Field and Swamp: Animals and Their Habitats

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Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge, Carteret County, NC

What is it like in parts of North Carolina where people don't encourage songbirds to come around, where there are little or no bird feeders, birdhouses, and so on?   The birds that live here on Cedar Island near the Ocracoke Ferry dock are the real survivors, with imports being greatly overrepresented.  Most that we saw the first day of spring here were either European Starlings or Brown-headed Cowbirds.

For those able to travel back into the marshes, there is a variety of water birds; see the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Cedar Island NWR page.   But don't expect to find too many species of songbirds there!

Cedar Island is a varied natural environment.  On the immediate north side of the ferry landing is a large shallow cove, which traps dozens of jellyfish at a time near the shore.  Because of the great expanse of this cove, the warm water contributes to an unusually warm environment with little wind in the summer (and probably colder air in the winter). Swallows cluster a little distance inland, on the other side of grassy dunes, while House Sparrows are found everywhere except the shore and squabble over territory.  Mosquitoes abound but few other insects are found. 

Cedar Island, Carteret County, NC 4/14/24

 
Double-crested Cormorant Breeding Double-crested Cormorant Long view of the beach Affectionate Laughing Gull pair  

 
Startled Barn Swallow Sanderling stirring the water Another Sanderling Sanderling probing deeply  

Killdeer Anemometer and weathervane Northern Mockingbird Sow Thistle Animal tracks Bird tracks and other movements

     
Bird tracks: foot-dragging? Sanderlings in flight Same group of Sanderlings in flight      

 
Sanderling, Killdeer, and a third larger bird Sanderlings Laughing Gull and Sanderling, but the reflected sky is the most interesting part. Killdeer  

   

Same Killdeer

 

Double-crested Cormorants, juvie on left, breeding one on right Double-crested Cormorants, juvie on left, breeding one on right    

May 8, 2013

Killdeer, which was inside a small fenced-in area and seemed to feel safe there Least Tern (Sterna antillarum) Semi-palmated Plover Snowy Egret False Garlic

May 22, 2012

 
Fledgling House Sparrow Chairmaker's Rush and Beach Pennywort A grassy dune A robber fly  

   
Red jellyfish White jellyfish Many small jellyfish, brought in and stranded by the shallow water    

March 21, 2005 (near Ocracoke ferry dock)

Male House Finch Northern Mockingbird preening Same bird Male House Sparrow Brown-headed Cowbird, one of maybe a dozen in a pine tree. Common Starlings definitely run the show around here. A close-up of more of the same.


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© 2007-2019 Dorothy E. Pugh