Wild Places, Wild Birds

Dinner away from home on Thanksgiving Day. No shopping, no cooking, no cleanup. Every year except one, we have eaten at Owen’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving.  The excellent food, service, and price make for a very enjoyable experience. Basnight’s Lone Cedar restaurant is a good alternative if you can’t get a reservation at Owen’s.

Friday morning, with a windy day forecast, we headed inland back to Alligator River NWR, for some BEARING and birding. ARNWR has a large population of Black Bear and they can often be seen out in the farm fields in the early morning. We found this hefty boy/girl in a corn field near the county dump.

Saturday morning the wind was quiet so we headed to the pier immediately after oatmeal and eggs. It was quiet on the ocean but with mild winds and decent temps, we had a nice time identifying what did fly by. Best birds – Surf and Black Scoter, Parasitic Jaeger.

After 10 a.m. VRBO check out, we headed south to Lake Mattamuskeet.

Since my first trip to LMNWR in 1973, as an ornithology student at N.C. State University, I have been in love with this lake and its surroundings. I won’t go into a long description of its history but want to mention that the lake is mostly dead, the aquatic life, both plants and much of the aquatic fauna, have been (temporarily) degraded by water level issues and agricultural pollution from the large farms’ that surround the lake. The lake used to be covered with swans, geese, and ducks in winters past, but now they only inhabit the edges and the surrounding man-made impoundments.

This is not to say there are not large numbers of waterfowl at Lake Mattamuskeet NWR, they are just not on the lake. In 2017, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Hyde County established a partnership and hired the North Carolina Coastal Federation to develop a restoration plan. That plan is now being implemented.
Now, to the birds. With overcasts skies, we did not have the best viewing but still had a wonderful time. It began with sighting huge flocks of Tundra Swans and Snow Geese on the drive down from Nags Head. Huge flocks! Thousands upon thousands, all-white birds against a grey sky. It was stunning. They were feeding in the large farm fields. Sorry for no pictures, we could not safely pull off the road.

Our first stop was at Lake Landing. Due to storm damage that took out a bridge we were denied access to some of the areas better habitat but still got close up on many birds. Towards the end of our walk down a dike, we stopped before spooking what looked like 4-5,000 birds in a good-sized impoundment. We had quick looks at both a Merlin and a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and lots of flyover Tundra Swans and an assortment of ducks, mostly American Wigeon.

Due to fading light, we had to cut short our exploration of Lake Mattamuskeet after a drive down and around the Wildlife Drive impoundments, which were loaded up with over 10,000 birds of assorted waterfowl species, dozens of Snipe, a Bald Eagle or two, one Harrier, a White-tailed Deer, and a few Nutria.

Over the three day period, we located 118 bird species.