Lebanon - That's No Bologna

The eBird Needs Alerts are driving me a little bit crazy.  I set up the alert to send emails to me every hour for both PA and NJ for birds that I do not have listed in that state and other eBirders are seeing.  So, now I get alerts for birds that I am sure I have seen but probably didn't enter in eBird such as Killdeer.  It shows up every hour on the PA alert.  I've seen plenty of Killdeer in Pennsylvania.

The alert has also been showing Tundra Swan and other ducks and birds at a place called Middle Creek WMA in Lebanon county.  It's kind of on the way to Connie's Mother's house in York.  I decided to detour on Saturday on my way out to York to see what it was all about.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The park is comprised of a loop driving tour around a reservoir lake that spans Lebanon county on the north and Lancaster county on the south.  I entered from the north and drove through grasslands dotted with ponds and about a hundred Bluebird boxes. Most of the boxes had Tree Swallows sitting on top but a few actually had Bluebirds.  I also came across the Tundra Swan (checked that off my alert list), and Savannah Sparrow.  Here is a pretty good photo of the Savannah Sparrow sitting on the fence post:

I drove the entire loop and saw a good smattering of birds.  Got the dogs out of the truck at one trail for a quick walk and ran into a gaggle of Snow Geese, which surprised me. I thought they would have headed north by now.  I took this photo of a dark bird which I thought was a juvenile but it turns out to be what they call a "Dark Adult" goose:

I also saw the resident Bald Eagle.  No Killdeer.  I'll suffer through the alerts a little longer.