Hello Friends!

We hope you are all staying safe, healthy, and hydrated as temperatures get into the upper 80's and 90's this week. These temperatures can be difficult for our local nesting species, so make sure to offer some fresh water, fresh seed, and clean feeders! Speaking of weather, below we have a great essay, written by out friend Wayne, about a very cute vagrant bird species blown in by some harsh conditions we experienced last week along the coast. Scroll down to read about that and check out Wayne's photos of his sighting.  

This week we have another excellent plant sale and popup for you! There will be lots of beautiful native flowers and shrubs available to spice up your flower beds. And we still have spots left in our upcoming bird photography class - a can't miss experience! 

Please keep in mind, as case numbers climb again, that we offer curbside pickup. If you prefer not to go into the store in person, just give us a call and order on the phone. We will bring it out to your car for you! No contact, safe, and helpful! We also offer some items for sale online for in-store pickup!

Hours 

910-343-6001

Monday-Saturday 10-430

and Sunday 12-4

Thank you for joining us in this space!

Happy birding!

Native Plant Sale

Our wonderful friends from Going Native Gardens are back at it! They will be running the plant presale this week from today, Wednesday 5/18 through Friday 5/20. Come by or call us (910-343-6001) to place your order. Then, on Saturday 5/21, stop by the shop to pick up your amazing plants!

Also on Saturday, from 10:00 -1:30, Going Native will be offering a popup plant sale! Some of the plants for the pop up will include:

Early Sunflower, Ironweed, Blue Mist Flower, Swamp Milkweed, Little Bluestem Grass, Swamp Rose, Carolina Wild Petunia, Sweet Pepper Bush, River Oats,Great Blue Lobelia, Columbine, and Spotted Bee Balm!

Native Plant Presale Plants

Beauty Berry

(Callicarpa americana)

Many birds eat these berries in the fall and winter!

Height: Up to 9 feet!!

Sun: Sun or partial shade

Soil: Moist to dry

3-quart pots, $12 each

Large Flowered Aster

(Symphyotrichum grandiflorum)

Attracts bees, butterflies, and birds. Also, deer resistant.

Sun: full sun to part shade

Height: 2-3'

3-quart pot, $8 each

Rose Mallow

(Hibiscus moscheutos)

Beautiful white to pink flowers that can be up to 6-inches wide. The seeds privide food for birds in the Winter.

Height: 5-7 feet (4-5' wide)

Soil: accepts a wide range

Sun: Full sun to part shade

Bloom time: Mid-summer to Fall

1-gallon pot, $10 each

Black-eyed Susan

(Rudbeckia fulgida)

Goldfinches love the fruits of the mature flower!

Height: 2-4 feet

Sun: Full sun

Soil: Medium to dry

Blooms: Summer

6-inch pot, $8 each

Purple Cone Flower

(Echinacea purpurea)

A gorgeous plant beloved of pollinators

Height: 2-4'

Soil: poor or lean soil

Sun: full-sun for at least 6 hours, will also enjoy an afternoon shade

Blooms: July-September

3 quart pot, $8 each

Photography Class with Wayne Hoffman

Registration is $55

Friday May 29 | 7 – 9 am

Wrightsville Beach shorebird colony

Whether you are just getting started or you want to learn how to upgrade your photography skills, join us at the Wrightsville Beach Colony for this photography class! The nesting birds will be the perfect models and Wayne will teach you all his failsafe tricks! A registration for this class will make a great Mother's Day gift!



What are Storm-Petrels doing Here?

By Wayne Hoffman

On May 15 I participated in a fundraiser organized by the Wilmington Garden Club in support of North Carolina Audubon’s Coastal Islands programs. This was a boat trip on the river tour boat Henrietta, from downtown Wilmington down the Cape Fear River to Battery Island, near the mouth of the river. Audubon’s Coastal Biologist Lindsay Addison narrated, describing how the spoil islands created during the dredging of the Port of Wilmington’s shipping channel had become important nesting sites for gulls, terns, wading birds, and shorebirds. 

The Henrietta got under way about 1 PM. I joined Jill Peleuses, owner of the Bird Store, on the upper deck at the bow, scanning the river and surrounding shore and sky for birds. About half an hour into the trip I spotted a small blackish bird with a big white rump patch flying low over the water just off the boat’s bow and yelled “STORM-PETREL” Lindsay got on bird and gave directions over the PA system so that more of the participants got views of it. It was not very cooperative, diverging rapidly from the boat’s course. Unfortunately, I was on the starboard side of the bow, and the bird moved quickly off to port, so I got only a brief look. One participant on the port side did get a number of good photos, and from them I was able to confirm its identification as a Wilson’s Storm-Petrel.

This was a big surprise. Wilson’s and all other storm-petrels are oceanic birds and rarely come onto land or into inland waters. They do sometimes get blown inland by hurricanes, but of course our hurricane season has not started.  

Anyway, we continued down the river, enjoying the beautiful day and Lindsay’s narration. After learning about how her program works with the port and agencies to manage the nesting islands, we turned and headed back up the river. By 6:30 we had reached the lower end of the Port of Wilmington industrial area, and again I yelled “STORM-PETREL”  This time I was able to take a series of photos, and quite a few of the other participants were able to see the bird. This location was just off the port docks, and 24 miles upstream from the river mouth. The photos are not great, as the bird was small, distant, and flying directly away from us. One photo does, however, portray a very characteristic behavior. Note how the bird kicks off the water with its feet. This behavior is actually the basis for the name “Petrel.” Petrels were named for St. Peter because they “walk on water.”

Figure 1, Figure 2.

After returning home I posted these sightings to the Carolina Birds List Serve. I then decided to check the daily listing of “Notable Sightings” posted to eBird for the day and found no fewer than 3 additional reports. One was offshore of Carteret Co., where they would be expected, but one was inland in Holly Ridge, Pender Co. and the other was seen from the beach in Kure Beach. The “Notable Sightings” for South Carolina included 10 seen and several photographed from the Murrels Inlet jetty, 6 seen and photographs taken in Huntington Beach State Park, and 2 off Ft. Moultre (mouth of Charleston Harbor).

The next morning another birder provided a late report of one cruising over the surf at Jekyll Island, Georgia on Friday the 13th. Another birder photographed one on the Wando River near Charleston SC, at least 10 river miles from the ocean the morning of the May 15, and others reported sightings near the mouth of the Edisto River, also in South Carolina. Finally, on the morning of May 16, Evan Buckland (editor of this newsletter!) observed one over the Cape Fear River at Carolina Beach State Park.

So, what are we to make of all these occurrences along the beaches and inland? These birds normally spend most of their life over the ocean, willingly coming to shore only on their remote breeding islands. They breed, in fact on islands around Antarctica, and migrate into the north Atlantic for the Austral winter – our summer. Most onshore sightings are associated with bad weather or, sadly, are sick or injured individuals. At this point, my best guess is that these birds were pushed to shore and inland by a line of thunderstorms that moved onshore from the ocean the night of May 13-14. These storms woke me, but I was not aware at the time that the system was extensive enough to affect birds all along the South Carolina coast, as well as here.

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