Dec 10, 2016
A quick weekend visit was made to the Wilmington, NC area. Since we were staying right on Wrightsville Beach my brother and I took a walk along part of it on Saturday morning.
Weather was about 35F outside, but fairly calm in terms of wind and waves.
On the east side is the beach directly on the Atlantic Ocean since this is a barrier island. As you go around the northern end the sand converts over to mud and the west side of the island is a salt marsh. Most of the northern end is cordoned off as a wildlife forage and refuge area by the local township.
Lots of gulls about. Readily identified some Ring-bills and also Laughing Gulls. The latter are a little harder to ID when not in breeding plumage with the black head.
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We did not go in the water, so it’s just water edge and beach pictures.
The birds self-sorted into two groups — beach (gulls, sandpipers, etc.) and marsh (egrets, herons, ibis, and gulls.) Cormorants, pelicans, and gannets were seen, but were generally airborne.
The gulls were also foraging near the hotel and competing with the crows to grab food from the garbage and along the road. And a few LBJs were seen near the road, but not identified for certain.
Pelicans are real interesting to watch in flight since they do a “flap, glide” sequence and like gliding at a very low level over the waves. Plus they often travel in single-file groups.
Some sandpipers were working the beach edge. An oystercatcher flew over too, but the pictures were too blurry to use.
Birds clustered in the open areas of the salt marsh. Individuals were also here and there in the grass. We kept our distance so as to minimize the disturbance.
There were some ducks hanging here in a few spots as well. Looked like Northern Pintails, but not definitely identified.
And a few pictures from later in the day and other locations.
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