Wild Places, Wild Birds

On February 24 I hooked Puff up and took off for the coast. I had not been to the coast since Thanksgiving when Sheree’, Scott Davis and I did our annual birding adventure.  This was the first winter trip in years, albeit late in the season.  Although numbers were down I did quite well, locating a wide diversity of birds.  

First stop was Pettigrew State Park, a good place to camp on the cheap, although their hot shower bathrooms were out of order on this visit. Pettigrew and the surrounding open area farms can be quite beautiful, and the trees, omg, the trees alone are worth the trip.  Past visits to Pettigrew have always been late afternoon events so it was very pleasant to relax, enjoying sunset and sunrise, before heading off to Alligator River and OBX the following day.

For the next two days, I enjoyed, under a variety of weather conditions, birding Bodie Island, Pea Island, Oregon Inlet and Hatteras. The best show was on the ocean.  There were dozens of Red-throated Loons, thousands of DC Cormorants and gulls, and my first North American sighting of Razorbills.