Birding the Outer Banks of North Carolina - Pea Island NWR, Cape Haterras Natl. Seashore, and Bodie Isl. Lighthouse

The Outer Banks of North Carolina is a 80+ mile barrier island chain separating the Atlantic Ocean from Pamlico Sound. The Outer Banks lie across Palmico Sound, in some areas more than 20 miles from the mainland continental North America. They are relatively thin barrier island and is one of the most dynamic in the United States. Inlets connect the Atlantic More information on the Outer Banks and their natural history here and a nice 25 minute film on the region from PBS here - Ribbon of Sand. The Outer Banks range in the amount of development and ecological productivity along it's course. The site of the Wright Brother's inaugural flight , Kitty Hawk and nearby Kill Devil Hills are both examples of heavy coastal development. Chain stores, large resort hotels and condos, and at least a dozen putt-putt golf courses fill the northern portions of the islands. As you descend south the pattern of landuse becomes more sustainable and cognizant of the precarious nature of any structure built out here on the edge of the world. I've never seen a place that had such a dichotomy of development, from extremely ecological productive to resort development and thus the importance of our public land systems to wildlife habitat maintenance.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Sunset on Cape Hatteras National Seashore, looking east.

I camped out at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, at the Frisco Campground area. The campground was nice and fair price given how visited this area is. I was lucky enough to enjoy a sunset and a
 sunrise here at Frisco, the beach had an intersting orietation, it actually faced south-southeast. This gave an unusual (for me) beach sunset much closer to the tide-line than the nearly constant north-south orientation of the Padre Island chain in coastal Texas.

Boardwalk to the ocean through a hole in the coastal woodland. Frisco Campground - Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore.

The birding at Cape Haterras Natl. Seashore was very good (eBird checklist here), the campground at Frisco had a cool boardwalk through the sand and small maritime woodlands. Ubiquitous Northern Cardinals and Carolina Wrens called through the woodlands, while Eastern Meadowlarks and raptors patrolled the grasslands leeward of the dunes. I had my first eastern warbler of the trip here, a calling American Redstart. Brown Pelicans patrolled the innter-coastal waters, and a large group of Double-crested Cormorants formation flew from the ocean to the bay above the campground. 

Hatteras Lighthouse, and birder.

I grabbed some southern style biscuit sandwhiches after birding Frisco CG and headed to Hatteras Lighthouse and the Bruxton Woods Trail. The Lighthouse was built in the 18__, originally a few miles up the coast, but was moved to it's present, more stable location a number of years ago. Does this still make it historic? Old Building, New spot? Lighthouse gentrification? I must say, the last time I saw a lighthouse was in Hawaii at Kiluea Point NWR, 500 ft above the crashing breakers of the Pacific, and engulfed by the wings of thousands of Boobies and Frigatebirds. While this lighthouse didn't have the Frigatebirds and Tropicbirds of the pacific, it did host the world's largest gull, Great Black-Backed Gull which I saw a few times while in the area.

The Buxton Woods are just west of the lighthouse, a well developed patch of maritime woodland, or coastal woodlands with Pines, Oaks, and a lively understory of Dwarf Palmetto and brambley shrubs. The woodland has been protected from housing development through a diverse shield of ownership which includes the National Seashore (administered under National Parks, DOI) and the Nature Conservancy, which owns a large parcel of the woodland to the south of the lighthouse.
This is one of these types of places so common along coastlines, where more than 280 species of birds have been reported - mega hotspot. The woodlands act as large stopovers during spring fall migration, but also host some colorful resident birds as I was to find. See the eBird checklist for this visit here.

Just into the trail I stopped for a familiar warbler chip - note and quickly found a nice looking female American Redstart. She was flitting through the Live Oaks foraging in her very redstart pattern, by flicking out her bright yellow outer tail feathers and fanning the bark. This behavior probably helps scare out insects hiding in the many crooks and nannies to be found in a dense coastal woodland canopy.

Female American Redstart, Bruxton Woods, Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore

Not far from the redstart was a much more retiring songbird, less active but no less colorful. In a brief moment I saw eye-ring and yellow below, gray above pattern distinctive of a group of superficially similar eastern warblers, then the bird disappeared into the foliage. Some waiting and pishing brought it out again, this time showing yellow lores and reddish streaking on the breast. The bird disappeared quickly but not before a quick photo of my first Canada Warbler. This was to be one of the highlights of the trip, not only for it's beauty, with very distinctive yellow lores and overall slim body structure, but this bird was also fairly uncommon on the Outerbanks outside of spring migration. Canada warbler breed in more northern latitudes on the atlantic seabord and winter in Central America. This bird was in transit south, headed for a world more like a Jimmy Buffet song than the high arctic woodlands.

