Mallards landing

A small flock of mallards lands in the sound waters. Mallards are not seen here in large numbers. Most are local ducks, perhaps hand raised by my neighbors or hatched from rare successful wild nests. Hunt clubs sometimes buy hatchlings, feed them and release them. The young ducks will find their way to yards where corn is offered by sympathetic residents.

Eyes like a Hawk

A Sharp Shinned Hawk pays a visit to my garden. I encourage songbirds with food, water and greenery and the hawk has spied the garden full of sparrows, finches, cardinals, doves and plenty more. There is plenty of field nearby where I suspect he regularly hunts.

Monkey Island

Yesterday's come and go rain and no wind gave us another palette of blues across the sound. Monkey Island, now a rookery, shows itself in the distance. Floating in the waters are a few Canada Geese and pieces of ice.

Evening flyby

A flock of bluebills stream past in the evening light. In the background homes in the four wheel drive section of the Currituck OBX are lit by the last bits of the sun.

Looking out my window

Taking an inspirational break from my current project, I went to the windows of my studio hoping to spy some waterfowl. I found instead lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and a female Red-bellied Woodpecker feeding on the large hackberry trees that line the bank. The berries you see in the warbler shot are consumed by nearly every migrating bird. The common name for the hackberry tree is sugar berry. The woodpecker may enjoy some berries, but it spent more time investigating the crevices of broken limbs.

Knott's Island Causeway

A trip to Knott's Island by car from Currituck requires one to travel into Virginia to a point north of the convergence of waters along the Virginia/North Carolina state line and then travel south again to enter North Carolina. The 'island' is actually a peninsula, but it has a feel of an island with a nearby causeway and plenty of marshland, even a refuge (Mackay Island). We saw a variety of waterfowl, herons and even ibis! The time of day wasn't right for much photo-taking but I managed a few shots on my trip earlier this week. Here a couple of blue herons follow some ducks away from the causeway.