Some 4th of July beach birding

Yesterday my family and I went to the beach, not much on birds, but there was a couple of things of note. Least Terns, American Oystercatchers, Green, Great Blue,and Tricolored Herons, tons of Great Egrets, Royal Terns, Brown Pelicans, Ring-billed, Herring and Laughing Gulls, White Ibis, and many others.
The Biggest excitement though, was on the way back, about 20 minutes from the beach in the Croatan National Forest--the road runs through the forest. I saw a bird fly up from the shoulder, and it flew alongside our car for a minute--Cattle Egret!! Although not even that good a bird, it was a state bird for me.

Birding up the Neuse River

Common Loon

Northern Broken-Dash

Northern Broken-Dash

Creole Pearly-Eye

Dusky Dancers

Silvery Checkerspot

Halloween Pennant

Stream Bluets

Sorry about the pics being separated from the text, and also for being out of order, I will have to practice some to get this right.

Tuesday I walked along the Neuse River up to Falls Dam, mainly to see what leps and odes I could find, but also for any birds that might me around. Started off with all the normal stuff, including Indigo Buntings, Bobwhites, Orchard Orioles, chats, yellowthroats, etc. Also all the normal damselflies/dragonflies. The first thing of note was a very nice pair of Stream BLuets, only the second time I have observed This damselfly while I have known what it is.

Crossing the river, I came across a number of Dusky Dancers mating, this is the first time I have seen a male of this species. Up the riverbank, I started walking along, with a beautifully fresh Horace's Duskywing, as well as a number of Great Blue Herons and Swallows. I found a beautiful Silvery Checkerspot as well, I managed to get good pics of this guy.

Only a couple of feet further along, I found a Creole Pearly-Eye, almost positive on the ID on this guy, as I've had some trouble differentiating these guys from the Northen Pearly-Eyes that are more common, but which I haven't seen many of lately.

Also right around here was what looked like a quite worn Northern Broken-Dash, I'm not sure on this guy though, as I don't know what worn Little Glassywings look like, so I posted some pics of it, sorry for the bad quality. THere were also a number of people fishing, one guy was throwing some bread in the river, and there were dozens of HUGE fish coming do eat it. I found a Red-banded Hairstreak that of course wouldn't pose for pics before going into the river to wade up to the dam.

THere were hundreds of damselflies, as well as lots of dragonflies, including an Illinois RIver Cruiser coursing over the river. At this same place, I saw a snake drop into the water from an overhanging branch, always interesting to see while wading through the Neuse River. Almost at the river, I caught sight of a swimming rodent swimming upriver. It jumped onto a rock long enough to recognize it as a Muskrat before jumping back in. Pretty cool!

I then walked under the bridge and walked up to the dam. THey were mowing the grass, and there were thousands of little bugs swarming around, which attracted dozens of Wandering Gliders and some Black Saddlebags. Going along the meadow path on the lake side of the dam, I caught sight of a large, satyr-like butterfly flashing yellow wing patches. Common Wood-Nymph! It landed, but wouldn't let me very good pics--it led me on a long chase through the woods instead.

Down by the lakeshore now, I found a Familiar BLuet(probably Familiar), and watched some people wakeboarding on the lake. Walking up on the dam, I found that all the Cliff Swallow nests were empty, and indeed, I haven't seen a Cliff Swallow in number of days. Right under the the dam, next to the cones, I saw a cormorant-like bird diving. I of course expected it to be a cormorant, but when it came up, it turned out to be a Common Loon! This is a very good bird for this time of year, indeed, I have not heard of a Common Loon this time of year in North Carolina ever.

After taking some pics with by underqualified 200mm lens, and watching it for a while, I headed over the to other side of the dam, where there is marshy pond right next to the spillway. There was a white-eyed vireo in the brush, but I wanted to check out the dragonflies here. They weren't as good as I had hoped, but there were a number of male Spangled Skimmers, something I have never seen before.

Leaving the dam, I found a large number of Halloween Pennants in a brushy area, all perched on top of stalks, giving good pics. Not anything new on the way back

Random pic.--test

This is just a test for downloading pictures onto blogger.com.

This is a Northern Pearly-Eye taken near the Neuse River earlier this year.

Birding from the Car

This Past weekend, I had to go to my sister's swim meet in Goldsboro, NC. We left my Dad's house in Greenville at 7:00 o'clock or so, and went down highway 13 and others. There is great birding habitat along these roads, and I would love to bird here at my leisure, but I was stuck IDing birds at 65 mph.

First off, Loggerhead Shrike, Blue Grosbeak, RW blackbird, Indigo Bunting, and others, as well as more common stuff. A green Heron flew over, as well as another medium sized heron that I think might have been a night-heron, but the views were horrible. Next mentionable birds were a Kestel, Meadowlark, and kingbird.

The biggest surprise, and the best bird of the day was seen while passing a huge field plower that was kicking up alot of dust and insects. Flycatching over this field were three Common Nighthawks! My first year bird in over a month.

No pics unfortunatly, I still have not photographed any shrikes, even though they're common, because i only see them while speeding down some highway.

Next...

Anyway, I posted a random picture i pulled off of my documents, and after much deliberation, came up with a name. Although sort of a lame name, and probably already used by someone else, I think it sums up what this blog is about--exactly what the title is.

First Post

I have decided to start a blog, for my own sake and for the enjoyment of others (yeah right). Anyway, this is mostly a test post, so sorry for the boringness