GBBC - Results from Rydal

I counted birds on Sat, Sun, Mon last weekend as part of the Great Backyard Birdcount. Frankly, there wasn't anything else to do but shovel and count birds. We totaled 40 inches of snow. Wet, heavy snow.

I had the usual suspects at the feeders plus an American Tree Sparrow. Only the second time that I have seen one at our house in 10 years. Here is a photo that I shot by opening the kitchen door a crack and sticking the lens outside.

I had an amazing morning on Thursday. First, I opened the garage door to get seed for the feeders and found a White-throated Sparrow that spent the night in the garage. I had to let him land on my hand and direct him toward the door because he kept flying against the window to escape. Then I found a Robin in the yard just sitting there with his eyes closed. Poor thing was barely alive. He flew away when Roxy got too close, but I think he's not long for this world. Then after I came back inside all of the birds took off with a whoosh! I looked out to see that one bird did not escape the grasp of the Sharp-shinned Hawk. Circle of life, circle of life. . . All before 7:30 AM.

Great Backyard Bird Count - 2010

It's that time of year again - time for us casual and obsessed birdwatchers alike to count birds in our yards to contribute data on winter (resident) birds in North America.  Here is the description:

"Join the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count by tallying the birds you see at any location during February 12-15. Watch for at least 15 minutes on one or more count days, record the highest number of each species you see at any one time, and enter your checklist at birdcount.org Put your sightings on the map and watch as counts pour in from around the United States and Canada! The count is led by the Cornell Lab, Audubon, and Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada, with sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited."

Here is a link to the official site:  http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ .  If you are a first time "counter" you should sign up today, then enter your sightings over the next few days.  Mom, this includes you.  Dave can download a checklist for you to use.

Let it Snow!

Not much to report from Abington today.  We were on the short end of the "Blizzard of Twenty Ten" here in Abington township with a mere 14 inches of snow.  I had the driveway cleared by 11 AM Saturday. Piece of cake.  Everyone else was texting, calling and emailing about their 26+ inches. 

Meanwhile, our birds were lined up at the feeder just waiting for me to shovel and sprinkle their seeds.  They literally sat in branches a few feet from my head waiting.  Once I put the seed out - whoosh! 40 - 50 birds including 2 dozen juncos, 1 dozen goldfinches, white-throated and song sparrows, nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers decended on the feeders and have not stopped since. 

We have an addition to our pet family too.  Lucy has become a full time member due to allergies of our friends' 4 year old.  Lucy and Roxy made out fine on their first weekend together.  Roxy is a princess as you know and is having a tough time in the snow.  I put boots on her which lasted about 5 minutes. . .

Oh, did I mention the additional 12 inches of snow forecast for Tuesday night.  Geez.  Makes Florida look better and better.

Southwest Florida Sampler

Finally able to post our trip from Sunday in southwest Florida.  I can't say enough about my iTouch and the new "app" from Cornell Lab called Birdseye.  I mentioned it in previous posts, but it really came in handy this weekend.  I noticed that there were quite a few birds listed in the Punta Gorda area at a hotspot called Bunche Beach.  The couple that we met at Babcock-Webb WMA also mentioned Bunche Beach as a good location.  So we were up at 0'dark:30 and off to explore Bunche Beach in Fort Meyers, then planned on a stop at Ding Darling on Sanibel, and finally Corkscrew Swamp in Immokolee to round off the day.  It was an ambitious plan for sure.  It was also lousy weather.  Cold enough for jackets and really overcast all day with intermittent drizzle/mist.

We timed the trip according to low tide which was at 8 AM.  We started the day at Bunche Beach so that we would end up at Ding Darling when the tide was out.  It turned out to be a smart move.

Bunche Beach (pronounced Bunch but we continued to say Buncheee all day)
The tide was out which exposed alot of the beach.  We saw 2 birders way out in the distance using a spotting scope to view a hundred or so Black Skimmers.  We walked the beach toward them when all of a sudden, all of the Skimmers took off across the bay.  What a bummer.  We looked up and realized why the Skimmers were high-tailing it off the beach.  An immature Bald Eagle was cruising for a quick meal.
The 2 birders with the scope turned out to be Ann and Charles from Babcock-Webb.  What a coincidence.  We got really great looks at Sanderlings - I know, I know, who cares about Sanderlings but they were running across our feet all morning.  We couldn't help but coo over how cute they were.  We also pretty much had a workshop on 4 plovers with up close views of each.  Black-bellied, Semi-palmated (1st photo), Piping (2nd photo), and Wilson's (lifebird for us, 3rd photo) were also running all around us on the beach.

Ding Darling

I had an epiphany about timing this stop at low tide which turned out to be good.  We arrived after low tide and saw more birds than we have seen there in a long time.  Roseate Spoonbills, White Pelicans, all species of Herons and Egrets (including Reddish), sandpipers and gulls were all feeding in the mud flats in large numbers.  Yeah. We also got close up and personal with a Spotted Sandpiper feeding in a ditch.  Here is the best shot that I could get in the poor conditions:

Corkscrew Swamp

We headed to Corkscrew swamp after lunch hoping for Barred Owl, Pileated Woodpeckers and possible Swallow-tailed Kites.  We only got one of those (Pileated) but we were surprised by the number of passerines that we saw up close. We listed 29 species in all.  Unfortunately, the light was soooo bad by then that none of my full frame photos came out.  All blurry.  I could cry.

