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Fort Fisher/Kure Beach - Orange-crowned?




What a great weekend, weather-wise! Spent a really great day in the Southport/Fort Fisher/Kure Beach areas, doing a teeny bit of amateur birding. Very nice to get a taste of something I used to do a lot more of, pre-mom days.


When I go "birding" the birds are almost always described in the guide book as "very common," "abundant," or "common as dirt." But they are still lots of fun!

Couldn't decide if the small flock I saw at Kure Beach were dozing dunlin or willet - looked mighty gray, so probably dunlin, but they seemed too long-legged. When we approached they all hopped away on one leg! Saw gillions of laughing gulls and ring-bills, one brown pelican, a few great white egrets, one oystercatcher at the Southport Ferry with that lipstick bill, the usual anhingas, and a few beautiful ruddy turnstones among the rocks at Southport's waterfront.

Walked briefly through a pond and scrub area near the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher, and saw loads of yellow-rumps, a flock of waxwings, common grackles, a hairy woodpecker, and, the highlight, what I think was an orange-crowned warbler. Is that likely? Although it was small and had a thin bill, I'm almost positive it wasn't a kinglet of any kind (which I've seen a lot of in the past), being more warbler-ish in silhouette rather than tiny and rotund. No wing bars or strong facial patterns. The beak seemed a bit longer than a kinglet's. Definite orangey patch on head which is what caught my attention. I thought I saw a yellow rump but it might have been under the tail instead. It was in a dense thicket about 4 feet off the ground in dusky light, and flew off almost at once, so difficult to say anything more.

Great to get away to our wonderful coast. Happy spring!

Paula Mangiafico
Durham, NC