Wilmington, NC 5/27-5/31--Royal Tern, Anhinga, Brown Pelican, Pileated Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Painted Bunting

Pileated Woodpecker, Snow's Cut Trail

A non-birding trip to visit our friends who recently moved to Wilmington, NC produced six year-birds, only one of which was on a back-of-my-mind wish list. We were only there for three full days; each morning Rick & I would go out to one of the nearby marshes or woods and do a couple hours of walking and birding. Wilmington is on the northern part of a peninsula that tapers down to a little point where the Cape Fear River meets the Atlantic. To the east is the Intracoastal Waterway which runs between the "mainland" and barrier beaches. The habitat looks a lot like New Jersey or, for that matter, any coastal habitat on the east coast. Instead of pitch pines and jack oak, as we have in the Pine Barrens, or loblolly pines in Delaware, they have huge stands of long leaf pines and turkey oaks, but the tree function pretty much the same in attracting birds. 

The first place Rick took me was Fort Fisher SRA--it looked and felt a lot like Island Beach. When we were in Kure Beach, on our way to Fort Fisher, I looked out the front windshield and saw two Brown Pelicans lazily drifting south along the ocean. Since I had deliberately not done any research on what birds I might fight down there since I didn't want to be tormented, I was surprised to see them. Of course, there, they're common and in the three days we saw dozens of them, but the first ones are always sweet. 

When we started our walk on Fort Fisher Basin Trail the first bird we heard was unfamiliar to me. I opened up Merlin and it returned Painted Bunting. I played the song to confirm that that was what we were hearing, and it was, but finding it in the dense foliage was impossible--hard to believe with a red, blue, and green bird but we were able to rectify that later in the day when all four of us went to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington proper. There we again heard Painted Buntings, but it wasn't until Shari spotted one in a bald cypress that we were able to get eyes on one. 

Painted Bunting, Airlie Gardens

The trail took us out to a marsh and an estuary, and it was full of birds--especially Clapper Rails and White Ibises. White Ibises, from what I could glean, are more prevalent there than Glossy Ibis, and from my very limited experience I can confirm that, having seen lots of White Ibis (this morning three of them even flew over as Rick and I were walking the dog) and I only saw one Glossy in the three days of birding. I also heard the familiar, raspy call of the Royal Tern and then found a few hunting the water along with Black Skimmers, egrets, and pelicans. 

Brown-headed Nuthatch, Carolina Beach State Park

The next day Rick & I went to Carolina Beach State Park which features a 3 mile sandy trail through a maritime forest of the aforementioned long leaf pines and turkey oak. It started out very quiet with very few birds of any sort in attendance but after about a mile we started hearing some songs and one of them stopped me in my tracks. It was the unmentioned wish list bird--Brown-headed Nuthatch. I've seen them in Delaware, which is about the northernmost part of their range, but they're hard to track down there usually high up in loblolly pines. Here in one relatively short tree, we had four of them, one with an ant in its mouth, so there must have been a nest nearby. Unfortunately, they were backlit when I photographed them. We heard more as we continued our walk, and I think we finished up with a count of 6 which was probably an undercount. 

On Friday we took a quick walk along a trail that ran along Snow's Cut, which I think is man-made to connect two bodies of water for boating. I heard a rapid, repeating call that I first mistook for a cuckoo and then quickly realized was the long call of a Pileated Woodpecker. It sounded like it was right on top of us--and it was. Rick spotted it in a hole of a dead tree. It was in its nest, popping its head in and out. This was by far the best look I've ever had of a Pileated and the first look for Rick. We also heard another Painted Bunting and spotted it singing atop a dead snag. 

