Stromboli's Rolling Log

Day 24, Tuesday April 16, 2016, At Sandy Point RV Kn

The object of the day was to visit the NWR here at Knott’s Island, that ironically is called Mackay Island NWR. The confusion in that, is when the National WR was named, Mr. Mackay (Then spelled M-A-C-K-I-E) was very influential in the conservation of birds (Think: Ducks Unlimited) and it covered most of the Island so they named it that. Knott and Knapp (see photos) also were influential in assisting the Island people in maintaining a life style that was even better than many cities of the day .Knapp was a philanthropist, and paid the teachers, built the school, bought clothes and books for the children and maintained a very high quality community for many years.

We did find the road to the Office at the Wildlife Reserve, after stopping and getting directions from an El. School aide who phoned the secretary at the school whom she said “knows everything”. We stood in the parking lot there, and got very specific directions of how to get there. It worked. We toured the facility on the Bay , with Sue (Asst.Mgr.) answering questions for us about the Refuge. We found spots where Rails (King and Black) were to be found and spent some hours looking but did not find any that morning or afternoon.

Long billed Yellowlegs. Note bill is about 2X as long
as the head. (Short billed is 1/2 that length.)

Yellow Slider Turtle. There are thousands of them here.

Two Nutria that look like one with two tails.
They skittered when we were close.

The Mackay NWR Visitor Center and Office

Ruth looking over the ideal Rail habitat
at Mackay NWR

Our bird total today was 30 and we added 6 new birds to the “first seen” list. They were:

A flock of BLUE GROSBEAKS, on the side of the road; GREATER YELLOWLEGS (although we had seen the Lesser); COMMON YELLOWTHROAT (after much looking); WOOD DUCK, (but only a nestling that was peeking out the wood box); CHIPPING SPARROW, (First one); and two BLACK DUCKS in flight. It seems that the song birds are beginning to move north in greater numbers. After I returned to the trailer, I was walking nearby and looked up to see a Black Vulture right over my head in a Loblolly Pine tree. They are all black with the tips of their wings white, and have no red crop on the head. Sort of “bald”. Just a bit smaller than a Bald eagle.

After a supper of Taco Salad and a few slices of that great spinach bread that Margaret gave us before we left, Ruth noticed that the water was not coming through the pipes. UGH. There were no leaks outside . there was a flow of water through the standpipe (although not very severe) when some neighbors saw me working the faucet and indicated that there was no water at this end of the campground (at least) . They're going up to see if they could help solve the problem. (I had looked at all the possibilities, pipes, valves, filters, and nothing seemed to be out of order, and hopefully , it wasn’t. We shall see.

The wind blew all day, starting at 20mph in the AM and only diminishing a few mph by this evening. The waves on the bay in front of us still have whitecaps, although a bit less than yesterday. Birding was good in the wooded areas with some in the tree “islands” and bushes. There is a huge Marsh here much like the one we saw at Croatan by Newport. It supports a diverse community of ducks and geese that are gone now. The Black Ducks must have been a mating pair. The number of Osprey that we have seen today is almost as many as we did in Idaho one year. There are many nests, many birds, and many sitting on nests at this time.

See you tomorrow we hope