Canada Warbler, Bruxton Woods, Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore

Also within the Bruxton woods was my first Great-crested Flycatcher, very simlar to the other large Myiarchus flycatcher in the southwest (Brown-Crested Flycatcher), these were a fun, loud and conspicuous flycatcher. Blue Jays were also common in these woods, both adults and juvenile birds. Carolina Wrens and Northern Cardinals rounded out this woodland community. These lush east-coast woodlands contain a multitude of spiders, much more than back in the Western United States. This beautiful species had a nest 3m up in the canopy spanning several meters in width. Impressive seamstress.

Spider. Big Spider. Bruxton Woods, Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore

Large showy Common Wood-nymph (more about them here at Butterfliesandmoths.org) were everywhere in the trees, but I also found American Ladies, Common Buckeyes, and more Swallowtails (probably Eastern Tiger Swallowtails). 

Common Wood-Nymph, Bruxton Woods, Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore

The Outer Banks, like nearly all barrier islands, are a Dragonfly's dream world, plenty of still water on the islands and no shortage of other insects for dinner provides the perfect environment. This beautiful unknown female was busy munching a horse-fly ad so gave me a nice view of her jeweled eyes.

Female Dragonfly, Bruxton Woods, Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore

I left the lighthouse area and drove down a few residential roads with woodland patches and small marshes breaking up the gridded residential development. A baby Snapping Turtle, already with a nice coat of algae on it's shell and a mean temperament - it tried to snap me when I picked it up to move it. I'd expected nothing less from these fearsome prehistoric amphibian predators. I quickly moved him off the roadway and went on my own way towards the Outer Banks' only National Wildlife Refuge, Pea Island NWR.

Baby Alligator Snapping Turtle, still vicious! Bruxton Woods, Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge

Pea Island NWR

Never have I visited a more important refuge for maintaining suitable wildlife habitat than at Pea Island NWR, I've been to urban refuges, urban green spaces, and reclaimed landfills, but Pea Island is different from those. Were it not for public lands like Pea Island NWR and Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore I fear the entirity of the Outer Banks would resemble the uninhibited urban sprawl that is Kitty Hawk. So with that mindset, I pulled into the visitor center parking area for the refuge, went in side and was pleased to see a wonderful, just the right sized refuge visitor center. Displays of Peregrine Falcons, Oystercatchers and Black Skimmers were spread around the front of the center, with nice bay windows framing the North Pond, a large shallow body of water crawling with birds. After getting some info and chatting with the friendly volunteers/friends members and getting some sweet birding shirts, I headed out to see the refuge.

Mixed company mudflat hangout, Pea Island NWR

The North Pond trail (eBird checklist here!) made it's way west along the edge of the pond, while the birding was good, birds were distant and not great for photography. In a short hour here at the pond I managed to see Bald Eagle, Osprey, Tricolored Heron, Great Egret, and Great Blue Heron, along with Black-necked Stilts and quite a few of my first ever American Black Ducks. The tern-birding was great, with Black Skimmer, Sandwhich Tern, Royal Tern, Caspian Tern, Least Tern, and Common Tern - impressive diversity of this fun to watch group. Always my coastal favorite, the Black Skimmers were very active, with what appeared to be groups of young birds roaming the water and chasing eachother.

Adult Black Skimmer, Pea Island NWR

 I had my only Whimbrel flyover here at the pond, as well as several Black-bellied Plovers, both quick flybys headed north to a mudflat nearby. While the terns and herons were great here, I didn't see as many shorebirds as I'd hoped, so getting back in the car, I was delighted to find just a couple of miles up the road was a small place to pulloff the very busy NC 12 highway for a cornucopia of shorebirds!

White Ibis, Black Skimmers, Pea Island NWR

A lone White Ibis was hanging out with the full host of terns on nearby mud-flat. The Ibis' long pink bill was a stark contrast with the Skimmer's elongated candy-corn bill. Least Terns were present in good numbers, some where already molting into post-breeding plummage, this was the best look I've ever had at these diminutive terns, the smallest tern in North America. All of the birds I found were juveniles with black bills.