Here is our list from Corkscrew:

Double-crested Cormorant	Red-bellied Woodpecker	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Anhinga	Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	Gray Catbird
Little Blue Heron	Downy Woodpecker	Yellow-throated Warbler
Black-crowned Night-Heron	Hairy Woodpecker	Pine Warbler
White Ibis	Pileated Woodpecker	Palm Warbler
Wood Stork	Eastern Phoebe	Black-and-white Warbler
Black Vulture	Great Crested Flycatcher	Common Yellowthroat
Turkey Vulture	White-eyed Vireo	Eastern Towhee
Red-shouldered Hawk	Blue-headed Vireo	Common Grackle
Common Ground-Dove	Carolina Wren

On our way out of Corkscrew, we drove north on a back road only to spot 2 Crested Caracara flying next to us, landing in a Palm tree, then landing in the middle of the road to pick at some dead critter.  Cars were beeping at them to get them off of the road.  Caracara in Florida?  Pretty cool.

Babcock-Webb Management Area

4 of us Bird Nerds took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Florida for the weekend and finally made it to Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area near Punta Gorda.  We drove into the park and followed the sound of gunshots that got louder and louder.  Yikes, maybe we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not at all.  In fact, the WMA has a shooting range for target shooting.  Whew.

The ranger told us to look for trees with white rings.  Those trees are nesting trees for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers which is a species none of us had seen before.  Before we got to that area, we ran into flocks of Yellow-rump and Pine Warblers in the open pine savanna, and gators and lots of Ibis and Herons in the flooded grass area.  We met a couple of advanced birders from Gettysburg who told us about some sparrows and to listen for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker in order to see it.  Their tips helped us see the Red-cockaded Woodpecker but we missed the sparrows. Although it wasn't a very long look at the woodpeckers, we definitely identified them by sound and saw one bird up close and another that flew into pine trees further away.  Enough to "list" it anyway.  Thanks Ann and Charles.

We also had a great look at Brown-headed Nuthatch which was a life bird for Lori and Tara.  I listed it as a life bird on the blog because I have never entered it into eBird before.  Truth is that Connie and I saw these birds in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics while staying at Aunt Cathy's house.

I'll post the Ibis photo tomorrow.  And Kate, I'll fill out the forms next week!  Thanks for the call.

Learn Something New Everyday

That's what I was always told.  Learn something new everyday.  Well we learned something new both Saturday and Sunday this week.

Lesson 1 - You can only see owls at night.  That's what the volunteer at Peace Valley Nature Center told Connie yesterday. We had some extra time after we did our chores and decided to take a quick trip to Lake Galena to see some ducks and gulls.  Upon arrival at the visitor center, I made the mistake of telling Connie that there were restrooms inside.  It's as if those words are somehow an ancient cue buried deep within our DNA that triggers our bladders to suddenly want to explode.  Upon hearing those words, Connie headed toward the visitor center.  I told her to ask the staff if they knew where to find owls since a Long Eared Owl and a Saw-whet Owl were seen last week.  10 minutes later, Connie emerged from the visitor center giggling. 

She asked the woman about owls.  The woman kindly replied that you can only see owls at night but you can see Blue Jays and Cardinals during the day.  Mind you, Connie had a $1000 pair of Leica binoculars around her neck when she asked the question.  She even went so far as to tell the woman that she has seen owls during the day "high up in the tree".  The woman responded by telling Connie that she didn't know any more because she only works at the center during the day.  What a riot.  Needless to say we didn't see any owls.

Lesson 2 - Gulls are tasty.  Not that I have tried it myself but Lori and I saw 2 other creatures chowing down on some tasty gull today at Tullytown.  The real lesson for today is that we found another new place to bird around Tullytown landfill.  We drove up this morning with a map from eBird in hopes of finding some gulls and ducks.  What we found were 3 juvenile Bald Eagles standing out on the ice on Van Sciver Lake eating a gull!  Just like that we were within a football field of 3 huge birds.  A few other guys were already there and very helpful.  One guy even told us to follow him to a few other spots including Pennsbury Manor which was right up the road.  Really nice guy. 

We saw another eagle and a few Red-tailed Hawks, 30 or so American Coots, some Common Mergansers and tons and tons of gulls.  Herring, Ring-billed and Great Black-backed gulls everywhere.  Most of Van Sciver Lake was  mostly frozen but any open water was packed with gulls.  You can see how easy it would be for an Eagle to pick one off and why they hang around in winter. We also saw a Red-tailed Hawk trying to fly with a gull in it's talons.  He tried and tried to get altitude but finally settled in a low bush with it. 

There you go.  2 lessons:  owls can only be seen at night and gulls are tasty.

Exploring Delaware Bayshore

If you read this blog regularly, you know that we go to Cape May and other shore points often.  You may also think that we know all of the good birding spots.  Well, that's not really the case.  Sure, we know about the "Hawk Watch" aka Lighthouse and the "Meadows" aka Nature Conservancy, and Higbee Beach and some others.  But we certainly don't know about all of the hot spots. And we are investigating more each year.  For instance, we made our first trip to Stimpson's Island last year and found our first Marsh Wrens. 

