Why Bird Watching on the Outer Banks Becomes an Unforgettable Experience

By Caroline Makepeace — Jan. 21, 2022

Bundled in a coat, scarves, and a hat, and still trembling in the first cold hours of a winter morning, I found myself wondering how this could feel warm to anyone. Yet the beautiful white tundra swans drifting across the pocosin seemed perfectly content.

They gather across the Outer Banks at this time of year because winter here is mild compared with their summer range in the Canadian Arctic. We had only learned about them the night before during a historical walking tour of Manteo. In winter, thousands of these bright white birds spread across nearby Pongo Lake, creating a scene that sits near the top of many bird watchers lists and is said to have been photographed from space.

Tundra swans

Now we were standing there, watching a tangerine sunrise lay a gentle glow over the swans as they moved through the wetlands, with little yellowlegs stepping through the grasses nearby. Our family is usually chasing high-energy adventures around North Carolina, but this day we were trying something slower for the first time: birdwatching in the Outer Banks.

Our guide, Jonathan Cooley, is an avid bird watcher, environmental scientist, and eco-tourism guide who has spotted around 300 of the 427 species of birds that spend time in this area.

In 2019, after encouragement from a friend, he launched Native Birding Tours. The Outer Banks is one of the best places for bird watching on the eastern seaboard. Its geography and location along the eastern migratory flyway make it a favored habitat and stopover for many bird species.

Oddly enough, the timing was ideal for a bird watching business, as people were drawn to it for relief from the strain and confinement of a global pandemic.

We quickly discovered that bird watching has a quiet way of settling the mind and making the wider world fade away. Because strong winds were coming in from the coast, we made a last-minute switch from Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge to the Alligator River National Refuge. With multiple birding hotspots in the region, changing plans around the weather is easy.

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge

The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is a protected landscape made up mainly of pocosin wetland, marshes, and agricultural fields. Pocosin is a type of wetland environment, with the word coming from a Native American term generally meaning swamp on a hill.

The refuge was created in 1984 to preserve and protect this unusual habitat and the wildlife species that depend on it.

This region was once the site of Buffalo City, which at the turn of the 19th century was the largest community in Dare County because the land was rich with valuable cedar, cypress, and juniper.

It became a boomtown for logging and moonshine production, producing 1500 gallons a day, until the 1950s, when the activity disappeared and the town was deserted. Today, only a bridge and trail into the forest hint that it was ever there.

Searching for the Elusive Rough Legged Hawk

Sunrise at Alligator River National Refuge

After lingering with the sunrise and tundra swans, we climbed into the car, grateful for shelter from the sharp early morning winter wind. Just a few days earlier, temperatures had been in the 70s.

One advantage of bird watching is that you can retreat to your vehicle when the weather turns harsh. We held binoculars to the window and watched turkey vultures circle in holding patterns, scanning for carrion.

Jonathan drove ahead while sharing commentary with us by speakerphone about the landscape passing by. Our goal was to find the rare rough legged hawk, a winter visitor from the far north. Similar in size to Red-tailed Hawks, their feathered legs give them the appearance of “rough” legs. While they vary in color from dark to light, all have a dark band across their chest.

Jonathan had heard that one had recently been seen nearby. Bird lovers often trade current sightings through the ebird app or group text messages.

Rough-legged hawk. Image credit: DepositPhotos.com

Jonathan made a habit of stopping to speak with passing twitchers, swapping notable sightings and locations.

What surprised me was the range of people who shared the enthusiasm for birding. Some looked like tattooed bikers, others like twenty-something surfers or lumberjacks. None of them, Jonathan included, matched the stereotype I had pictured: an older man in glasses, dressed in a green waistcoat stuffed with pockets, crouching unseen in the bushes.

Bird watching is open to anyone who feels drawn to stillness, beauty, and nature. I would not even say patience is essential before you begin; the birds soon help you find it. With a guide like Jonathan, you do not need previous knowledge either.

I was happy to let Jonathan lead us toward the birds, allow patience to arrive, and take in his observations about each feathered creature, from their habitats to the markings beneath their wings. We moved from place to place through the area where the hawk had been reported.

On the way, we saw several other birds of prey: a northern harrier, bald headed eagle, American kestrel, and turkey vultures, which seemed about as common as dolphins along the Outer Banks beaches. The binoculars and scopes Jonathan supplied let us study the underside of a red tailed eagle and the patterns across his underwing.

We watched the smallest shifts in his muscles keep him suspended in the sky, while a stronger wingbeat gave him extra momentum when needed. We saw a flock of robins circling around one another and heard sparrows answer Jonathan’s sparrow song app as he tried to draw them out of their grassy cover. Their only competition was the loud chorus of jet black boat tailed grackles, known as the Welcoming Committee of the Outer Banks.

At one point, we even witnessed an attempted kill. A bald-headed eagle chased a duck near the tree line but could not match the duck’s speed and skill.

