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Lesser Black-backeds at The Point!



Dear All,

It has been a busy couple of days but I wanted to let you know about some
of the highlights from my trip to the Outer Banks last weekend. There were
plenty of birds around; both migrants and winter residents.  While I was at
Pea Is. NWR I also managed to meet up with fellow birders Henry and
Elizabeth Link.   It was a beautiful warm, calm weekend-- a little unusual
for this late in the season.  The bugs were noticable but not too bad,
fortunately.

The big highlight was finding *29* Lesser Black-backed Gulls at The Point
and along South Beach with Pat Moore on Sun. the 10th.  Most were adults (2
with pink legs) but we had somse immatures as well.  What helped, I think,
was that there were about 3,000 Greaters on the beach for us to sift
through.  Pat told me that there were actually 16 Lessers in the Campground
following Floyd a month ago.  Oddly on Saturday, we did not find one Lesser
when we drove the beach for the first time but then there were very few
gulls around.  On Sunday, they seemed to be simply lazing on the beach
since the weather was so warm, the air so calm and bait fish plentiful
close to shore.  We got very close to the 12 or so groups of birds and with
the eary morning light, visibility was excellent.  Outside of the Lesers
and Greaters, there were not many other gulls around yet (not
surprisingly).  Quite a few Laughing Gulls do remain though.

We also had a (banded, color marked) Piping Plover at The Point both
Saturday and Sunday.  The waterfowl were arriving daily at the ususal
locations and numerous Peregrines and Harriers were around.  In addition,
there was at least one Red-breasted Nuthatch in the Moore's neighborhood
over the weekend as well.  Others reported Clay-colored Sparrows up on Pea
Island duirng the week but we did not manage to find a one.

Susan M. Campbell
Whispering Pines, NC

ncaves@utinet.net