Yesterday, Barbara and I signed up for CMBO's Winter Raptors of the Delaware Bayshore field trip.  About 14 participants and 4-5 trip leaders spent 4 hours touring several birding spots south of Maurice River and north of Goshen.  It was great to go with the group to be introduced to new locations and learn more about raptors that we may find at each site. This is the way that we learned when to visit Belleplain State Forest and where to look for migrating birds in spring a few years ago.  It paid off again by introducing us to several new locations such as: 

• Beaver Swamp WMA - about a stone's throw from the CMBO office and yet we have never been there.  We started here and saw Bald Eagle as our first bird of the day - sitting on the nest, switching with it's mate, sitting together on the same tree so that we could gauge the size difference between male and much larger female. 
• Glade Road - a small pull-off on Glade Road just before the bridge that we would have never thought to stop at. We saw 4 Bald Eagles here. Not close, but we watched as the soared around and "danced".  We also saw a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk.  Karen, the trip leader, did a great job of having everyone see the hawk through the scope and explaining how to tell it was a Rough-legged Hawk by the way it held it's wings in flight and hovered.  Oh, did I mention the Peregrine Falcon?  
• Thompson's Beach - another new location for us.  It has a platform for viewing the marsh as do some of the other sites.  I dragged Barbara to the Wawa for a bathroom break before going to this site so we missed some of the Eagles and other birds that the rest of the group saw.  We did get to see Marsh Wrens.
• East Point Lighthouse - never knew this was here.  This site is right on the bay.  We saw lots of ducks here including Bufflehead (still didn't get a good photo) and Common Goldeneyes.
• Heislerville WMA - has a dirt road around several ponds.  Again, we would never have found this site and even if we did, we wouldn't have driven on the dirt road to get close to the ponds.  

 A map to all of these sites plus the more is available at CMBO website.

A highlight of the trip for me was seeing a Gray Ghost sitting in a field on the way out to Stimpon's Island.  When the other cars in the caravan stopped, we stopped too and were 50 feet away from it.  A Gray Ghost is what they call a male Northern Harrier because he is all gray while the females are brown.  What a beauty!  We saw lots of Harriers on the marshes at each location but only one Gray Ghost . . . ooooh. 

The group dispersed from here but Barbara and I went to Maple Road and Turkey Point on our way home. I never realized that they were 2 separate sites until Chuck, the other trip leader explained it. We also found out that the whole area surrounding Turkey Point is actually a Natural Lands Trust area called "The Glades". It is Natural Lands Trust's largest preserve.  We saw Yellow-rump Warblers and our first ever Seaside Sparrow.

New Address for the BirdNerd Blog

You wouldn't know that I work for a tech company by my low-tech approach to the Phillybirdnerd blog.  But that all changed this morning.  I finally registered www.phillybirdnerd.net domain and pointed it to the blog.  Notice the address bar?  It should say www.phillybirdnerd.net rather than phillybirdnerd.blogspot.net as it did in the past. You can continue to use the old link but using the new link will give me better statistics.

I'm trying to get more readers and more interaction so please pass the word and get people to follow the blog and post comments.  Also, let me know if you have trouble posting comments by emailing me directly at linda@npowerpa.org . 

Now, on to the bird post:  not much happening this weekend except that the Schulkyll River is icing up.  That will be good news this week for ducks at the Boathouses.  Stay tuned.

The Difference Between Florida and Pennsylvania

Note card from my mother - in lovely cursive handwriting:

Linda - well here's our flock - not starlings like up north but they still poop on my neighbors roof!!
Was so glad that you & Di decided to surprise me! Made my holiday. Love Mom & Dave

Here are the accompanying photos that were taken with a point and shoot film camera. I had to scan them and turn them into jpegs for the post.

Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready for My Close-up

Just got back from a week in Florida. After leaving The Villages, I dropped Di at Tampa airport and scooted on down to Punta Gorda to meet up with the rest of the nerds. We took the boat down the Alligator River (it's really called that) into Charlotte Harbor and across to Cayo Costa State Park which is an island just north of Captiva. Lot's of fun and lot's of great birds along the way including Brown Booby and several Common Loons! Boobies! It's always great to see Boobies. . .

We also had Hooded Mergansers on the canal right at the house. I got good photos of this hen while she snoozed on a palm tree log. Poor thing has a droopy wing but she was getting along just fine fishing etc. We spoke to the volunteer at the Peace River Wildlife Rehabilitation Center about it. He said that they wouldn't be able to catch her if she was moving around that well. That's good news. You can see her droopy wing in this photo:


Here are another couple of Hooded Mergansers on the canal:

The variety of birds was low but the birds that we saw were very approachable. Take these birds for instance. Gorgeous! This Snow Egret was only a few feet away looking for a handout:


And this beauty (well, his mother thinks so anyway). A Black Vulture that was released from the rehabilitation center but still hangs around:

This Wood Stork takes the beauty crown though. Don't you agree?


More later.

Old Coots

Now the cat is out of the bag. Di and I surprised our mother by flying down to The Villages (Florida) yesterday. We really surprised them too. We've been to The Villages twice before but never during the winter. It gets crowded. Lots of old people and lots of grand kids.

