Hi Carolinabirders,
I guess fall migration is in the air for real! Had my first broad-wing the other day, and now! something even more special! As I was loading my car for a weekend away, I noticed a murder of crows carrying on about something near my apartment in downtown Boone, NC. I looked up, and in a tree above the county courthouse, a splotch of white! What kind of egret would decide to perch atop a tree in the middle of a small city hundreds of miles from any appreciable lowland area? Glad I had decided to bring the bag with my camera and binoculars in this go-round, I peered at the white body through my bins and noted that it was not an egret, but indeed a raptor, presumably albino or leucistic. I took out my camera and managed to snap a photo right as the hawk launched from the tree, and then took several more photos as it circled up and up and eventually disappeared over Howard’s Knob. If anyone wants to see photos, I’m happy to send them along. I will also post this sighting to eBird, along with media, so that it is counted in citizen science, but I thought it was noteworthy enough to warrant a post to the good ol’ listserv!
And now, excited to go out tomorrow and see what shore- and waterbirds this evening’s thunderstorm may have blown in/ kept down… and remember, the crows *are* trying to tell you something!
Good birding,
~ Noah Rokoske
Boone and Durham
