The Rest of the Crazy Weekend

As I said in the last post, this past weekend was filled with birding events. We started on Friday night with a warbler workshop. The authors of The Warbler Guide - Scott Whittle and Tom McPherson presented a workshop at John Heinz Refuge about identifying warblers by their song. It was a good presentation. 80 people attended.  Some of us met at Belleplain State Park in Cape May County on Saturday morning for the second part of the workshop. Scott and Tom took us through the park listening for warblers. We used some of the skills that we learned to identify the birds. It went pretty well although there weren't many varieties of warblers in the woods yet. I think it is still too early for them. We saw and heard a ton of Black and White Warblers. This one caught a bug for breakfast.

Black & White Warbler with bug

 We also found this little toad which is kind of cute.

Toad - Belleplain State Forest

After the field trip on Sat, I went to Delran NJ to count Great Blue Heron nests. I had  sites to go to. The first one was totally clear cut for a new housing development - no birds there. The second spot was behind someone's house. I knocked on the door and the homeowner gave me permission to go slogging through the swamp to look for nests. No nests there either. The third location was a little island in the Delaware River just off of Dredge Harbor. Success! I counted 62 nests in the trees and saw 25 Great Blue Herons either sitting on or near a nest.  Whew, I was starting to think I wouldn't get to count any. You can kind of see the nests in the trees.

Amico Island Heron Nests

This Cooper's Hawk flew over head with half of a meal still in it's talons. You can see a little bird foot dragging behind the wing. Yuck, but the hawk has to eat too.

Cooper's Hawk with lunch

As part of the workshop series, the DVOC asked me to help lead a bird walk at John Heinz Refuge (Tinicum) on Sunday. I was glad that they decided to have me, Patty and Steve lead a photo group. That is more up my alley than trying to identify a ton of birds for birders.  We had a small but enthusiastic group. We saw some good birds and I think they had fun. We found some easy to photograph birds like these swallows.

Tree Swallow

Barn Swallow

We photographed some birds in the air like this Osprey and Turkey Vulture.

Osprey with nesting materials

Turkey Vulture

We photographed some signing birds like this wren and blackbird.

House Wren

Rusty Blackbird

And we also tried to photograph little flitty birds in trees. This is the most difficult. The first photo is Blue-gray Gnatcatcher sitting on her new nest. Look at how she puts her long tail straight up in the air since it doesn't fit inside the nest.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - on nest

Here is one of the many Yellow Warblers that we saw along the trail. They were flying around so fast that we hardly had a chance to snap a photo. This guy cooperated for a few minutes.

Yellow Warbler

I think some of the group learned a few techniques, like move to another position if the bird is blocked by a branch and move closer if possible. Here is Patty imparting some wisdom.

Photo group - Tinicum

All in all it was a good day. And then I found the owls which was the icing on the cake.

Owls and Eagles

Harvey and I had an early start Sunday morning beating the bushes along the Delaware Bayshore starting at Jake’s Landing Road in search of Short-eared Owls which were a no-show. We were stumped by some interesting calls – a meow like call coming from the marsh which went overhead without being seen and then a tik, tik,tik, tik, tik, coming from the marsh too.  Argh, so frustrating. 

We found an accommodating Bald Eagle’s nest in Cumberland county. Eagles are really big birds but this lady looks like a dwarf in the nest. That is because the nest measures about 6 feet deep!

Bald Eagle Nest

I headed back to Philly and was able to see the Long-eared Owl that has been hanging around John Heinz NWR for the last few weeks.  Even though the owl is roosting very close to the path, it is difficult to get a good photo since it is obstructed by vines and branches. Some little kid started screaming and running up the path which prompted the owl to open his eyes. That gave me a few seconds to snap this photo - using manual focus to get past the vines. 

Long-eared Owl

Be warned – this owl has chosen to roost very close to the main path but DO NOT go any closer.  You have been warned – there are hidden cameras waiting to snap a photo of you just before you are fined by the game commission if you get too close.

My final stop was Phila Intl Airport to see the latest Snowy Owl that has taken up residence there. This is Snowy #4 for PHL. The first one was tagged and relocated to Lancaster County only to return a few days later and ultimately be killed by a UPS cargo plane. The second Snowy was also relocated to Lancaster and fortunately stayed there. The third Snow showed up on Friday and was also hauled off to Amish country. This Snowy showed up yesterday and will probably be sent to farm country with his kin very soon.  This is a crappy photo but you can just about see the bird sitting on a post in the center of the photo.

Snowy Owl - Phila Intl Airport

It was great to be out and about again after such cold/snowy weather. 

Diane's first post - New species identified at Tinicum

This is my first post to this blog and I'll do you all a favor and keep it short. This is a quick report on an outing with Linda, Connie, Lori, Tara, Barbara and me (and Sam and Cocoa) on this chilly, windy first of March. Suffice it say that we saw some good stuff this morning whilst at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, including - yes, I'll be the first to report, a bald eagle (immature).

The real find this morning was of a new species entirely. It was that of the "nutjob", or in the derivative looney-tus birdnerdus. We see this species mostly in winter. There were several different varieties and I have posted photos of all of them here. These are life-listers, for sure:

Grey-hooded Nutjob
(aka Nerdganser)

Rough-legged Nutjob
Red-hooded Nutjob

Lesser-striped Nutjob
Belted Nutjob

Buff-legged Nutjob

Linda will likely post more about our outing today, as we did see some good ducks.