We got to see some pretty cool birds in our 24 hour stay. Here are some photos of the Sandhill Cranes that make their home at The Villages. These two were unphased by all of the people riding by in golf carts. They strolled right across the golf cart path as if they were alone.

We also found Buffleheads, Ring-neck Ducks, Pie-billed Grebes, several Herons and Egrets, Ibis, Woodstorks, Killdeer, Cormorants, and tons of Coots. Di took a great photo of Palm Warbler that landed several yards away from us while we were trying (unsuccessfully) to take photos of the Bufflehead. Here is it. What a great photo!

I don't know why Bufflehead are so hard to photograph, but I never seem to be able to get a good shot. It must be the iridescent coloring against the bright white of the head. I'll keep trying.

On to Punta Gorda with friends. Hopefully, we'll get some more good birding. Stay tuned. . .

Duck + Hawk + Gull = 3 Lifebirds

Yes, we chased the Ivory Gull that has been reported at BreezeeLee Marina this week. Yes, we saw it! It flew all around the marina, sat on pilings, and generally didn't care about all of the people gawking at it. This is the first Ivory Gull ever reported in New Jersey and has been hanging around all week. The Sibley Field Guide states: "Rare. Found in extreme far north among pack ice; rarely ventures farther south." In fact, they make their living following polar bears around and picking the leftovers of seal meat. The gull is so rare, that famous birders have not seen it even though they travel to the arctic specifically to see it. We saw it. snicker, snicker.

The adults are completely white. The bird in NJ is an immature which has some "smudging" of dark feathers on it's face and some brown/black feather tips on some wing feathers and black tips on the tail. Here is my best photo which shows these markings and the marina. From pack ice to packed boat yard:

The next photo shows 1) the gull backlit by the morning sun and 2) the top of Tara's head just before she was blinded by looking into the sun - with binoculars. "Don't look into the sun, don't look into the sun" I said because I could see her following the gull's flight path directly into the sun. She didn't listen, but she did regain her sight within minutes. snicker, snicker.

The gull was NOT our first life bird of the day however. We noticed some cars and people with scopes pulled over on Ocean Drive on our way to the marina. A nice couple pointed out the Norther Goshawk sitting in the cedars along the marsh and let us look through his scope. Very nice. He also told us that he just left the Ivory Gull, so our nerves were calmed somewhat.

After staying with the Ivory Gull for awhile, we drove down to the concrete ship and the lighthouse to see if anything was up. Only about a hundred Widgeons on the pond, that's what was up. We then headed up the Parkway to get Lori and Tara their Harlequin Duck - which was the whole reason for the trip in the first place. I thought we would have a chance at the Avalon Sea Watch so we went there first. No Harlequins, but we did get Long-tailed Ducks and Common Loon up close and some Common Eiders out by the jetty.

Then, off to Forsythe NWR with our Wawa sandwiches for ducks and geese. Here is a Hooded Merganser photo which I thought would turn out better than this but at least you can see his cool "hood":

After an hour or so at Forsythe, we made a last push for Harlequins and drove farther north on the Parkway to Barnegat Lighthouse. It was now 3:30PM. We left the house at 7:30 AM. We were tired. We were running out of daylight. The wind was howling down the beach. We persevered and walked to the end of the jetty. We got the Harlequins! 1 male and 2 females right next to the jetty. Unfortunately, the light was not good enough for a good photo. Sorry Tara, this is the best one:

We made it back to my house by 7:00 PM. Almost 12 hours. Lori and Tara had more than that because they had another 20 minutes on each end of the day.

Hurricane Ida - Pros and Cons

Hurricane Ida put a big damper on our trip to Florida. Small craft advisories and 45 mile per hour winds kept us off of the boat for days. Upon arrival back in Philly, Ida stalled off of the New Jersey coast for another 4 days. Total Ida days for me, Di and Babs: 7. Seven days of gray skies, off and on rain, and nasty wind. Ida eroded beaches all along the coast and kept us all miserable for a week. That's the con.

Now the pro. Ida's northeast winds pushed 100's of Common Eiders onto the Jersey coast. Over 100 have been reported off of Cape May at St. Mary's by the Sea vacation convent and another 80 have been seen at Barnaget Inlet. Today I took the chance and drove to Barnaget Inlet. The weather was still overcast but no wind. I walked out to the end of the jetty and PAY DIRT! A raft of 100 Common Eiders, plus a few Harlequin Ducks. See below for photos:

Herring Gulls on the beach, Eiders in the surf

Different plumages of Eiders: immature male, female, and 2 males

Herring Gulls, Eider, Harlequin Duck - all in the same frame

Here are some of the other birds seen at the inlet:

Oystercatcher

Herring Gull with a Starfish

Semi-palmated Plover

Grumpy Old Men

I hope you notice the new blog layout and especially the new title bar which includes 2 of my best photos. Burrowing Owl on the left is my latest life bird and baby Laysan Albatross on the right. Oddly enough, both photos were taken in residential areas. Laysan Albatross baby was sitting in the middle of a lawn in Kauai, Hawaii. I rested my camera on the sign stating to stay behind the sign. The Burrowing Owl was sitting on a similar sign in a neighborhood in Punta Gorda Florida.