Least Tern with a bottle for scale, Pea Island NWR

 Least Terns are threatened in portion of the range, these birds, probably of the subspecies antillarium are not at present listed as threatened although proposals have been made. High-trafficed Atlantic coast beaches has contributed to a loss in suitable breeding habitat for these birds.

Non-breeding plumage Least Tern, Pea Island NWR

 In contrast to the stationary terns, Semipalmated Plovers were scurring about the mudflats, allowing me get very close to them for some fun flight shots! Not everyday a western birder gets this close to these active little shorebirds.

Semipalmated Plover takes flight, Pea Island NWR

Semipalmated Plover, Pea Island NWR

A medium sized shorebird with an extra-long bill, this Short-billed Dowitcher was in fantastic immature plumage with it's gold-lined feathers and dripping bill. I'd never been able to see the details of this plumage form before. When I see these birds on the Gulf of Mexico in winter they are drabby gray overall, not ornate like this fresh immature.

Immature Short-billed Dowitcher, Pea Island NWR

Perhaps the cutest of all shorebirds was this Piping Plover, there were only a handful present on the flats, and this one that was associating with the SEPL was the most photogenic. I love their orange legs and little nub of a bill. Watching these run about the mudflats is truly a pleasure, their legs move so quickly sometimes they appear like a little fluff ball hovering, stopping, hovering, stopping.

Piping Plover, Pea Island NWR

Pint-sized Piping Plover, Pea Island NWR

The second semipalmated bird of the day (what the hell does semipalmated even mean??) was  Semipalmated Sandpiper. Birds like this are great to get familiar with whenever I'm in the Atlantic coastal areas, they appear in the southwest only infrequently, vastly outnumbered by the stockier billed Baird's and Western Sandpipers.

Semipalmated Sandpiper, Pea Island NWR

This bird's fairly distinct white eyebrow and relatively thin bill may not look like the most obvious field marks, but in this large group of similiar appearing species a dingy white eyebrow is enough to tease out species. This peep was also not shy at all and let me get a wonderful flight shot, a rare thing for these pint-sized shorebirds.

Semipalmated Sandpiper takes to the air on it's proportionately large wingspan, Pea Island NWR

 The only good flight shot of a Peep (Calidris genus) that I've ever been proud of. These shorebirds have impressive wingspans for their size, helping them in their continent-wide migrations each year (Breeding range in the arctic lattitudes, winters on the northern beaches of South America - View range map here).

Sandwhich terns were roosting on the mudflats along with the other gulls and terns. While Sandwhich terns aren't as big as their cousins the Royal Terns, their odd orange-tipped bill is unique, giving them a fun, butter-dipped bill.

Butter-tipped billed Sandwhich Tern, Pea Island NWR

Royal Tern, a sleek graceful flyer, Pea Island NWR

The birding at the north pond was great not only for its abundant wildlife in these brakish inner-island bodies of water, but it's proximity to ocean-side beach birding. All of Pea Island is like this, the island is extremely narrow, only half a mile wide in some areas, so a quick walk from the same parking spot got me onto the Atlantic's beach.

Observation deck above a portion of Pea Island NWR, the Atlantic is on the horizon.

Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings domainted these beaches. Ruddy Turnstones, with their classic algael-mat patterned plumage are a lot of fun to watch forage and scurry about.

Ruddy Turnstone, Pea Island NWR

Ruddy Turnstones are found on beaches across the continent, they winter relatively far north in some locations but the bulk winter in Central America and the Carribean islands. They get their name from their habit of turning over stones 'turn-stone' in rocky shorelines and on their breeding grounds. In my experience both here on the Atlantic and in the highly eroded sandy beaches of the Gulf, they probe into the sand or pick through beach debris in a fashion more typical to other sandpipers.

Ruddy Turnstone lunch, Pea Island NWR

 Ever-present Sanderlins are a lot of fun to watch as they chase and are chased by the ebbs and flows of the ocean surf. These are perhaps the most frequently asked about birds here on the ocean where many tourists and beach-goers see these up close. I think kids are especially drawn in by these birds as they mimic the actions of most children when playig at the surf - who hasn't chased the tide out and ran along side the oncoming surf? Humans and Sanderlins appear to be quite experienced with this.

Beach-scurrier, Sanderling, Pea Island NWR

Gulls were patrolling these nearly empty beaches of Pea Island NWR. As I scanned north and south from around me I could only see a few other beachgoers, mostly at considerable distance. The lack of boardwalks into the beach and bathroom and water facilities, in addition to a full restriction on beach driving keeps many other-wise visitors away. This truly is great for wildlife and the beach conditions themselves.