There is no need to write down every bird species you encounter. Jonathan logs them on his phone and later sends you a checklist. Finally, after several birdwatching stops, we found the rough legged hawk flying above the open marsh near Bear Rd. A second one soon appeared and flew alongside it.

The source article includes brief remarks attributed to Jonathan Cooley, Kalyra, and Craig. Their comments center on the excitement of seeing rare birds, the curiosity sparked by migration and bird behavior, and the way an Outer Banks birding experience can permanently change how someone notices birds afterward.

Bears in the Outer Banks

While I was taking in this rare sighting, a sign entered the edge of my binocular view warning visitors not to approach or feed bears. Bears in the Outer Banks? And this was not a matter of only a few occasional sightings.

The Alligator River National Refuge has the largest concentration of black bears on the eastern seaboard. Jonathan has seen as many as 60 in only a few hours. Within this 153,000 acres of unspoiled habitat, 1-2 bears can be found in every square mile. Because they are so plentiful, easy to find, and quite fat and healthy, the refuge is a frequent place for studies of these animals. In the colder season, they are more difficult to spot, so we had to settle for fresh berry-filled bear poop on the road instead. Note to self: come back in the Spring for bear watching.

Black bear poop — yep, they eat berries!

Bears are not the only wildlife in this wilderness. It is also home to the last remaining population of Red Wolf, the world's most endangered canine, of which there are only 20 left in the wild. If river otters are your thing, there is also a good chance of seeing them playing in the water. As we left the refuge, Savannah noticed three river otters playing, her wildlife-watching instincts clearly sharpened after our four hour morning.

The Real Gift of Bird Watching

Tundra swans

The morning reminded me of our many safaris across the wide African savannas in search of the Big Five. This time, though, I was looking for tiny shapes in the air rather than big cats moving through the grass.

The excitement and quiet wonder felt much the same. It pulled me into awe, curiosity, and a cascade of questions. I wondered whether stronger winds exhaust birds when they appear to struggle, why they lift off the ground in big groups, whether they are frightened, playing, hunting, or following a leader, and how so many different species seem to share the sky without colliding.

Even Kalyra, our teen, began wondering aloud about how birds know to migrate here and how many places they stop along the journey. So much of understanding life begins with observation, curious questions, and connecting the patterns we notice, with a little intuition mixed in.

Palm warbler

Bird watching turns meditative because the birds do not answer your questions. You can only watch and reflect. Letting curiosity develop through direct experience is an important skill, and immediate access to Google answers has pulled our attention away from it. Later that day, our visit to the Wrights Brothers Memorial reinforced for me the power of simply watching nature.

The exhibit thoughtfully showed how Orville and Wilbur began by observing birds in flight, imagining how humans might feel that same sensation, and then turning those long-held curiosities into a cycle of creating, testing, refining, and repeating until they finally built a machine that could fly like a bird and change human life dramatically.

One More Rare Sighting

We ended in a larger pocosin area where the waterfowl were too numerous to count. I had not realized how many duck species existed until I looked through the scope and could clearly see their varied colors, stripes, and patterns.

American Widgeon

It was here that we had one final lucky rare sighting, and a first for Jonathan: a sandhill crane. As one of the largest cranes in North America, it is not usually seen in this area. Its migration patterns typically run between Florida and Texas farther west. We watched it walk through the shallows before lifting into full flight.

Sandhill crane. Image credit: DepositPhotos.com

After our bird watching experience, I felt completely alive. Now I understand why people of all ages devote hours of quiet and slow movement to this pursuit.

When I am bird watching, or watching any wildlife, nothing else is required of me. I can simply be present with life. The noise and problems that normally crowd my mind fall away when I lift the binoculars and move with the birds. Whether I am thinking of the OBX or not, I now pause more often, notice their graceful beauty, and reconnect with the gift of a winged creature bringing me back into the present moment.

Bird Watching with Native Birding Tours

Tricolored heron

Whether you are a beginner, have target species in mind, or want to go big day birding, Jonathan offers a tour that fits. Native Birding Tours offer tours year round from full-day to half-day birding trips, shorter birding walks, and private tours. There is limited availability in the summer.

Bring snacks or breakfast/lunch, along with plenty of water. For winter bird watching, wear warm layers and include gloves, because the wind can be sharp. Jonathan provides binoculars, though you can bring your own, and if you have a telephoto lens, it is worth packing.

Best Time to Go Bird Watching

• Winter typically brings more birds than summer because of the waterfowl.
• Fall is the best time for bird watching in the Outer Banks because summer birds may still be present while migrating winter birds pause in the region for a couple of weeks.

Author

Caroline Makepeace is the co-founder of two successful online publications: This is Raleigh, a guide for exploring the best of Wake County, and YTravelBlog, one of the world’s most influential travel blogs. Travel has been central to her life since 1997. She has lived in 5 countries, visited more than 60, traveled full time for 7 years with her two daughters, and worked as a full-time professional travel blogger since 2010. The Outer Banks is one of her favorite vacation destinations from Raleigh.