Two of the birdnerds bought a vacation home in Punta Gorda on a canal with a boat dock but no boat. Another 2 birdnerds have a boat, but no boat dock. See where this is going? That's right, we towed the boat to Punta Gorda so that the girls could use it for the winter. What a trip that was. Of course, we blew a tire on the trailer and had trouble getting the boat started, but it all worked out and we had a blast birding by boat through the canals into Charlotte Harbor. More about that later in the week.

Now, about that owl. Who knew that such cute little owls could cause old men to be so grumpy? Lori read a report on the Internet about Burrowing Owls in Punta Gorda, so we had to track them down. The Internet report was all about the property owner (read grumpy old man here) wanting to collapse the burrows so that the owls would move and stop pooping on his door step. The owls are protected species. Bothering them is strictly prohibited so we figured that they would still be there.

Well, they weren't on the street named in the Internet article. We drove slowly through the neighborhood scouting probable burrowing spots. Scanning each yard carefully. Nothing. No owls. I finally asked an old man riding a bicycle if he knew about the owls. He told us that he was also looking for them and that they are usually on one of the streets in the neighborhood. He peddled one way and we drove the other way. Slowly. We stopped at a vacant lot with a patch of overgrown weeds. We were sure that this would be a good burrow location. Well, we were really sure once we read the sign that stated "Important Bird Site - KEEP OUT". That's a pretty good clue that the owls are around.

Enter the grumpy old man: A car pulled into the driveway on the lot next to the KEEP OUT sign. A man got out and yelled to me "that lot's not for sale" to which I replied "we're looking for owls" to which he replied "they're not there and I don't want people in my backyard" to which I replied "oh, I didn't know this was your yard since it's not mowed". He got back into his car and drove away.

Enter the nice old man on the bike: He rode up to us, chuckled about the grump and proclaimed "I found them, follow me". We proceeded to follow him over to the next block and here is what we saw:
Pretty cool huh? Right next to another grumpy old man's house. He stuck his head out of the door and asked if he could help us when we were sitting in the car outside of his house gawking at the owl. What did he think we were doing? Why else would a car be stopped in front of that sign and that owl? To talk to him? Not bloody likely.

Here is another photo of the owl:

She Took the Book

Funny story. We took Mimi (our old cat) and Roxy (our itchy dog) to the vet last night. Dr. Kirkhoffer (Jane) has been our vet since we moved to Rydal. We used to see her often when Cocoa was alive since she needed a shot every month to control her Addison's disease (the dog, not the vet). You know that you are at the vet too often when you start to know her vacation plans and she knows yours. Jane was very excited to hear about our trip to Costa Rica in 2008 because that is where her daughter planned to do her "semester abroad" - all I got to see was the subway and the local beer joint when I was in college. Anyway, we lent her our Costa Rica field guide last November for her trip.

Last night (one year later), Jane greeted us by saying that she was thinking about us because she just gave the book to another vet at the practice since she was going to see her niece who is in the Peace Corps down there. She hoped we didn’t mind. It's fine with us.

That book is well traveled. . .

Potter County Trip

Here's the update from Potter County: beautiful leaves, not many birds. Connie and I went up to the camp to winterize since none of the men-folk mentioned anything about going up for hunting season this year. It snowed 6 inches last week and we got nervous about the pipes freezing. Luckily, everything was fine.

We saw and heard alot of Ruffed Grouse this weekend. Saturday was the start of small game hunting season so I don't know if that made the Grouse more mobile since there were men with shotguns and dogs in the woods spooking them out. We even saw one crossing the road (insert chicken joke here) near the lake.

Juncos all over the place now. I wonder if they will head down south or stay in Potter County over the winter. I know that we have been seeing them in Philly for the last 2 weeks or so. I expect them at the feeder any day now. Here are some foliage photos from the weekend:

The field in front of Frank, Frank, Frank's cabin

Me, Connie and Roxy at George Stevens Dam (Sinnemahoning State Park)

Royal Court

I didn't realize that a dog like Roxy would be such a princess until this week. We've had 4 days of that Nor'easter which started on Thursday and finally ended Sunday just before the Phillies game (this reference becomes more relevant at the end of the post). Roxy weighs 48 pounds but it was more like a ton of bricks trying to get her out of the house in the rain. She just would NOT go outside. There I was in my rain slicker standing outside while she looked at me from the garage like "I'm not going out there, you fool." Holding her paws up off the wet ground and everything. What a wuss.

We finally went on a real walk on Sunday. It was really cold and still kind of drizzling but I couldn't stand it anymore and dragged the princess out to Lorimer Park. We were greeted by a slew of White-throated Sparrows. They are really the dominant bird now along with the Kinglets. I was amazed by how many little Ruby-crowned Kinglets were in the park. I counted 11 at one time in the trees and could have touched 2 of them. One lone Golden-crowned Kinglet was just outside of the pack. You really get to see the Ruby crowns when they are together since they raise it when another Kinglet comes too close.

Oh, and the Phillies whipped the Dodgers in game 3 of the NCLS. We were at the game courtesy of Lori, sitting in section 106 right next to the first base foul pole. Barbara's finger nail is bent backwards from Shane Victorino's 8th inning homer that came directly to us. AWESOME! We didn't get the ball. It bounced around under the seats and some other guy came up with it.

