Day 2: Mattamuskeet Round 2

I took a break from my magnificently mammoth day at Mattamuskeet (that alliteration was for you mom) on Sunday to recharge for a second assault on Wednesday. Today's trip was part of the Wings Over Water festival and was led by a great volunteer named Ernie Marshall. Ernie drove myself and 10 others around the refuge in a van and took us to all the good birding spots. Unfortunately, we had a front move in last night and today it was cold with a nasty wind out of the NE that was pinning everything down. Although everything is its right mind was hiding, we did see an Anhinga, very out of place since they usually spend the winter in Florida and we even encountered a Cottonmouth who posed very nicely for us. The highlight of this trip was probably the Kestrel that buzzed the van as it was looking for lunch.

After the trip, I stuck around the Refuge for two other activities sponsored by WOW. The first was a silent nature video of the refuge "A Winter Day - Lake Mattamuskeet" (you can watch part of the film at the link) and was done by two very nice people, Blake and Emily Scott. Their series of nature films at Mattamuskeet and Pungo Lake have received 19 awards and are awesome. They were telling me that they also have a new movie coming out soon that has an amazing bear territorial scene.

The third activity of the afternoon was a presentation about Lake Mattamuskeet's history and ecology. Since I am leading a birding trip to Mattamuskeet in early January, I really enjoyed getting to meet with Dr. Lewis Forrest who is the executive director of the Mattamuskeet Foundation. It was Dr. Forrest who was responsible for discovering the records for the town of New Holland, which was built on the drained bed of Lake Mattamuskeet, after they had sat for 56 years in a barn. 36,000 pages of records. He was a fantastic presenter and I purchased his book on the history of Lake Mattamuskeet. So, not as many birds today but the history lesson was great and I'm getting geared back up for tomorrow.