Herring Gull, Pea Island NWR

 Large Herring Gulls with their huge yellow bills patrolled the beachhead with heavy languid wing-strokes. These huge gulls are not the adept flyers of their couasins, the Laughing Gulls who preform some impressive aerial acrobatics anytime there are humans around with food to fight over.

Laughing Gull, Pea Island NWR

One of the larger shorebirds on both sides of the continent are Willets. They are also perhaps one of the most numerous, these Tringa shorebirds (same genus as the Yellowlegs and Tattlers) are well adapted to variable beach conditions and are not afraid to get into the surf a little. Their adaptability in foraging in at least some ocean surf give them much more available habitat to occupy than the other members of their genus. Learn more about Willets here at allaboutbirds.org. This Willet had gotten drenched by a few crashing waves, letting the salt breeze dry it out closer to shore.

Wet Willet, Pea Island NWR

Beach-grape had taken over portions of the boardwalks and observation decks in this moist environment. This was probably just a few months worth of growth, if it weren't for people maintaining these structures the ocean-side conditions would take it back into the sands.

Observation deck covered in beach grape, Pea Island NWR

Feeding on the insects attracted to the beach grape, this gorgeous female Seaside Dragonlet (More about them here at NJodes.com) was busily preying on fruit flies and horse flies. The bicolored eye pattern and orange banded abdomen are diagnostic for this widespread species. Seaside Dragonlets are unique among the Odonates (dragonflies & damselflies) for being able to breed in salt water, typically in salt marshes like the ones surrounding Pea Island NWR. They are a member of a largely tropical genus of Dragonflies, but their use of saltwater habitats in temperate climates has allowed their range to expand all the way to Nova Scotia. This same species occurs in alkaline bodies of water in New Mexico and West Texas, usually in waters more salty than actual oceanic salt water (I'd recommend Dennis Paulson's Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East/West (2009) as a great Odonata resource).

Seaside Dragonlet, Pea Island NWR

 My last stop in the Outer Banks was to the Bodie Island Lighthouse and boardwalk nature trail. Bodie Island is just south of the bridge between the Outer Banks islands and the famous Roanoke Island, sight of the early English Colonies. The Lighthouse on Bodie Island is set within a beautiful grassy lawn surrounded by marsh. Built in 1872, it sits substantially more inland than other lighthouses in the Outer Banks, and like the other lighthouses has a unique painting pattern, helping ships at sea know exactly which island they were off-shore of. The Bodie Island Lighthouse Visitor Center is nice and well kept, managed by the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The 140+ year old Bodie Island Lighthouse, Cape Hatteras Natl. Seashore.

The birding at Bodie Island was great (Link to eBird Checklist), the nearby marsh had a short board walk extending into it where nearly one hundred crabs fought in the shallow marsh waters, with great views of these gladiators from the observation deck. Hundreds of American Black Ducks lounged in the waters with impressive numbers of White Ibis and Tricolored Herons actively foraging in the area. Semipalmated Plovers and both Greater Yellowlegs and Lesser Yellowlegs picked and probed around the marsh. Nearby, a plantation of Loblolly pine had grown tall and provided a nice change of habitat. Here I found Eastern Towhees, Brown-headed Nuthatches, and even a Pine Warbler. 
 
 Lighthouses like Bodie Island's and Hatteras served a great purpose here on the Outer Banks, but did not keep all ships from running aground and sinking off the Outer Banks' coastlines. In fact, the Outer Banks are considered the 'Graveyard of the Atlantic' - more about it here on wikipedia, because of their high rate of shipwrecks. This is mostly due to the influence of the Gulf Stream, the combination of warm waters flowing north mixing with colder waters coming south from the arctic can create turbulent waters. The Gulf Stream itself, with its strong northerly current, forced many ships to the inland side of the gulf stream so they could navigate south, this put ships into danger in the shallow near-shore waters.

I managed to not get sunk of the Outer Banks, in a short 36 hour period I was able to experience the off-shore waters, and all of the major birding hotspots on the island itself. I ended up seeing 76 species on or off the Outer Banks in this time period, a full 66 species while making my way from Frisco Campground to Bodie Island, impressive for a limited set of habitat variability. I was able to leave the Outer Banks feeling great about our the National Wildlife Refuge System and the importance they have in conserving these fragile marine ecosystems. With a few hours of daylight left I jetted for Alligator River NWR (next blog) and my last stop in North Carolina before a late-night drive to Raleigh, NC and my flight home.