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Outer Banks Birds: Good Day!



Today, Saturday February 24, Jeff Lewis, Joan Kutulas, and I birded our way 
from Whalebone Junction on our way to Cape Point.  We stopped at the Rodanthe 
Pier and found a female Harlequin Duck and what we thought was a Red-necked 
Grebe, but the surf was very heavy, the wind brisk from the NNE, and the 
temperature chilly; not very good for looking into the sea.   We stopped at 
the Avon Pier and did not find any unusual birds, NO Western Grebe.  

At Cape Point, we managed to locate one Glaucous Gull, many Lesser 
Black-backed Gulls, but NO Thayer's, Iceland, or California Gulls.  We did 
find one Greater Black-backed Gull with yellow legs, a strange looking gull.  
There was an abundance of Red-throated Loons and Red-breasted Mergansers 
close inshore and many Northern Gannets and Surf Scoters flying offshore. 
Several Horned Grebes were found at the Cape Point Bight.  

In Buxton, we found one male and one female Painted Bunting at a feeder.

Traveling back toward Nags Head at dusk, we stopped at Bodie Island and found 
two Short-eared Owls in the marshes to the west on NC 12 approximately 3.3 
miles south of Whalebone Junction.  

Keith Watson
Kill Devil Hills, NC