Taken By Surprise

You just can't predict birds. My local birding patch is an abandoned housing development in Abington that we refer to as The Mudhole. The developer cut down most of the trees, cleared 15 acres, put in sewer, a road and curb cuts, then abandoned the project. That was 10 years ago. Since then, the local joggers and dog walkers have used the area (posted private property) due to the flat road and lack of traffic. The landscape is weedy fields and small trees backed by mature woods. Peanut LOVES this place. She runs free, darting in and out of the weeds and woods. Most of the time, she has dog friends that join our walk making it that much better. 

I usually bring bins and usually find local breeding birds such as cardinals and a few migrants stop here in spring and fall. I don’t know what happened yesterday, but the Mudhole was hopping with birds. I tallied 35 species on our morning walk including close looks at Tennessee, Wilson’s, Magnolia, BT Green, BT Blue and a Mourning Warbler! In addition, I saw a Pileated Woodpecker for the first time at this location too. Of course, I am in the habit of leaving the camera in the car since it never gets any action. So, no photos. Sigh.

Peanut and I headed back to the Mudhole after work. This time, the camera came with us. We found a few more special birds but not the frenzy of the morning. We added a nice juvenile Palm Warbler.

Palm Warbler

And a Great Blue Heron roosting in a big old tree. I regularly see them flying around the neighborhood but never perched like this. 

Great Blue Heron

The best birds of the evening were the Common Nighthawks soaring overhead. These birds are in the "Goatsucker" family and only fly at dusk and dawn snapping up insects. Folklore has it that they suck on goat tits but that isn't true. They migrate in flocks. I counted 14 of them last night. David Sibley (author of the field guide) describes them: "Long pointed wings held angled and raised, bounding flight and white bar across primaries distinctive".  You can ID the bird even in this crappy photo. 

Common Nighthawk

A better photo shows the markings of the bird. You can still see the white bar but you can also see the giant head that this bird has. They have a wide, gaping beak which helps them snap up the insects in mid air. 

Common Nighthawk

The sad news is that another developer has recently taken over. The Mudhole will soon be turned into an “Active Adult” community for people 62+. They plan to put a walking path in but it won’t be the same. Just when it was getting good. . . 

Point Blank Range

I'm on a whirlwind travel schedule lately. This week took me to Ohio - and I do mean Ohio. Not just one stop on this trip. We combined business and personal into one hectic week starting in Magee Marsh on Lake Erie (birding), back east to Cleveland (work meetings), then diagonally across the state to Hueston Woods west of Dayton (wedding reception) and home again in just 5 days. 

Lori, Barbara and I made the trip to Magee Marsh a few years ago (relive the trip here) but Connie has never been  and I just knew she would love it. She did love it! We arrived on Wed evening after an 8 hour drive and did a quick trip around the boardwalk. We were greeted by Magnolia Warbler.

Magnolia Warbler

And then got to compare the markings to Canada Warbler. Both have a necklace, but Maggie has more streaking and different markings on the back and head while Canada has solid slate black back and head with that big eye ring. 

Canada Warbler

A favorite of ours is Chestnut-sided Warbler. These birds nest near the cabin in Potter County but we rarely get this close.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Another common warbler is American Redstart. We can get close to these birds almost anywhere but I still felt the need to photograph this female while she sat quietly next to the boardwalk. 

American Redstart

A fan favorite for sure is Wilson's Warbler. These guys look like they wear a yarmulke (yamaka).  

Wilson's Warbler

By far, the most interesting warbler that we spotted along the boardwalk was Bay-breasted Warbler. We don't get many of these in our area and when we do, it is fall and they are very dull. Not cinnamon colored like they are in spring. 

Bay-breasted Warbler. 

All of the photos here were barely cropped at all. That's how close the birds were. We took our time and watched them picking the leaves in search of bugs, or sitting quietly, or preening. That is what makes the boardwalk so special. Most of the birds hang around all day waiting to take flight over the lake at night.  Near the end of the boardwalk, we got to watch this Common Nighthawk snoozing on a fallen branch. He mainly just sat there, but then he started to wiggle around a little bit so I snapped this photo. 

Common Nighthawk

And then, I figured out why he was awake. He had to poop!

Common Nighthawk - poop

With that, we left the marsh and headed over to our hotel for the night. 

Let's Play A Game - Find the Bird

Many birds are very colorful and noisy and showy. I think that is what makes people enjoy watching them. And then, there are a few birds that use camouflage to disguise their presence. Most of these birds are nocturnal hunters and sleep during the day so they need to hide. So, let's play - find the bird.

Our guide and a few of the group members have keen eyes and spotted the birds. Here are photos. Try your luck. We'll start with an easy one. Can you find the Lesser Nighthawk?

How about now?

Lesser Nighthawks and other nightjars roost on tree branches where they sit lengthwise along the branch. You can see the white wing patch on this guy. Ana spotted it from the boat.

How about this bird. Another nightjar called Common Pauraque. These birds roost on the ground rather than a branch. Our group accidentally spooked this bird while trying to take a shortcut to the bathroom at the Botanical Garden. It flew a bit and then settled back down in the grass. Can you see it?

Common Pauraque

How about now? Can you see the bird?

Common Pauraque

Hint: The bird is in the middle of the photo. Look for the light reflection on his eye.

Common Pauraque

This bird would normally be sleeping and not showing his eye but he was being bothered by a Hooded Warbler that kept bouncing around right near him. Can you see the warbler on the rock in this photo?

Common Pauraque - Hooded Warbler

One of the birds that I most wanted to see on the trip was a Potoo. There are a few types of Potoo in Honduras. We came across this Great Potoo on our first field trip at Pico Bonito Lodge. Can you see the bird?

Great Potoo

Seeing one Potoo was a dream but when we stumbled on another along the mangroves, I couldn't believe our luck. Our guide Alex spotted the bird, stopped the boat and played this game with us - find the bird. Nobody could find the bird. Here is Northern Potoo. Can you see the bird?

Northern Potoo

Potoos take the shape of a broken branch. They stretch their necks out and sit very still all day long. I never thought I would see one let alone get a great photo like this. Zoom in so that you can really get a good look at all of the subtleties that go into the camouflage. Amazing.

Northern Potoo

More flashy, shiny, showy, brilliant, noisy, resplendent, colorful birds to come.

Memories and Nighthawks

Time is a funny thing. I can remember events, the people that were there, the weather, everything - except the date. I have trouble remembering dates. This is one of the big reasons that I am not allowed to pay the household bills. We would be foreclosed - not for lack of funds but for late payments. I don't know how old anyone is unless I figure out how old my mother is, subtract 20 to get to my age, and then add or subtract accordingly to get to Connie or Di's age, and then add or subtract again from there to get to that person's age.  Alzheimer's? Memory loss? Not unless I have had this since I was 6 years old (which I just calculated to be 1969). 

Connie and I have traveled quite extensively. You have read about some of it through this blog but we traveled before the Internet too - to places like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Germany and Norway. I can't tell you what year any of those took place. I can get close but . . . 

And so it goes with bird events. I can remember the first time I saw many of the 856 species of birds that I have on my life list. I can remember extraordinary events like the time that we saw about a hundred Red-eyed Vireos fly out of one little shrub. How did they all fit in there? It was like watching clowns get out of a VW Bug at the circus. We called it the "Clown Car" and still talk about it today. Or the time that we saw the Ivory Gull in the marina. I can remember everything about those events except the date. 

And so it was the other evening while I was walking Roxy at our local park after work. I looked up and saw about 40 Common Nighthawks darting, fluttering and swooping just above the treetops and remembered that I had seen this event once before - at Pennypack Trust. I can remember the massive numbers of Nighthawks swarming the fields but I tried to remember what time of year and came up blank. I suppose it was fall but who knows. 

Common Nighthawks are part of the Nightjar family. They sleep during the day and then fly around at dusk catching insects in flight. This gang of 40 were obviously fueling up on bugs in order to head south as a group overnight.  You can always tell a nighthawk because of their white "wristbands" which are easily seen here. 

Nighthawk

Now that I have this blog, I can look up dates of events by re-reading some of the posts. Ask me about the time that we were in Texas and saw a relative of the Common Nighthawk called Chuck Will's Widow. I can tell you the date. You can re-read it here Frau Blucher story.  

Magic of Dusk

Di, Barbara and I met our new birding friend Harvey to check out a new trail in Del Haven this morning.  We didn't see much, but we did hear and see our first Ovenbird of the year and then did some chores all afternoon.  Nothing special really until we went to the Cape May State Park after dinner.  What an unexpected treat. Di asked me to look at a bush to see a warbler, but when I looked at the bush, I immediately noticed something much more interesting.

Common Nighthawk - roosting

This is a Common Nighthawk which I have never seen roosting. I have only ever seen them flying. They are nocturnal birds that roost like this during the day and then fly around beginning at dusk catching insects in flight. They have extraordinarily long wings with white patches on the wrists which make the ID unmistakable in flight.  Click on the photo to enlarge to see the tiny beak on this bird. 

I was so excited that I send out a text message about it.  Within a few minutes, Richard Crossley showed up with his camera to see the bird.  Richard is a famous birder and author of Crossley ID Guide series.  We have 2 of them at the house.  They are really good guides that have alot of photos of each bird in various "normal" positions and habitats.  We stood there and watched the bird until sunset when the bird took flight, circled the pond and flew off into the night.