Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9412070005
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: G6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB WILLIS
DATELINE: CAPE HATTERAS, N. C. LENGTH: Long
What's good for aircraft flight is not, unfortunately, always good for birds. The Outer Banks is one of the finest bird-watching sectors of the United States, lying in a prime migratory path and dotted with wildlife refuges. But strong winds - in this case, gusting near 40 mph - tend to bring migrant birds to ground and also to shelter, out of human sight.
Not that they disappear. At the Pea Island Refuge near here, my wife, Karen, and I could see literally thousands of birds. They tended, however, to stay far from the ground where we stood, straining the reach of our binoculars and telescopic camera lens - as well as the limits of our avian expertise.
If you aspire to be more than a cadet birder, you must be willing to rise early. When we could not spy many birds in the middle of the day, we figured the answer was to return early the next morning.
We were there at 7:30 a.m., the only people on the scene. But as we walked the paths of the refuge and took sightings from its overlooks - constantly buffeted by winds - we saw no more birds than we had the day before.
The landscape was hardly barren. There were the familiar species you can spot on the beach: gulls, brown pelicans, sandpipers, sanderlings. We saw both white and blue herons, sitting quietly in the marsh grass or lifting their legs high to stalk prey in the shallows.
Canada geese wheeled overhead, and mallards and other ducks floated on the rippled waters. A small flock of dowitchers could be seen near the shore. And there were other birds that, riffling through our field guides, we could not positively identify.
Discouraged, after an hour we retreated toward the car. En route we met a more knowledgeable birder carrying a powerful telescope and tripod. He was from Cincinnati; his family had vacationed here since he was a small boy, he said, and he returned regularly to bird-watch.
He had been here earlier in the week, before the wind kicked up, and had seen large flocks of birds nearer the shore. The wind had sent many to cover, but there still were others to observe.
Among those he'd seen were the pied-billed grebe, pintail duck, black duck, shoveler, widgeon, teal (both green and blue), gadwall, semi-pileated plover, skimmer, willet, avocet, ibis and swan. When we described a dark gray bird with a black head, he said we'd probably seen a coot.
``I have to look them up,'' he said. ``Once, though, I met an ornithology professor here who could reel off all the names from memory. That was neat.''
What's neat about that? the cynic may grump. Aren't these creatures descended from - yuck - reptiles? Anyway, a bird is a bird is a bird.
Well, not exactly. Worldwide, there are some 8,700 species. Just at Cape Hatteras National Seashore - which includes adjoining Bodie Island as well as Pea Island - nearly 400 species have been sighted. There are the ubiquitous gulls, with their hooked beaks and long wings on which they hover in the wind. There are ducks in their many varieties, usually swimming, sometimes bobbing their heads in the water to grab food beneath the surface.
There are herons, cranes and the like, waiting patiently for frogs to happen by; or wading on stiltlike legs, peering into the water. There are the shore birds - dowitchers, sandpipers, avocets, etc. - that explore the sandy beaches and marsh edges.
We weren't so lucky, but under most circumstances the Outer Banks in mid-October offers a trove of birds, including even rare ones. The winds that discouraged avian flight during much of our stay can actually be a boon to bird-watchers: Gales and storms may sap the strength of airborne birds and bring them to rest in the tidal flats, ponds and eddies of the area. Oceangoing birds may alight here after rough weather.
Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge was established by Congress in 1938, mainly as habitat for migratory waterfowl. It comprises 5,915 acres of tidal creeks and bays, ocean beaches, ponds of fresh and brackish water, salt marshes and barrier dunes. It stretches, elongated, more than 12 miles, from Oregon Inlet - a favorite spot for fishermen, spanned by the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge - to Rodanthe.
``Pea Island'' refers to the dune peas that proliferate there. The plant has little pink and lavender blooms, and the peas are high in energy. The Fish and Wildlife Service also sows fields of annual grasses as food for wildlife. The area is carefully managed: For example, levels of impounded waters are controlled so as to imitate dry and wet periods of natural wetlands and to encourage food production.
There are various blinds and overlooks along the highway, North Carolina 12. On one side is the ocean, on the other Pamlico Sound. The main area for observation, about midway through the refuge, has a lengthy wildlife trail that circles a pond for more than two miles.
At this parking area are restrooms and an office, manned by volunteers, where you can pick up free brochures or buy books; the proceeds help finance preservation. Information is also available at a visitor center a couple of miles further south.
Experienced birders, I understand, often refer to Bodie (pronounced ``body'') Island, just to the north, and Pea Island as one. They speak highly of Bodie Island Lighthouse Pond as a location for pool-type shorebirds, but many other varieties can also be spotted.
My own qualifications are sparse, which will long since have been evident to serious bird-watchers. To them, however, I think I can safely say that in this part of the country, they will not want to be without the newly published book: ``A Birder's Guide to Coastal North Carolina'' (University of North Carolina Press), by John O. Fussell III.
It is not a field guide, but its more than 500 pages give extensive information on what birds can be seen where. And its written directions are meticulously detailed, leading one almost step by step along various sectors of the coast. To a genuine birder, it will be worth many times its $16.95 price.
Bob Willis is former associate editor of the Roanoke Times & World-News editorial page.
by CNB