Posts Tagged ‘Birds’

We had a perfect Autumn weekend, and the weather was ideal for a road trip. I decided to visit the Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Scotland Neck, NC on Saturday. Is there a better way to spend a beautiful day than looking at gorgeous birds from around the world? I was amazed at the number of exotic birds at Sylvan Heights. It’s one of the hidden jewels of North Carolina.

Scarlet Ibis @ Sylvan Heights Bird Park

This cute blue-crowned pigeon was definitely a little attention sponge. He was very happy to pose and preen for all the park’s visitors.

Blue Crowned Pigeon @ Sylvan Heights Bird Park

While the pigeon was a ham, the white-faced whistling duck was a bit shy, preferring to hide in the tall grass. If it weren’t for his black-and-white face, you would hardly notice him!

White-faced Whistling Duck @ Sylvan Heights Bird Park

Those are just a few of the photos I took with my little Nikon Coolpix pocket camera. Those birds made me wish I had a big-girl camera, though, because they were all so cute. The large variety of pheasants were difficult to photograph with my little camera because they simply wouldn’t hold still. They were also distracted by a wild turkey who hangs around the pheasant area. Apparently, the poor girl (or guy?) is madly in love with one of them. This photo is blurry because the pheasant kept pacing near the wild turkey, but you can see the turkey laying outside the fence.

Wild Turkey Courting a Pheasant

How did you spend your weekend?

I’m back from my week in the Outer Banks. While it wasn’t the perfect vacation, I did manage to enjoy the beach and its inhabitants quite a bit! The first two days were rainy and dreary, but when the rain finally started to lift, I was treated to a beautiful rainbow over the Atlantic.

Rainbow - Outer Banks, NC

Then the wind started to blow, and the kite surfing enthusiasts hit the ocean despite a few remaining sprinkles of rain and some rather chilly water. I love the way their colorful kites dot the sky. It was difficult to capture a great photo because they were definitely zipping along the water at very high speeds. It looked like tons of fun, and had I not had some ailing relatives with me on this vacation, I would have considered renting some gear and giving it a go myself.

Kite Surfers - Outer Banks, NC

Since I couldn’t stray very far from our beach house and my sick relatives, I had to find other ways to entertain myself. Whenever I visit the Outer Banks, I feed the beach critters my leftovers. Did you know that crabs love leftovers? They do, especially anything with protein! I caught one of the large blue crabs excavating his crab hole after I tossed him a large piece of leftover fried chicken. I just wish I could have captured a photo of him actually dragging the chicken leg into his hole.

Carolina Blue Crab - Outer Banks, NC

No beach trip is complete without seagulls begging for scraps. Every afternoon one very determined seagull perched on the deck and stared us down until we produced a few pieces of leftover toast or crackers. I’m quite sure he was a pound or two heavier by the time we left.

Begging Seagull - Outer Banks, NC

Finally, a young grackle decided to join the seagull. What was amazing about these two birds is that they seemed smart enough to realize stealth was the key to enjoying more food; they didn’t squawk and alert the other birds on the beach. They wanted the bread bits all to themselves! Meanwhile, other seagulls would squawk and circle and alert every other bird on the beach. These two appeared on the deck every day around 2:00pm and were very quiet, content to fetch crumbs discretely tossed their way.

Young Grackle - Outer Banks, NC

I’m sure the next family in the beach house is going to wonder why birds and crabs are staring at them every time they venture onto the deck. And yes, Mr. Crab also stared at us, waiting for more food to rain from the sky:

Blue Crab Waiting for Scraps