Potter County 2019

Wow. Where did June go? I'll tell you where - to house projects, that's where. After 20 years in our house, we broke down and decided to do some renovations and upgrades. After weeks of disruption by contractors and painters, we headed up to Potter County with our friends Jill and Becky for the summer solstice weekend. The plan was for Becky to teach us how to fly fish but the weather made that impossible. It rained for 3 weeks straight prior to our arrival making the streams unfishable. We hiked instead and I got to show them some birds. Cedar Waxwings are easy birds to show to non-birders. They are beautiful and often pose like this one did.

Cedar Waxwing

Really pretty birds are great to show non-birders. Unfortunately, many of the pretty birds are often difficult to see. Blackburnian Warblers are usually bouncing around at the tops of trees which puts them in that "difficult-to-see" category. Not this guy. This guy was flitting around in a walnut tree at eye level right in our yard making it easy for Jill to see. She was impressed.

Blackburnian Warbler

I snuck away to do some early morning photography down by the stream while the others lounged at the camp. There is a place where I can stand on the road at the tree top level which makes it easy to photograph yellow warblers and willow flycatchers. On this day, the stream was running high and fast. I heard a quack and saw a mother Common Merganser swimming against the current followed by 3 tiny ducklings. Wait til you see how cute this is:

Look how fast #3 swam to catch up! And then it got cuter. I snuck upstream to get an angle for some photographs. Mom didn't know that I was there until I moved. Then, she sounded the alarm call and the ducklings hustled close and jumped onto her back for safety.

Common Mergansers

I don't know where #3 was. Only 2 jumped on her back. I left them alone to continue their upbringing. 

We did see a fish this weekend when we went to the Austin Dam. This is a Sucker Fish that was swimming around a clear pool of water below the dam ruins. 

Suckerfish

Colorful birds aren't the only attraction on our hikes. Jill spotted this Red Eft along the logging road. 

Red Eft

All-in-all it was a great weekend despite not being able to fish. The good news for me and Connie is that we were headed back to Potter for a whole week over July 4th holiday. More about that soon.

Assignment: Warbler

On our annual trip to Connie's family cabin in Potter County, our friend Frank gave me an assignment. He wants photos of all of the birds that are found on Hogback Mountain - the mountain and area surrounding our cabins. He specifically wanted a photo of Hooded Warbler which we hear in the woods all around the mountain. Hooded warblers are easily heard. The male's song is very loud and distinctive however, seeing the bird is challenging. Photographing them is even more difficult since they are a bird of the deep woods with low lighting.

With 4 days to accomplish the task, I set out to photograph Hooded and other warblers. Started slow due to some torrential rain. This Common Yellowthroat was happy when the sun came out.

Common Yellowthroat

I got a bonus with Blackburnian wablers posing for me. Here is one guy who came to investigate me and Peanut right outside of our cabin.

Blackburnian Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Here is Yellow-rumped warbler in the pine trees near the house. I forget that these birds nest in Potter County and am pleasantly surprised when I see them flitting around.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Meanwhile, we found another accommodating Blackburnian warbler up at the slate quarry. This time, I used sound recording on my iPhone to draw the bird closer. Here he is looking at me like "you're not an intruding male, why do you sound like one?"

Blackburnian Warbler

Once he checked me out and figured he was safe, he hung around the rocks and picked up a few bugs to munch on.

Blackburnian Warbler

There is a great spot to watch and photograph birds down along the stream. I headed out by myself one morning in hopes of finding a few birds. Luck was on my side. This juvenile Black and White warbler picked bugs in a tree right beside the bridge at eye level.

Black and White Warbler

He didn't care about my presence at all.

Black and White Warbler

He was doing a great job feeding himself.

Black and White Warbler

This Yellow warbler also showed up to feed his baby in the same tree. That baby looks big enough to get her own food.

Yellow Warblers

I ran across this family of American Redstarts at their nest just upstream from the bridge. Here is Mom checking up on the 3 babies.

Female Redstart at nest

Here is Dad feeding one of the babies a big fat insect. Male Redstarts are very colorful with black and orange markings.

Male Redstart at nest

I made great progress with the warblers but struck out on Hooded until our last day. I finally ran across this female at the edge of the path, close enough to photograph.

Female Hooded Warbler

I noticed that she had that big bug in her mouth and sure enough, the baby appeared and screamed to be fed.

Baby Hooded Warbler

Dad was close by keeping an eye on the situation.

Male Hooded Warbler

Finally, assignment accomplished! But that didn't end the photography. I also ran across this baby in the woods.

Fawn

And these Mandarin duck babies at the campground where they are kept as pets. All three are named Daisy.