Those Handsome Birds

I have seen lots of Black -throated Blue Warblers this fall at Lorimer Park. They seem to love the berries on the Tree of Heaven. The Tree of Heaven is considered a junk tree but it has a pretty pink flower in fall and lots of purple berries. The Black-throated Blue Warblers are drawn to the berries. I have see 10+ almost every time that I have been to Lorimer Park where there is a grove of these trees. I finally got some photos the other evening. Here are the only 2 that really turned out.

Handsome male

Eating the berry

Grand Ole Opry

I should definitely go see the Grand Ole Opry this week. All of the signs are pointing toward it. Well, not all signs but enough. Here they are:

1. Kanye West makes headlines all over the world for interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards (which nobody really watches until something like that happens)
2. I was greeted by a Nashville Warbler at Palmyra Cove on Sunday. That little bird landed right in front of me almost eye level and hung around for a few minutes. It has a great white eye ring on it's gray head, and a yellow body.
3. Then I saw not one, not two, not three, but four Tennessee Warblers on the same tree stem. Plus 2 others on the branch next to them. These were the first Tennessee Warblers that I have seen in the U.S. The only others that I have seen were at La Paz Waterfall Gardens in Costa Rica.

Three signs that I should visit the Grand Ole Opry soon. Bounder trip anyone?

Sunday was a really good day at Palmyra Cove. I also saw my first Grasshopper Sparrow, lots of Palm Warblers -Mom, they are coming your way for winter - and tons of Yellow-rumped Warblers. I mean tons. And 3 separate groups of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. I also met many really nice people. One man helped me identify the Grasshopper Sparrow and another group of people helped confirm the Tennessee Warblers. Both of which I spotted alone and would have needed time with the field guide to confirm. Another couple showed me some trails. Really nice.

And Then the Fog Lifted

We started at Higbee beach around 7:30. It was overcast and foggy but good enough visibility for close up birding. Tons of birders were there. We had to park way down the road past the "Morning Flight" platform. We walked through the birders and picked through the trees for a few birds including Baltimore Orioles, 2 (not so) Scarlet Tanagers, and lots of Brown Thrashers.

We stopped by the CMBO store close to the Cape May Lighthouse to buy a new Sibley Guide because mine ended up in Tohicken Creek at Lake Galena and the pages are all stuck together. We couldn't even see Lily Lake or the top of the Lighthouse. A guy there said that it would clear up soon. We'll see.

The parking lot at the Lighthouse was packed. I never saw so many people there. They even had pony rides going on. Pony rides. Nobody at the Hawk Watch platform seemed happy when we passed by. There were alot of people on the platform with there heads hanging down. Not looking up like they wanted to. They should have at least looked at the ponies to kill time. We headed out behind the dunes and into the trails around Cape May State Park (the Lighthouse).

We were stalking some unknown birds sounds (that might have really been frogs because we never saw any birds even though the sounds were coming from right beside the trail) when all of a sudden, the fog lifted and we saw blue sky. And then a Bald Eagle, and a Peregrine Falcon, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and another Peregrine, and another Eagle that was flying even lower than the first one, and 2 Ospreys, and then a kettle of Sharpies, and Red-tailed Hawks, and Peregrines, and, and, and. And wow that's what. 2 kettles formed with at least 20 birds each in a matter of 10 minutes. Pretty impressive flight. The best hawk flight? Probably not but it was really great to see all of a sudden. Here is a photo of a Peregrine Falcon from last year:

Then it was off to Biggie's 50th surprise party in Cape May Courthouse for a really great party! Happy Birthday Biggie

Not Without the Hubble

I did alot on Saturday birding-wise. We started at Palmyra Cove which was the subject of the last post. I didn't want to overwhelm you all with the entire day, so here is the afternoon/evening post from Saturday.

After a late breakfast at Nifty Fifty's, we all went our separate ways. Lori had a funeral to attend and I had yard work. At about 1:30, I got a call from Lori with that tone in her voice. "What are doooin'?" with that long doooo that suggests that she regrets saying no to hawk watching at Fort Washington State Park. Needless to say, we met 30 minutes later at the hawk watch platform. This is a picture of what we saw:


Nothing but blue sky. Gorgeous, blue sky. The official hawk counters were calling off hawks with statements like - "Does that dot in the sky have a white head?" and "No, the big dot above the 3 little dots". We failed to bring the Hubble Telescope with us, so we saw nothing. What a bust. We didn't even see anything in the woods on our little walk. One Peregrine Falcon screamed by and 2 resident Red-tailed Hawks soared around for a little bit, but nothing else.

Then my sister wanted to go for a motorcycle ride. Off we went with binoculars under our motorcycle jackets. I decided to go to Lorimer Park rather than Pennypack Trust since we didn't have the dogs along. Lorimer Park does not allow dogs - or so we thought. They recently completed a rails to trails project that we wanted to explore and I noticed a poop bag dispenser on the trail. Hmmm. Then we met a couple walking dogs and asked about it. Yes, dogs are allowed in the park now. Yeah!

Also, we saw great birds along the path. Black-throated blue warblers (2 males/1 female), 2 Chestnut-sided warblers, and a Catbird all chowing down on berries in the Tree of Heaven. What a great photo op. Beautiful blue birds against a pink flower background. No camera :-(

Flush that Thrush Redux

4 of us decided to try Palmyra Cove Park based on the recommendation from Delaware Valley Ornithology Club's website. They have a monthly recommendation page which lists Palmyra Cove as good for September. The park is just over the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge and stretches along the Delaware River for a mile. The park is a former dredge waste site that is now woods and ponds with trails.

