On Saturday, December 7th, I got up early and took a cold drive down to Pea Island NWR on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was 19°F when I left and my heat was not working too good in my Jeep. I definitely need to take that in and get it looked at! In fact, it was still about 26°F when I started crossing the Wright Memorial Bridge to get over to the Outer Banks. But once I crossed, it was 36°F on the island and my heat started pumping a little more hot air.
I made a quick stop at Biscuits & Porn to grab a chicken biscuit for breakfast before continuing for another 30 minutes south over Oregon Inlet and the Marc Basnight Bridge before entering Pea Island NWR.
Finally pulling into the parking lot at the Information Center, I parked and put on my winter parka and gator. Then I put on my boots and grabbed my Nikon Z9 body, Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens, tripod and made my down to the North Pond Wildlife Trail. Setting up shop, I set my tripod low to the ground and sat down to watch all the birds on the North Pond. It’s an amazing site to see hundreds, if not, thousands of birds. And most of them were migrating. Tundra Swans and American White Pelicans are my favorites to see here. I also found plenty of American Widgeons, Redheads, and a tricolored Heron.
Since my annual trip to Captiva Island, Florida got cancelled because of the damage from Hurricane Milton in October, this was going to be my best bird outing of the winter.
I was a little disappointed I didn’t get any better shots of White Pelicans. Maybe its because I was using my tripod, and therefore I wasn’t as agile. But I didn’t really get too many of the pelicans flying so close to me. But I would have a great time down there no matter what, even if I didn’t bring any camera gear.
