DayTrippin' - Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge

I'm sorry Folks, I've been a busy bee. Brian and I have been to Key West, camping in Newport News, camping in Hatteras, day trips to Carova Beach, Oregon Inlet, First Landing Park, Munden Point and so on! Plus I work for the city of Virginia Beach Parks and Natural Areas department, so I have been neglecting the whole blog thing, which is kind of sad because I love it so much!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Great Blue Heron "][/caption]

Alligator river is an amazing place. It's an 154,000 acre refuge that has tons of roads to drive and explore including a few places to to launch your kayak or canoe and also a couple of walking trails...Today, our objective is to look for bears and red wolves... We started our trip in Moyock, NC (where we  now live) and drove down 17 through Elizabeth City, Hartford, and Columbia... The Town of Columbia is a really cute older waterfront area... I recommend stopping and checking out their wildlife center for the sounds. It's beautiful! There's a pier-style trail to walk and who knows - you may even have a chance of spotting a bear!

We stopped and ate lunch at Mikes Kitchen in Columbia just over the bridge. This place was actually realllly good, I will definitely be looking forward to going there again! Usually when Brian and I go to Alligator River Refuge we try to just go down whatever driving trails  are open... because you never know which ones are open and if it is you should go down it, because you might not be able to go down that trail again until the following year. We drove around and spotted tons of Tree Swallows and Yellow-rumped Warblers... along with a few Sulphur butterflies fluttering around.

....And as we were driving on one of the roads, we saw a large bird fly into a tree next to the Jeep....

Originally I thought it was a hawk of some sort, but then it turned and looked at us and Brian says "Holy Shit!! -- look an owl!" I couldn't believe it! I didn't know what to do..... I tried to hurry up and turn on my camera, but as usual when I want it to turn on quickly it takes FOREVER then I have to change the settings to manual and blah blah blah, because remember I use a Point and Shoot....ha..so I tried to get a shot before he flew off. This is the only shot I got....

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Barred Owl"][/caption]

Honestly, I was happy with that single shot I had gotten, but then...the owl decided to fly across the road and landed on a branch...It looked back at us, not really worried about us being there.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Barred Owl checking us out"][/caption]

I decided to get out of the Jeep.  Figured if the owl wasn't that worried about me, then it wouldn't mind if i tried to get a few more shots! Well, once I got out of the Jeep the owl flew off again, but not that far. I decided I would walk down the road a little - very quietly and try once again to get another shot of this beautiful owl! It was almost impossible for me to find this amazingly camouflaged creature. I kept loosing sight every time I would have to take my eye off of the owl for a split second to raise my view finder to my eyeball. Oh man, It was insane how much it blended in with its surroundings!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Camouflaged Barred Owl"][/caption]

On our way out I saw a Cormorant diving in one of the "ditches".... when Brian passed him, he was going sort of fast. I asked him to stop and reverse because there was a bird I wanted to get a shot of.... He said, "Won't the bird fly off?" I said, "Nah, probably not this one" and sure enough, there was the Cormorant...now out of the water. He posed.... several times, and then we drove off. Oh it was great. I can't wait to visit this place again. Every season is beautiful!

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Cormorant Drying Plumage"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Double-crested Cormorant"][/caption]

Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge & Nine Inches of Snow

Hampton Roads saw about 9-10 inches of snow. We hardly EVER get that much snow.. If it even snows at all...Anyways Brian and I went four-wheeling of course!! We didn't want to drive to far in the snow, so we went to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge again. It's such a beautiful area, I love the trails! The snow was an extra bonus...helping in spotting those smaller birds, we usually overlook.

Best part of snow! Dark-eyed Juncos!

When we woke up...we were so excited to see so much snow on the ground! We just couldn't wait to take the jeep out to play in the snow! We drove to my dads house and watched the birds at his neighbors feeder. There were SO many! We saw Tuft Titmouse, House Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, Juncos, Chickadees. At that moment, I got my father into birds. He was so excited, talking about what kind of feeder he should get, and asking about bird books and so on... Oh it was awesome! Hope he really gets into it! It's just an awesome hobby not to mention CHEEP! lol After we left my dads, we drove around Virginia Beach and had Lunch at The Jewish Mother.

Robin Foraging Berries from a Red Cedar Tree

A very cold White-throated Sparrow

After Driving around checking out the pretty white snow in Virginia Beach, We headed to our original destination.

