Day one of North Carolina trip - Brown-headed Nuthatch and Big Year movie!

This afternoon around 1:30 pm my mom and I pulled out of New Hope Virginia, North Carolina bound with eyes on the Franklin's Gull and Brown-headed Nuthatch.  Around 6:00 pm we pulled into Chapel Hill North Carolina and arrived at the health food store.  As luck would have it I discovered a "birdy" area right around the parking lot of the food store.  House Finch, American Goldfinch, but my eyes were looking for a nuthatch.  I saw an interesting bird fly into the tree and I looked carefully at it.  Clearly a nuthatch but I didn't have binoculars so I couldn't tell what kind.  But then thank god I heard it call - Brown-headed Nuthatch!  Number 367 for my Junior Big Year.

We got everything we needed in the shop and continued on, to a movie theater to check when the Big Year was playing in case we wanted to go see it tomorrow after I search for the Franklin's Gull.  Luck would have it, I arrived at 7:02 pm and the Big Year started playing at 6:50 pm.  That means we where there in perfect time to arrive just in time but miss the previews.  We got tickets and in we went.  We still had to see some previews but fortunately didn't miss any of the Big Year.  It was a wonderful movie with some amazing bird scenes (talk about the fallout on High Island Texas!  My gosh!) I also loved the scene of the Great Gray Owl in the snow.  Just awesome!  For any birders that haven't seen it yet, I HIGHLY SUGGEST it. 

We're now in the Doubletree Hotel of Durham North Carolina, but are you sure this is a hotel?  It's as big as a house!  And are you sure this is 3 stars?   It's good enough to be a 4-5!  We got it on Hotwire for $52 per night but it's normally about $150 per night (which in itself seems low for this room!)

We're right in position to get up in the morning and go to the Farrington Road Bridge where the Franklin's Gull is being seen.  I hope to get it early so we can explore the area, bird other places, etc. tomorrow but we'll be on site all day to wait for the bird if that's what it takes.