You are browsing the archives of North Carolina.

I sort of feel it’s sort of my duty, as the 10,000 Birds beat writer covering the southern tier of the continent, to be the bellwether of goodies to come, the sherpa of spring, if you will (please don’t).  You see, “spring” in the sense that birders in the far northern reaches experience it, has [...]

With Brown-headed Nuthatch ticked off my life list I was excited to get out and about and see my life Red-cockaded Woodpecker.  Nate arrived at my aunt and uncle’s house just a couple of minutes after my sighting and we were off to Southern Pines, North Carolina, home of the Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, the [...]

I did not expect to be in North Carolina this December.  I especially did not expect to see snow on the ground in North Carolina well before New York City received its first measurable snowfall of the year.  I really especially didn’t expect to be adding life birds in pine forests in North Carolina with [...]

Let’s say you shoot me an e-mail saying you’re going to be in my neck of the woods and you’d like to do a little birding.  Better, you have a some time.  Better still, you’re not interested in the regular local patch birding that is likely to net you most of the same species you [...]

I missed the bird the first time.  That, in and of itself, is not unusual when chasing birds.  This is especially true for me, a card-carrying member of the Dipper’s Club and recipient of that organization’s less than prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for my strong work missing a staked out Black-headed Gull on six separate [...]

The North Carolina birding community (and South Carolina too) has been hopping with the report of a White-cheeked Pintail, one of the more sharp-looking representatives of a particularly sharp-looking family of birds, at a wildlife refuge on the Outer Banks.  But the bird’s striking visage is hardly the only reason the local birdery’s interest was [...]

To the consummate birder, travel equals opportunity. Any trip, be it for business, pleasure, or obligation, opens the door to the possibility of new birds. Some will be ones you’ve never seen while others just haven’t been seen for a while. In either instance, the consummate birder acts swiftly and decisively to maximize the birding [...]

I like to fish every now and again, especially if I can get out on a boat. A group of us decided to find out what the island marinas had to offer us. I really wanted to go out on a pelagic birding trip, but the only one around embarked out of Cape Hatteras, 78 [...]

Beach weather was finally upon us, so we introduced Mason to the Atlantic. Unsurprisingly, he has as little use for the ocean as he did for the pool. The birding wasn’t very good either. We spotted a Carolina Wren on the way there, the first one we’ve identified on our own. We also added Semipalmated [...]

On our first full day in the Outer Banks, we spent time at the beach to take stock of the various birds around us. Shorebirds were not as common as we would have expected, but we did see a few Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, and Sanderling. The crows and grackles in the area were not [...]

So there we were, headed towards the Outer Banks, the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina.  Home of the first unfortunate English colony and birthplace of aviation, the Outer Banks is one of the premiere vacation (and birding) spots on the East Coast of the U.S.  Too bad a hurricane was in the [...]