Today was for the birds - part one

No, seriously.  I spent most of the day birding.  Since MLK Day is a holiday for me, but not my husband, I decided to track down some recent sightings and bird the river a bit along the way.

First up.  Reports have been coming in for at least a month about a Ross's goose staying on the campus of the Masonic Village retirement community.  Today,  I found him after a bit of searching - Masonic Village is HUGE.  And gorgeous, also.  Conoy Creek flows through it and there are a couple of ponds bordering the creek and fields.   

Ross's geese are the cuter and rarer cousins to snow geese.  Much smaller, more delicate head and beak.  I've tried to find them in big flocks of snow geese before and never had any luck.  Much easier to pick one out of a flock of Canadas!

A bonus was a ruddy duck hanging out in one of the ponds.  Elizbethtown wasn't my first stop, today, though.

I was ready to head out just before sunrise, to try my luck at the Wrightsville River Park again.  It was an incredibly beautiful morning, although devoid of ducks. Unfortunately, I forgot to put a memory card in my camera.  At least I had my phone.  Sigh.

The saving grace of my time here was finding a winter wren right along the water.  I've seen a winter wren once before, about 10 miles north of here, and heard them singing (they sound like wind-up toy birds!) this summer, but this was by far the best looks I have had at one.