We arrived at 7 AM and started walking the trail (with no map). We came across a nice mixed flock of warblers and vireos in an open field with some small trees. It was one of those situations where you go into overload because there is too much to look at all at once. "Look here" "What's that" "Up there" "Top of the tree". Right in the midst of all of that, a man with binoculars and one of those really dorky vests stomped past us, paused, and grumbled "Black-throated blue". Then stomped off. We all just dropped our binoculars and cracked up.

We came across other birds including a couple of Palm Warblers, Scarlet Tanager, Black-throated Green, and Nashville warbler. We met a young guy who told us how to get to the "warbler hole" so we decided to walk past on our way out of the park. There was a group of birders at the hole when we arrived being led by the stomper. What are the chances? Lo and behold, it's the same guy from the port-o-pot in Cape May last week! Of course, I mozied over and asked him if he flushed any thrushes today. We both had a good laugh.

Anyway, Palmyra Cove turned out to be a good new local birding spot. Unfortunately, no dogs allowed.

Slow Start, Mack & Manco's, Spoonbill

Two of our Phillybirdnerds are in Florida this week. Constantly texting us their latest Bald Eagle report. Bald Eagle this and Bald Eagle that. The weather report made it seem like we would see good birds in Cape May today. Rain ending on Saturday and clearing on Sunday. I was itching to go. Connie said that she would go under one condition - Mack and Manco's pizza for lunch. It was a deal!

We picked up Di and Barbara and got out of Philly by 6:30 AM. At Higbee Beach by 8:00. It was overcast and damp. The parking lot was full. More professional bird guides than unpaid birders. More birders than birds for sure.

Di and I came across a group looking at a Black Rat Snake in the tree just behind the port-o-john. We got great looks at a Brown Thrasher and 2 Northern Waterthrushes who were all upset by the snake. We met a man who coined the phrase "Flush the thrush" after a lady came out of the portapotty and let the door slam thus scaring the waterthrushes away. We really struggled for almost 2 hours walking the fields to get a few warblers. Di and Barbara got to see a Philadelphia Vireo for the first time.

We went to the Cape May Hawk Watch aka The Lighthouse around 10:30. We learned our lesson at Higbee and didn't spend too much time looking for anything that wasn't obvious. A Merlin almost took our heads off and so did a Sharpie.

Off to Ocean City boardwalk for pizza. YUM! Just like the old days. Plain cheese Mack and Manco's pizza followed up by Kohr Bros. ice cream cones. The diet starts tomorrow.

There have been reports of a Roseate Spoonbill at Forsythe NWR for a month. We went, we saw it. Bald Eagle huh? How about flipping Spoonbill? Here is the photographic proof:


It's the big pink bird with the spoon shaped bill upper right part of the photo.
What in the world? How does a Roseate Spoonbill that lives in mangroves end up in NJ?

We also got to see some of our favorite birds: Black Skimmers and American Oystercatchers. Here is a photo of the Skimmers with some gulls:

He Wrote the Book

I am jonesing to get some good birding. Especially after reading CMBO's blog "View from the Cape" about the good birding last weekend in Cape May which included the expected shorebirds but also some warblers. Connie agreed to let me go on Sunday so Lori and Tara picked me up at 5:30 AM and off we went. Got to Higbee by 7:45 and immediately saw birds in the parking lot. I was trying to point out the Eastern Kingbirds while Lori and Tara were shouting "Black & White!", "Redstart!" "Prothonotory" - referring to warblers. I kept saying "Girls, here are 2 Kingbirds" What a jerk I turned out to be. There were 200+ Kingbirds flying around the parking lot in flocks! We didn't see much once we made our way into the fields but we did get a few good looks at Northern Watershrush ( buff eyebrow, pumping tail).

We were on our way to the Lighthouse when we saw a car pulled over along Rea's farm fields. 2 women from Seattle were looking at a Solitary Sandpiper and some plovers in the field along with another smaller peep. 3 of us were pretty convinced that the peep was Pectoral Sandpiper due to the brown color and head markings. It's funny how a car on the side of the road in Cape May attracts other birders. Another couple joined us and asked what we were looking at. We said that we thought we saw a Pectoral Sandpiper. The man took one look and immediately said it was a Least Sandpiper. He was confident. I wasn't convinced because of the brown color. Then his companion asked me if I knew who Bill Boyle was. I said no and then she told me that "He wrote the book on Bird Finding in New Jersey". Oh, and that was him who identified the Least Sandpiper. Needless to say, we all wrote Least Sandpiper on our list. I have his book at home.

Another helpful man pointed out a few Black Terns in amongst 50+ Forster's Terns on the beach at the lighthouse. Lori found a Royal Tern in that same mix too. Good spot. Another highlight of the lighthouse trail was a Bald Eagle flying over and a falcon which was almost certainly a Peregrine Falcon, but I was having a hard time keeping it view between the trees.

Speaking of Bald Eagles, we stopped at Turkey Point along Maple Ave and saw another Bald Eagle. This one swooped down and got something to eat and then took it back to it's nest. Yes, it's nest that is completely visible from the road. Awesome. We'll definitely need to check that out next year.

