Ocracoke on the last day of 2025. Photo by Dennis McCunney By Peter Vankevich The birds of Ocracoke proved watcher-friendly for the annual Christmas Bird Count held on Dec. 31. For the second ...

Black-winged Kite, Ross's Gull, Siberian Thrush, a deluge of Nearctic wildfowl and an influx of geese made for a thrilling ...

Walk through a mall parking lot, and you might just stumble into sudden fame—with an audience of gulls, that is. But you’re not carrying a sandwich, and there’s no ocean here. Just a field of pavement ...

American Oystercatcher nesting on Ocracoke Island. Photo P. Vankevich By Peter Vankevich Here is a 2025 nesting overview for the region. Except for one notable bright spot, 2025 proved another ...

Let's get this out of the way first: although I've been dismissed as pedantic for saying this, there is no such thing as a seagull. There are many types of gulls, but none of them have that name.

You’ll never hear a seasoned birder using the term “seagull.” I have used the treasonous term more than once around a group of birders and been quickly corrected; “There’s no such thing as a seagull!” ...