Spooky Tree
I saw this tree this past Spring and have been saving it for Halloween.
Two crops, I couldn’t decide which one I liked best.
Spooky Tree
“Come Here, So I Can Tell You Something”
Seemed appropriate for the day!
(Sorry for another absent from blogging and reading blogs. We left Outer Banks and drove 1,000 miles to Gulf Shores, Alabama, which after a beautiful week there, Hurricane Zeta decided to head towards there as well….. Soooo, we left Alabama and drove 600 miles to get out of harm’s way, to Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte, Florida. Whew! I’ll be back in couple days, catching up with my Outer Banks photos, and more…..I haven’t stopped taking photos!)
Lighthouses: Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island
I’ve visited two of the five Outer Banks lighthouses.
The first is the most famous of the five, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
North of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the Bodie Island Lighthouse.
Bodie Island Lighthouse
Bodie Island Lighthouse
Bodie Island Lighthouse’s Fresnel Lens
Bodie Island Lighthouse’s Fresnel Lens
American Golden-Plover at Oregon Inlet, NC
We’ve enjoyed being at the boat docks late day at Oregon Inlet to watch the off-shore charter boats return with their catch.
I would also watch and photograph the Brown Pelicans, Boat-tailed Grackles, and Killdeer that hung around there too.
But, I was really looking for a specific bird. Sightings had been confirmed an American Golden-Plover was seen at the marina. But I never did find it, and soon sightings were no longer reported on eBird. I was disappointed I missed this plover’s rare appearance.
Almost two weeks had passed. I was at Pea Island NWR when I got a tip from another birder that the American Golden-Plover was back at Oregon Inlet, she had just seen it there a short while ago.
I was ten minutes away. Off I went! I pulled into the marina’s parking lot and went to the area she mentioned; and bingo, there it was, foraging in a large grassy area just as she said, all alone. I photographed the plover from my car so I wouldn’t scare it off.
Welcome to my bird lifer list, #214 American Golden-Plover! 💃
American Golden-Plover
American Golden-Plover
This plover is considered one of the fastest fliers among shorebirds. No doubt, as it migrates every year from Arctic Alaska and Canada to southern South America, a very long distance.
It is most common for the American Golden-Plover to do a circular migration, migrating in the fall down the East coast of North America, flying offshore nonstop and returning in the spring up through the heartland of our continent via the Great Plains and the Mississippi Valley.
This one must have needed a break on its nonstop flight south!
American Golden-Plover
American Golden-Plover
American Golden-Plover
Back to the fishing boats. For those of you who love fishing, here’s a few photos I also shot while hanging around the marina.
Boat-tailed Grackle on one of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center signs
Half of the charter boats at the marina
Happy fishermen
Dolphin Fish
Yellow-fin Tuna
Happy fishermen
Fishing reels
Two big Wahoo and happy fishermen
Other Wildlife at OBX
I do have a passion for birds, but I also love and enjoy photographing all wildlife, great and small.
Here’s some of what I’ve happened upon during my walks at Pea Island NWR and along Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Grasshopper
Moon Jellyfish
Cannonball Jellyfish
If you missed my post on another jellyfish, Blue Buttons, click here, they were gorgeous!
Gulf Fritillary
Gulf Fritillary
Black Racer
Black Racer
As I headed to an observation deck at Pea Island NWR, a female White-tailed deer came out of the brush. She stayed ahead of me, walking a little, then stopping to see where I was. I followed, and stopped when she did.
I felt like I was playing the children’s game, “Red Light, Green Light”! 😅
“Red Light”
“Green Light”
“Red Light”
“Green Light”
“Red Light”
We continued our game, all the way to the observation deck.
Okay, now I’m wondering if she’s going to walk up on the deck. 🤔
White-tailed Deer & Pea Island Observation Deck
I wasn’t sure what to do. She waited there several minutes and then turned to her left and started walking away. I continued to and up on the observation deck and saw her heading away, with a glance back at me several times.
“Goodbye”
I’ve never been escorted to an observation deck by a deer before! 😊
“Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.” — John Muir
Little Bigger Birdies
The last post was the little birdies. This post is sharing birdies a little bigger. 🙂
Belted Kingfisher
Gray Catbird
I’ve only captured one Eastern Meadowlark once before, one photo. So this was a treat to capture several photos with two, then a bit later one of them in flight.
Eastern Meadowlarks
Eastern Meadowlark
Eastern Meadowlark in flight
And finally, another special treat, having a Northern Flicker posing beautifully for me shortly after sunrise. He spoiled me with wonderful photos.