Daisy

Every year, I wonder why we don't stay longer. (oh yeah, because we have jobs)

Annual Mountain Trip

Well, our yearly hike didn't happen but we went to Potter County for July 4th with Connie's family. We had fun and got to visit with some of our favorite birds. Like this Blackburnian Warbler signing in the pine tree just outside the bathroom window. This photo was shot from the roof of the cabin. 

Blackburnian Warbler

And this Chestnut-sided Warbler hopping around the pine trees up the hill.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

And our friend "Maggie", the Magnolia Warbler showing off his necklace up in the slate quarry.

Magnolia Warbler

And of course, the gang of Cedar Waxwings was hanging out. This poor guy has a few ticks hanging off of his black mask. 

Cedar Waxwing

We saw a few Turkeys in the distance at the Elk viewing area - but alas, no Elks were around that day.

Turkeys in the distance

We did see some deer in our field. 2 bucks and a doe.

Bucks and Doe

Of course, this is the time of year for baby birds. I found this one crying and hopping around behind on of the nearby camps. I'm still unsure of what species but I think it is Indigo Bunting. 

Baby Bird

Messing around behind the nearby camps almost got us in trouble when Peanut poked around under a bush at Frank's camp and found a Rattlesnake. Fortunately, the snake rattled and Peanut came away unscathed. We didn't hang around to see the snake. The rattle was enough for us. 

Snakes aren't the only dangerous animals at the camp. Baby birds are also dangerous. Connie found out the hard way when a few baby Ruffed Grouse ran across the logging road in front of our motorcycles. I slowed down. Connie stopped suddenly and got a separated shoulder as a souvenir. OUCH. She's a tough broad though. She rode that motorcycle 10 miles back to camp one-handed. 

Where Have I Been?

Sorry for the gap in posts. It has been a tough month. Our beloved Roxy succumbed to stomach cancer suddenly. The symptoms began before I left for Europe but the diagnosis wasn't made until I returned. Needless to say, I took a break from birding to focus on her care and subsequent death. Sorry to be a bummer but that's what has been going on.

The other thing that's been going on is a new puppy. Yup. We didn't want a puppy but we went to adopt a dog and ended up with a 7 month old puppy named Peanut. I forgot how much time puppy's consume every day. Every day. Even as I attempt to process these photos and write this story, she's terrorizing the cat, chewing anything she can get her teeth on, and generally exhausting me.

PEANUT!

But honestly. Look how adorable she is. Even when she is being a terror puppy, she's cute.

Connie and I did manage to get up to the cabin in Potter County last week. Finally got some pure birding time and even managed to snap some photos. It is always nice to see that the Bluebird box that I put up in the field actually has Bluebirds in it. Most years, this box is claimed by a pair of Bluebirds but the other box is home to Tree Swallows.

Bluebird

Speaking of swallows, there are nesting Cliff Swallows down by the stream.  Here are a few babies hanging out on the phone wires waiting for Mom to deliver a bug.

Cliff Swallow babies

Other common nesting birds include Red-eyed Vireos. This one was doing the usual constant singing even while he/she was hunting for bugs along the stream.

Red-eyed Vireo

 It's a shame that our weather was so iffy. Overcast most of the time and rain almost every day that we were there. This Towhee didn't mind. He sang anyway.

Eastern Towhee

It was amazing how many birds were still singing even though it was obvious that they already had nests going and babies to feed. I would assume that the singing would end once the birds had mates and chores to do. Oh well - just goes to show you that hormones keep going even into the mid summer.

One of my favorite birds at the camp is Blackburnian Warbler. This bird is a little black and white gem that has a flaming orange throat. The song is very high pitched and difficult for some people to hear - especially men of a certain age who lose their ability to hear the high notes. I can hear the warbler very well and find it pretty easy to find the resident birds around the camp. This year, I was luckier than ever. Not only did I find the singing warbler perched in trees all around the cabin. . .

Blackburnian Warbler

Even with the dreary sky behind him, you can see the bright orange throat that makes birders like me go ooh and aah.

Blackburnian Warbler

But I also got to watch this Dad feed one of the youngsters for about 15 minutes. The youngster sat in a low tree right along the driveway preening and waited for Dad to bring caterpillars. You can see that the young warbler is nothing to look at. Pretty drab.

Young Blackburnian Warbler

Dad showed up with a worm. You can really see the bright orange throat.

Blackburnian Warblers - Dad and Junior

Junior even managed to find his own bug while waiting on Dad to return.

Young Blackburnian Warbler with bug

Dad brought another worm. This time, I captured the moment when Dad jammed the bug into Junior's big mouth.

Dad feeding Junior

I'll bet Dad can't wait for Junior to be self sufficient. It shouldn't be long now.