As we head south for the winter like so many of our avian friends, we always make a layover in North Carolina to visit friends and search for new parks to bird. We spent a wonderful week adding to our "yearlist" with species like the Horned grebe, Barred owl, Yellow-rump and Palm warblers and plenty of Ospreys and Red-shouldered hawks. One of the more spectacular sights, however, was a field in Columbia, NC which was hosting not fewer than 1000 snow geese (conservative estimate!). We searched for Ross's amongst them, but since we were parked in the middle of the highway with no shoulder to pull off onto, we were a bit pre-occupied. Nonetheless, the sight was certainly something to behold. The other target bird we nailed down for the year on this trip was the Tundra swan. Last year we had founds hundreds of these magnificient birds in the watery fields of Alligator River NWR, but this year the refuge only yielded one specimen! Where did they go this year? Well, we finally found some, although fewer than previous sightings, at Mattamuskeet NWR. All in all, it was a great way to begin our three months in the south with many more great adventures ahead of us.
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