on rock jetty’s in the OBX from November through February.

@sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my mighty 50 megapixel monster, the @canonusa #5Ds

Birdwatching News

Rare Bird Alert North Carolina- Ross’s Geese in Raleigh

By: Sally Siko- Admin Birdwatching NC

After finding the Ross’s Geese yesterday morning on Mid Pines Rd in Raleigh, I decided to take a trip back to the area that afternoon to see if I could grab a few extra photos of these beautiful birds.
Happily the decision paid off as I located the pair again swimming (and doing backflips lol!) on a nearby pond behind the Antioch Church off of Lake Wheeler Rd!

Ross’s Geese (morning shots with the Canon R5) Raleigh NC

The first set of photos shown above (morning) were taken with the Canon R5 and while they turned out pretty good, on my afternoon trip I brought my big boy, the 50MP Canon 5DS as I anticipated needing the extra large file size to allow for some post production cropping of the images. Check out those images below!

Ross’s Geese (afternoon photos) captured with the Canon 5Ds in Raleigh NC

*Geese can be kinda skittish so even when photographing them with a 600mm lens, I was still pretty far away so the ability that the 50MP Canon 5Ds offers to crop the photos without losing those feather details was important.

Ross’s Geese are an unusual sight in central NC as they typically migrate further to the east to spend the winter in our coastal waterfowl impoundment and marshes. Normally your best bet in seeing them is at Pea Island, Lake Mattamuskeet, and the Pungo Unit where they will hang out amidst flocks of Snow Geese.
Thus, seeing them in the Raleigh area is pretty special.
That being said, there have been growing numbers of sightings of Ross’s Geese further inland over the past 20 years so maybe this sighting is right on trend.

Since the Ross’s Goose and Snow Goose look so similar, it can make for a tough ID in the field.
The best way to tell them apart is that Ross’s Geese are smaller and lack the broad black edges of the bill (known as a “grinning patch”) that Snow Geese show.
They’ll stick around the Tarheel state until late February so if your winter birding plans lead you to our coast this winter, you should have a good opportunity to enjoy them for a few more months.

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my mighty twin dragons, the Canon R5 & the 50 megapixel monster, the @canonusa #5Ds

Birdwatching News

Rare Bird alert North Carolina- Say’s Phoebe in Gibsonville, N.C.

By: Sally Siko- Admin Birdwatching NC

After missing out last weekend, I finally got this morning to see the Say’s Phoebe that’s been hanging out at the Guilford County Farm in Gibsonville, NC.
Rarely seen on the east coast of the US, the Say’s Phoebe’s normal range extends from Alaska, throughout the western United States and down into Mexico.
The fact that this bird somehow ended up in central North Carolina is pretty cool!

This bird looks similar to the Eastern Phoebe except that it has a grey breast and a salmon colored belly. It even behaves in a similar way with tail flicking which I thought was pretty cute 🙂
Although I hadn’t seen one until today, I know that Phoebes prefer to hunt for insects at the edges of open grassy areas so when I set out to search for it I had a pretty good idea of where it would likely be.
It took about two hours of searching when the bird finally showed up in the corner of a field near one of the farm sheds.
Success!

Coincidentally, there was another large group of birders on the farm that day. While we didn’t interact with each other, I assumed they were searching for this bird too.
I quickly grabbed a few photos of the Say’s and then jogged up the fence line to see if there was anyone still hanging out from that group who’d like to see this bird.
Unfortunately, all of the birders had left the farm except for one guy (Hi Keith!) so he was the only one who got to view the Say’s with me.
Oh well, I tried. Lol, even when I’m not leading a tour I can’t stop myself from sharing my happy bird-nerd moments with others!

This particular bird has been hanging out at the farm for around 3 weeks so it’s likely that it’ll still be there for a few more days. It seems to prefer that field along northeastern corner of the bob wire fence line.

By the way, the Guilford County Farm park is public property and there is a public parking lot on-site so no worries about hiking around the grounds.
If you’d like to find it too I’ve included a Google map showing the exact spot where I found it below.

Happy birding!

-Sally

Birdwatching News

North Carolina Rare Bird Alert: Cattle Egret in Raleigh

One of the nice things about birding is that there’s always the potential to be surprised and delighted by unexpected finds in the field.
In this case, a Cattle Egret has shown up in the Raleigh NC area and seems to have made itself right at home with a herd of cows on Mid Pines Rd.



At first, the cow didn’t seem to mind its feathered companion but when the bovine stood up, the Egret hopped off and then proceeded to chase the hapless cow around the pasture.
For its part, the cow was unamused by the birds antics lol! It lowered its head and snorted at the Egret every time it approached leaving the bird to forage in grass for itself.



Cattle Egrets are a summertime resident of the Tarheel State but are a rare sight during the winter and even more so here in central North Carolina.
They breed in colonies on our barrier islands and inland in our southeastern counties on lakes and river that are in close proximity to agricultural fields.
As their name suggests they may be found feeding in the pastures looking for insects kicked up by herds of cattle.
Look for them in North Carolina’s southeastern coastal counties from mid March- early November or take a drive on Mid Pines Rd in Raleigh this weekend 🙂

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my magnificent megapixel monster, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds