Day 1: Arrival in Raleigh-Durham

After arriving in Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), clients will take a free shuttle to our nearby hotel. There are no birding activities on this day, so feel free to arrive at any time. Dinner is not included in the tour fee for this night, so please eat wherever and whatever you please. Your guide will meet the group the following morning, the exact timing to be confirmed a few weeks in advance.

 

Day 2: Alligator River NWR, Bodie Island, Pea Island

After eating breakfast, we’ll depart the hotel and make multiple birding stops as we close the distance towards Hatteras, our ultimate destination. Our first taste of Coastal Carolina will be at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, an extensive reserve which presents a variety of woody and marshy habitats. Employing a mix of walking and driving, we’ll search for Wood Duck, Northern Bobwhite, and Wild Turkey. Songbirds should abound, and we could observe a number of eastern varieties including Great Crested Flycatcher, Prairie Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, and — appropriately — Carolina Chickadee and Carolina Wren! Bald Eagle and other raptors frequent the refuge, so we’ll have to keep our an eye skyward in case anything flies over!

 

Continuing east, we’ll lunch in Manteo and join the Outer Banks at Nags Head. Turning south onto the beachfront, we’ll make stops at Bodie Island and Pea Island, two regional crown jewels. Coastal marshes are present at both places, and we’ll scour those for American Black Duck, Clapper and King Rails, Tricolored Heron, and White Ibis. Upwards of 20 shorebirds are possible, American Oystercatcher, Piping Plover, and White-rumped Sandpiper among them. If we’re lucky, we might glimpse Black Skimmer feeding! It’ll be an action packed first day, and we’ll have dinner in Hatteras before resting up ahead of the first of two pelagic trips. This will be our first of three nights in Hatteras.

 

Days 3 - 4: Pelagic Trips from Hatteras

Hatteras is the best pelagic departure port on the East Coast, and the ‘Stormy Petrel' — a modern and comfortable vessel — will deliver us to the deepwater on consecutive days. Why two trips? Well, two reasons. First, trips are occasionally weathered-out because of high winds, and we want to ensure that we get at least one pelagic opportunity. Second, the ocean is highly-dynamic, and the birds turnover much faster than on land; two trips increases the possibility that we’ll encounter some of the less-common species. That said, most trips find Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Leach’s Storm-Petrel, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Black-capped Petrel, Cory’s Shearwater, Greater Shearwater, Audubon’s Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, and Common Tern. Though less common, South Polar Skua, Manx Shearwater, Northern Gannet, Bridled and Sooty Terns, South Polar Skua, and all three jaegers (Parasitic, Pomarine, Long-tailed) also make regular appearances. Trinidad Petrel, Fea’s Petrel and White-tailed and Red-billed Tropicbirds are within the realm of possibilities, and we can dream — however distantly — of mega-rarities like Bermuda Petrel (Cahow) and European Storm-Petrel. Chum brings some of the birds close to the boat, so photographic opportunities are often good. The days will be long, but Gulf Stream birding is something everyone should experience at least once (and hopefully twice on this tour).

 

Day 5: Ocracoke Ferries and Cedar Island NWR

Departing Hatteras, we’ll board the first of two ferries as we traverse the less-developed southern section of the Outer Banks. The first of these (1 hour) will deliver us to remote Ocracoke Island, and the second (2.5 hours) will return us to the North Carolina mainland at Cedar Island. We can expect Laughing, Herring, and Greater Black-backed Gulls aboard those vessels, and we could find as many as six species of tern — Least, Gull-billed, Caspian, Forster’s, Common, Sandwich, Royal — during our dual crossings. Brown Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, and herons and egrets should abound, and we’ll need to be on the look-out for fast-flying shorebirds like Black-bellied Plover and Ruddy Turnstone.

 

Reaching the mainland, we’ll explore Cedar Island National Wild Refuge for a variety of species including Cattle Egret, Green Heron, Osprey, Seaside Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, and Boat-tailed Grackle. From there, it will be onto Morehead City for a two-night stay, possibly with additional stops as time allows.

 

Day 6: Croatan National Forest

We will venture into a variety of wooded habitats on this last full day of birding, pine savanna chief among them. There we will seek the ‘pinewoods trio’ of Brown-headed Nuthatch, Bachman’s Sparrow, and the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker. While searching for those Southeastern specialties, we’ll also have chances for Northern Bobwhite, Red-headed and Pileated Woodpeckers, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Blue Jay, Brown Thrasher, Pine Warbler, and a host of other passerines. If we’re really lucky, we might even stumble into a roosting Common Nighthawk or Chuck-will’s-widow!

 

Moving to wetter areas, we’ll hope to find Swainson’s Warbler, arguably the most secretive of the North American wood warblers. We’ll almost certainly run into Prothonotary Warbler along the way, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, White-eye Vireo, Summer Tanager, and Yellow-breasted Chat are all in the area. If we knock-out all of our targets and have some extra time at the end of the day — we should be so lucky, right?!?! — we can swing through any number of coastal reserves during our afternoon return to Morehead City.

 

Day 7: Croatan mop-up, return to Raleigh, and departures

Despite the birding optimism expressed above, chances are we’ll need a few extra hours to seek out remaining species around Croatan. There are also several decent spots for Swainson’s Warbler between Morehead City and Raleigh-Durham, so we’ll be sure to hit those if that furtive bird eludes us closer to the coast. We’ll aim to be at RDU airport at 1pm, so clients should arrange to fly out any time after 3pm.​

Pace: Easy to Moderate. Clients should expect early starts on each day. Breakfast will be eaten between 5:30-6:00am on most days, and we’ll spend the entire day out-and-about. There is no scheduled rest time, but clients will have ample opportunity to relax in the van as we move between birding locations. We’ll eat lunch between birding locations and enjoy dinner at or near our place of lodging.

 

Physical Difficulty: There will be some modest amount of walking on this tour, but anyone capable of covering 1 to 2 miles at relaxed pace will be fine. Topography is a non-issue because the Carolina Coastal plain is perfectly flat. We will spend two days at sea during the pelagics, so clients are encouraged to bring over-the-counter motion sickness medication or prescription patches. Our longest days of driving will be the first and last (4 hours and 3 hours, respectively), but we’ll break-up those hauls with multiple birding stops along the way.

 

Climate: Clients should prepare for daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s and overnight temperatures in the 50s and 60s. May typically features 6 days of rain, so a rain coat is advisable. It — or another light jacket — can used for wind and sun protection on the pelagic trips.

 

Accommodations:  Good throughout. All of the hotels and motels have typical amenities, including Wi-Fi.