Later in the day the four of us took a walk along the Wilmington Waterfront. Wilmington dates back to colonial times and many of the buildings are still standing. For a lark, we took a one-hour boat tour that ran up and down the Cape Fear River between two bridges (I refrained from humming the Gilligan's Island theme song). I didn't bring my binoculars since it is geeky to be scanning birds while you're supposed to be socializing, but while we were on the river I looked up and saw a bird with a long thin neck flying over. A flying broom. "That ain't no cormorant," I said to myself. When it flew over the starboard side, I could tell it was an Anhinga. I was already composing the rare bird description in my head when I listed it on eBird, only to find that Anhinga is expected in that part of North Carolina. Later, when I told Shari about it, she started looking and found three roosting on a rotting pier in the river. 

Of the six year-birds 4 would have been rare treats in New Jersey. Only the pelican and tern do I expect to see relatively soon. For the 5 days we were in NC I had 65 species, starting with a Wild Turkey on the side of I-40 and ending with a couple of European Starling at a pit stop at Dunkin Donuts in Goldsboro. 

Species            First Sighting
Canada Goose    Carolina Beach Rd
Wild Turkey    I-40 E
Rock Pigeon    Wilmington Riverwalk
Mourning Dove    Wilmington
Clapper Rail    Fort Fisher SRA
American Oystercatcher    Fort Fisher SRA
Black-bellied Plover    Fort Fisher SRA
Willet    Fort Fisher SRA
Ruddy Turnstone    Fort Fisher SRA
Laughing Gull    Fort Fisher SRA
Black Skimmer    Fort Fisher SRA
Least Tern    Airlie Gardens
Forster's Tern    Fort Fisher SRA
Royal Tern    Fort Fisher SRA
Anhinga    Cape Fear River
Double-crested Cormorant    Fort Fisher SRA
White Ibis    Fort Fisher SRA
Glossy Ibis    Carolina Beach State Park
Black-crowned Night Heron    Fort Fisher SRA
Little Blue Heron    Carolina Beach State Park
Tricolored Heron    Carolina Beach State Park
Snowy Egret    Cape Fear River
Green Heron    Airlie Gardens
Great Egret    Fort Fisher SRA
Great Blue Heron    Fort Fisher SRA
Brown Pelican    Kure Beach
Black Vulture    Capeside Dr
Turkey Vulture    Airlie Gardens
Osprey    Fort Fisher SRA
Red-shouldered Hawk    Carolina Beach State Park
Red-bellied Woodpecker    Carolina Beach State Park
Pileated Woodpecker    Snow’s Cut Trail
Eastern Phoebe    Fort Fisher SRA
Great Crested Flycatcher    Snow’s Cut Trail
Red-eyed Vireo    Carolina Beach State Park
Blue Jay    Airlie Gardens
American Crow    Wilmington
Fish Crow    Wilmington
Carolina Chickadee    Wilmington
Tufted Titmouse    Wilmington
Bank Swallow    Snow’s Cut Trail
Tree Swallow    Cape Fear River
Barn Swallow    Fort Fisher SRA
Brown-headed Nuthatch    Carolina Beach State Park
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher    Airlie Gardens
Carolina Wren    Wilmington
European Starling    US-117 N
Gray Catbird    Fort Fisher SRA
Brown Thrasher    Wilmington
Northern Mockingbird    Fort Fisher SRA
House Sparrow    Wilmington Riverwalk
House Finch    Wilmington
Chipping Sparrow    Carolina Beach State Park
Seaside Sparrow    Fort Fisher SRA
Eastern Towhee    Carolina Beach State Park
Red-winged Blackbird    Fort Fisher SRA
Brown-headed Cowbird    Carolina Beach State Park
Boat-tailed Grackle    Fort Fisher SRA
Common Yellowthroat    Fort Fisher SRA
Northern Parula    Airlie Gardens
Pine Warbler    Carolina Beach State Park
Northern Cardinal    Wilmington
Blue Grosbeak    Carolina Beach State Park
Indigo Bunting    Carolina Beach State Park
Painted Bunting    Fort Fisher SRA

Painted Bunting, Snow's Cut Trail