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted male)
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted male)
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted male)
If you’re not familiar with this woodpecker and wondered ‘where’s the yellow’, the next photo gives you a peek at the yellow under his tail.
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted male)
Once in flight, the Northern Flicker shares his fabulous yellow!
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted male) in flight
There are two races of Northern Flickers in North America: the yellow-shafted shared above that lives in the eastern half, and the red-shafted of the western half. I’ve never seen the red-shafted, I bet that blaze of red in flight is stunning too!
Little Birdies
My next few posts will be done in category groupings with lots of photos so I can ‘catch up’ on sharing the beauty of the birds along Cape Hatteras National Seashore during their October migration to or through here.
Let’s start with the little birdies…..those that stayed still long enough to allow me a photograph or two. 😉
Swamp Sparrow (new lifer #212 💃)
Savannah Sparrow
House Sparrow (actually a year-round resident)
Blackburnian Warbler (new lifer #213 💃)
Blackburnian Warbler
Palm Warbler (Western female)
Palm Warbler (Western female)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Carolina Chickadee (another year-round resident)
Brown Creeper
Brown Creeper
Red-breasted Nuthatch
American Redstart (female)
Thank you, HJ (Avian101), for your assistance in confirming my two new lifers and the Palm Warbler (Western)!!
Boat-tailed Grackles
Boat-tailed Grackles are a coastal grackle species, found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and all of Florida.
They are noisy scavengers. I’ve had to chase a small flock from our campsite a few times (sending them on to someone else’s hehe).
Boat-tailed Grackles (males)
Boat-tailed Grackle (male)
The females are half the size of the males and more shy, usually staying out of sight.
Boat-tailed Grackle (female)
Boat-tailed Grackle (male) chomping on a seed
For the males, eye color ranges from bright yellow along the Atlantic Coast to a dull brown along the western Gulf Coast.
Boat-tailed Grackle (male)
Blue Buttons
The remnants of Hurricane Delta blew across us and out to the Atlantic Ocean Sunday/Sunday night, with rain and 20-25 mph winds.
Walking the beach the next day, I saw something unusual wash up on the beach in front of me.
Blue Button
(white center is approx. one inch across)
And then another one washed up, even prettier……
Blue Button
(white center is approx. one inch across)
A few more waves and they were gone, washed back out to sea. Aren’t they gorgeous?
I had never these before and researched to ID them and learn some info.
The Blue Button is not a jellyfish but actually a species of siphonophore, a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish. (A Portuguese Man O’ War is another siphonophore.)
A Blue Button is also known as a Blue Button Jelly, Disc Hydroid, Stinger, or Stinging Bluebottle.
Blue Buttons are found near the surface drifting in tropical and subtropical waters far out in the oceans, propelled by winds and ocean currents. During bad weather, they can be blown ashore. (That be Delta’s fault!)
A Blue Button is almost flat, with stinging strands of hydroid surrounding it’s white disc. Each strand has little branchlets off it that fatally stings its prey. To humans, they do not give a powerful sting, but more of an irritation.
Two Plover Species
This post I’m sharing photographs of two plovers.
The first three photos are of Black-bellied Plovers.
Black-bellied Plover looking at you (while a Willet refuses to)
Black-bellied Plovers are the largest and heaviest of the North American plovers. They are also the hardiest, breeding farthest north, all the way to the very top of the world.
After breeding season is over, the Black-bellied Plovers we see migrate down through Canada and the U.S. to their wintering grounds in the Caribbean and northern South America.
These here have already flown thousands of miles and still have a ways to go!
Black-bellied Plovers
Black-bellied Plovers
The next two photos are of another more familiar plover, the Killdeer.
Killdeer
Killdeer are found across much of the U.S. and Canada. Killdeer are graceful plovers common to lawns, golf courses, athletic fields, and parking lots.
Killdeer
A secret! I photographed the above Killdeer standing in a puddle of water in a marina parking lot. 😉
Northern Parula Finds A Caterpillar
All alone, slowly walking….I could hear a tap..tap..tap..tap. What is that?
I narrowed it down to the lower part of a bush, peering in with my lens.
Perched on a branch, a female Northern Parula was in possession of a tasty meal and slapping it back and forth against the branch. I couldn’t believe I heard that.
Here’s a six-photo sequence of the action before my battery stopped.
Northern Parula (female)
Giving my battery time to catch up, I missed the ‘down the hatch’ shot, but here are my final two with the caterpillar all but gone.
“Caterpillar All But Gone”
“Aaaack” or “Buuurp”
And just as quick, she was done and took flight to find another!
c
Bay Photos by Donna 