Snowy Sand Dune - Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Egret foraging in a ditch - Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Gray Catbird

I've never seen a Brown Thrasher, It was pretty interesting watching  it forage with its beak in the mud! Do you see the mud on it's beak?

Brown Thrasher with Muddy Beak from foraging

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Brown thrasher having a sip of melted snow"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Chick-a-dee-dee-dee singing its little heart out"][/caption]

The snow was fun, and we ended up at a snow party with four wheelers and friends! We had a wonderful weekend!

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge & Hatteras Seashore, NC

We love going down to Hatteras. It's only about a two hour drive.  A beautiful place to visit - even in the off-season! We have such a blast seeing all the birds and four-wheelin' on the beach!  The weather was a bit cloudy and very windy with a few stray showers... Pretty much normal for this time of year. The sun did peek out a few times, which was so nice! We visited Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and Hatteras National Seashore on Saturday and Sunday and Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on our way home Sunday. We decided to take a different route in hopes of seeing a bear or an alligator! We didn't see either this time. DARN IT!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Very Angry Atlantic Ocean"][/caption]

Saturday was a windy overcast day. We stopped at Pea Island to check the birds. We knew we weren't going to stay long the first day because it was just way too windy, too cold and too cloudy! I managed to snag a few pictures of birds I've never photographed before!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Green-winged Teals"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Northern Pintail"][/caption]

I also saw a White Ibis! I was so excited! I had never seen one before!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="White Ibis coming in for landing"][/caption]

AND American Avocets!

Our first day  on the National Seashore we wanted to go on the Ocracoke Ferry. We were five minutes late catching the four o'clock ferry. The voyage is about an hour and it would have been dark by the time we got back....we really needed to get a hotel. The ferry is right across the street from the Southern most beach access on the National Seashore so we went four-wheeling.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Sea of Seagulls"][/caption]

Once we got to the "tip" of Hatteras Island, there was about 50,000 seagulls...All different kinds! It was a sight! We also spotted three White tails playing in the dunes

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="White Tailed Deer Checking The Area"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Dunlin and tattered sand bag"][/caption]

As always there were several fisherman on the "tip" It's so neat to watch them tackle the huge waves and have a good ol' time casting out, praying for that record breaker catch! But this day there was a beggar... going from truck to truck to see what he could get thrown to him.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Beach Beggar"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Handsome Brown Pelican ready for take off!"][/caption]

We got out of the jeep for a bit and looked for sand dollars, Whelk shells, and Moon snails. While walking, we spotted a oystercatcher. I just love their bright beaks and they are really interesting to watch in action! I also snapped a quick shot of the Hatteras light.

American Oystercatcher

Hatteras Lighthouse

We stayed in an amazing hotel Called "Breakwater Inn" I'm not into hotels that have too much. But this hotel was just right. We had an amazing view of the sound and the sunset.... Also a restaurant, a grocery store less than 30 seconds up the road and it was very clean!! Great Prices and Great off-season rates!

The next morning when we woke up we decided to do some more four-wheeling on the beach and slowly make our way to back to Pea Island so I could catch the birds while the sun was out. Another storm was on the way...Once we made it to Pea Island, there must have been 30,000 or more Tundra Swans. They were literally everywhere!!

Tundra Swans Preening

I saw more Ibis. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to see these little guys... I didn't realize they were up this way!

L to R: Blue Heron, Great Egret, & Two Ibis (one's on a nest!)

We saw Tons of coots, Northern Shovelers, and Black Ducks. It was fun watching the coots play! While walking the trail we caught some Ruddy Ducks catching a light snooze ;)

Ruddy Ducks Sleeping

I have never seen a Tricolored Heron. Nor did I ever expect I would see one. Anyways, I happened to be looking for Black Stilts and I spotted this guy! Score!

Tricolored Heron

We took a different route home, and headed towards Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It's a really neat place for birders as well. Except this is a drive through refuge, rather than trail only. We saw tons of Tundra Swans, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, and lots of tree swallows. I love this place, and can't wait till the season starts so I can explore it deeper. We only skimmed the park a little, because we were on our way home and didn't want to get home too late. We had an amazing Weekend as always! Support your local National Wildlife Refuges and National/State Parks by visiting OFTEN!! They need you!

Greater Yellowlegs