national wildlife refuge

November 11, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 4 min read
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November 11, 2026
Bird of the (Yester)Day: osprey, bitch. I. LOVE. THIS. BIRD.

Where: Chincoteague Island National Wildlife Refuge

When: Sunday-Tuesday

Bird Species: (including the ones I forgot to list previously) great egret, snowy egret, great blue heron, black-crowned night heron, white ibis, belted kingfisher, laughing gull, ring-billed gull, sanderling, royal tern, double-crested cormorant, osprey, bald eagle, turkey vulture, black vulture, yellow-breasted chat, dark-eyed junco, yellow-rumped warbler, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, field sparrow, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, swamp sparrow, eastern towhee, Carolina chickadee, Carolina wren, gray catbird, blue jay, mourning dove, Canada goose, mallard, American black duck, killdeer, lesser yellowlegs, wild turkey, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, northern flicker. Forty Species even, unless I forgot another one.

Things I Thought About:

  • Oh, I have no idea. Not work, I’ll tell you that. Probably a lot about the seasons, and how wonderful it feel to have a morning when it’s 45 degrees but 68 in the sunshine. 
  • Probably also a lot about my body, the various aches and pains, but also how good it feels to stretch and move and bend, and how much i want to be able to do it for another 30 years at least.
  • So probably also about how I need to lose 25 pounds quick, and drink a lot more water.
  • Also probably thinking about my body in the sense of being horny. Vacation vibes.
  • Anyway, I checked out for long minutes at a time, watching sanderlings scurry, watching egrets fish, looking for small birds in the brush. I took like 400 photos, but none of them are especially good. The lighting was terrible at any time of day, too bright, too dark, wrong angle, and also I simply can’t clear my lens, and also I am not a very good photographer, but here are some of my favorite photos I took.
One of the two I showed you Monday. A pretty good looking bird.
This is a double-crested cormorant, a big goofy diving bird that I absolutely adore. His webbed feet are so great. They only show the double crest during breeding season, I just learned as I composed this caption. I like the way the water beads up on his long neck; you'll often see them posing with their wings spread to dry after a dive.
This is an uninspiring photo of a frankly uninspiring bird, but it's a sparrow that I've never shown you before (there are only about 50 types.) This one is distinctive for his pale beak.
This is a sika deer. Isn't it cute? I love those short ears and short tail.
I watched this specific great egret fish for almost ten full minutes yesterday morning before I left.
This is snowy egret, which I prefer. Their proportions are neater, and their coloring (black bill, yellow legs vs. yellow bill, black legs) is more dramatic.
This was my favorite of the ponies.
So, so much fun to watch them scurry.
You must love an ibis. You must! That bill! Thoth, the Ibis-headed God of Egypt. He invented writing and also invented looking gross when his nictitating eyelid closes.
This is a turkey vulture. His head looks quite a lot like a scrotum, which I find funny.
There were two belted kingfishers circling around the road, chasing each other. They did not stop flying, or making their amazing rattling calls to each other, for a second.
I just like these birds, and I liked this photo of the two of them trying to be inconspicuous among the gulls.
My guy. They are long gone from my local. I know it was just a trick of the light and the exposure, but his beak and legs looking so bleached and white is very cool, to me.

I'm banking a lot of other photos, as the days get shorter towards the end of year. Expect to see some myrtle warblers; they were the absolute stars. You could not look anywhere without seeing a myrtle warbler.

Good trip! The last one of the NWR on the penisula that I wanted to share on the blog this year. Glad I made it.

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