Ed Corey updates from North Carolina 2023

The Pelagics and Pineywoods tour wasn’t able to get offshore due to some unseasonable weather (30-35mph winds and high seas), but we’ve made the most of our time on the Outer Banks! Highlights include numerous singing Prothonotary Warblers...

several large American Black Bear (the largest ones in the world occur in the NC Coastal Plain),

Leatherback Sea Turtles foraging on Cannonball Jellyfish, dutiful Least Terns bringing fish to their partners...

Sooty Shearwaters soaring into the strong winds in their migration northward...

and a beautiful flock of Red Knots.

We’ve also seen a wide variety of shorebird species, including a seasonally uncommon American Golden-Plover associating with a Black-bellied Plover.

Today, we head off of the Outer Banks towards our Pineywoods section of the tour, where we hope to see Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Bachman’s Sparrows, and other denizens of the Longleaf and Pond Pine dominated natural communities.