Virginia and North Carolina part 1

We flew from MSP to Norfolk VA on June 3.    It was a long day, up at 5 am, out of the house by 6, a quick walk by the Mississippi River before getting to the airport at 10am.  A fast layover in Atlanta, picked up the rental car and off to our hotel in the rain and fog.  We went for a quick dinner before settling in for the night.

June 4, still raining and foggy.  Our first stop was Back Bay WLR.  The rain turned into a drizzle and kind of stopped for awhile.  4 new birds!

 Yellow breasted Chat

too cute..

not new but an Eastern Towhee

Next stop Virginia Beach Boardwalk.  It was still very foggy, but we managed to have a late lunch and walk the beach.  Did get to see some dolphins. They were in the midst of setting the entire beach up for what we assumed was the summer crowds.

I know some people who would not be allowed to walk the streets of Virginia Beach!

Neptune

final stop of the day was at First Landing State Park.  The rain came down harder!  We walked a very nice 1.8 mile trail, only seen 3 birds!  they don't like the rain either!

young Pileated Woodpecker looking up at mom

June 5th:  Our drive to Hattereas was about 150 miles and 8 hours.  It started out misting, then rained, then cloudy and finally sunny!  Although the winds came up pretty hard.  Beautiful drive on the Outer Banks to Hattereas.

one of our stops was at Pea Island NWR.  beautiful place but the wind was so strong it was hard to hold the binoculars still!

the strong winds made for a good day of kite surfing!

 we made another quick stop at Cape Hatteras lighthouse

Our hotel reservations were for the less expensive rooms but "our" room had a leak so we had to take a upgrade!

our reserved room was in the Fishermans Quarters

we got upgraded to the main building!

our room is the left most balcony on the top

 of course seafood dinner at the attached restaurant. it was all good!

June 6: Pleagic Bird trip!  We got up at 4:40 to be at the boat at 5:15.  the day started out cloudy and a bit wet but ended in all sunshine.  We ended up getting 8 new birds!  The ocean was a bit confused on which way it wanted to go so the ride was a bit bumpy.  Dramine worked fine for those who took it.  A father and son did not take any precautions and paid the price!  It was a great day.

our ride: the Stormy Petral 2:

my hair looked much worse after the trip!  between the wind, rain and humidity  oh boy!

 two bottle nose dolphins

our sightings for the day:

Trindade Petrel  1 (dark individual)  this is a rare treat!

Black-capped Petrel  22

Cory's Shearwater  71-76

Great Shearwater  9-10

Audubon's Shearwater  8

Wilson's Storm-Petrel  132-142

Leach's Storm-Petrel  3

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  8

Arctic Tern  2

Common Tern  2

Sterna sp  5

Laughing Gull  1

all but the gull, and the terns were new birds!

Bottlenose Dolphin  7

beautiful sunset after dinner of some more great seafood

sun dog catching a seagull!

right from the deck!

June 7:  beach day!  we felt the need to relax but first took a nice walk along the beach

before heading to Frisco (about 3 miles up the road) to lay on the beach.  I had to test the water, Eric had to go further in!

a very fun relaxing day at the beach, a bit windy but warm and peaceful

after cleaning the fish the fish gut guy takes the remains out to sea!

the gulls are happy!

relaxing after dinner, watching the sun go down one last time before we head inland

tomorrow we head inland, have to be in Raleigh by Thurs night.