Down on the Farm

My friend and co-worker, Mark, has a family farm in Berlin, Somerset county which has been in his family for generations. Each year he invites friends and family out for a weekend of fun and food. This was my 3rd year at the farm and I am now officially listed in the activity section of the invitation twice. First as leader of the bird walk and second as the astronomer. I don't know which is funnier. I brought extra binoculars and a telescope, so I guess that made me the expert.

The farm has spectacular views of surrounding countryside. The property slopes gently down to the Buffalo creek and has some woods along a run between pasture and corn rows. Here is a photo of the windmills across the valley in the morning mist. (The silos in the foreground are not Mark's)



We generally start our walk at the barn and meander through the woods looking at mostly flora and the occasional woodland bird. Pewees are really great birds for the non-birding group since they are easily recognized by their song (a loud "Peeeee Weee" - hence the name) and they sit on lower branches in the woods. Once we get to the Buffalo, we can count on ducks and a heron which are also easy for non-birders to see through binoculars and identify. We also had a great look at a Belted Kingfisher. He sat on the same perch twice so we all got a look.

I have noticed an interesting pattern with non-birders (women mostly). They are afraid of using binoculars and claim that they can't see anything and/or don't want to break them. But once they use mine (or Connie's or Di's), they are converted. This pattern held true again with Emilia and Sue. I had 3 binoculars - my old Bausch and Lomb Elite 7x42, Connie's Leica BN 8x32, and my new Leica Ultravid 8x32. Emilia reluctantly used the Leica BNs and it only took a few tries for her to get the hang of finding the bird through the lens and focusing for the "WOW" factor to set it. She proceeded to look at everything through the binoculars including caterpillars and flowers. I sense a new nature lover has been born. Sue used the Bausch and Lombs like an old pro and now wants to go birding with me in Cape May this fall. I am sure that her husband will be buying her a used pair on e-Bay (he is the e-Bay king) soon.

We usually see a Red-tailed Hawk and some Turkey Vultures soaring over the fields. This year we were also treated to a close encounter with a Sharp-shinned Hawk which flew low over our heads and landed in a shrub 50 yards away.

Our birding adventure did not end with the walk. We were also treated to calling Screech Owls during the movie. We paused Blazing Saddles which was being projected on a make shift outdoor movie screen (PVC pipes and an old sheet) to hear the pair whinney to each other for about 10 minutes. Pretty cool.

The astronomy was hampered a bit by partial cloud cover but we did get a good view of Jupiter and 2 moons.

How Di got started as a BirdNerd

In my last post "Mid-Summer Duldrums", I mentioned that June and July are traditionally slow birding months. That has held true so far. The only thing to report is the Eastern Screech Owl that has been vocalizing in our yard this week. Really cool.

In order to keep the blog fresh, my mother suggested that I talk about how Di got her start in birdwatching. This came about while my mother was visiting in June but I haven't gotten around to getting the post written and especially getting the photograph below scanned so that you all would understand why my mother insisted that I write this.

Di didn't come to birding naturally. She definitely needed some coaxing after this episode on Ocean City's boardwalk:
Apparently, we thought it would be fun to feed the pigeons. And we didn't know then what we know now about how photos like this could end up being seen by millions on the Internet.

Sorry Di. Mommy made me post this. I bet this isn't going on your Facebook page!

Mid-Summer Duldrums

Hi there. If you are a true birdwatcher, you know that June/July are the duldrums. Spring migration is over, nesting is just about wrapped up, and fall migration hasn't begun yet. Most of the professional birdwatchers actually take this time for their vacations since nothing interesting is happening.

Life is not dull for me and Connie. We go to the cabin in Potter County every year over July 4th holiday. We had a good list of birds seen around the cabin again this year including 2 Pileated Woodpeckers that put on a show for us, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers sunning themselves, and plenty of warblers that included our 2nd-ever Mourning Warbler. Here is a pretty cool photo of the Sapsucker:



Oh, did I mention the bear? Yes, we saw a bear right on the property. The neighbors told us that they have seen a bear in our field, but we haven't seen it. Connie and I were on our way up to the slate quarry and happened to turn around - and there was the bear coming up behind us. He went up the road toward Frank, Frank, Frank's cabin but we got a great look at him on the trail before he headed off. WOW.

Oh, did I mention the bees? Yes, I got stung by a swarm of honey bees while trying to get Roxy's leash untangled from some branches. I didn't know that I could still run that fast! I got stung 4 times and Connie's poor sister got stung once trying to get the bees off of me. That will teach her!

This year was the first time that Connie's dad did not accompany us on the trip. He was in hospice, and passed away on Wednesday while we were at the cabin. The place will never be the same without him. He was a true outdoors man and hunter. I guess he sent us that bear.

Next post will hopefully include some shorebird sightings as I am headed to the Delaware shore later this week.

A New Birding Location for the PhillyBirdNerds

I don't know how I came across the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club website, but it has a really handy section called "monthly recommendations" which describes local birding opportunities by month. June lists a few places that I have never heard of. Never. One is a horse farm in New Jersey which has field birds and another is Hawkins Road which lists nesting warblers. The site says that Hawkins Road is best in the first part of June - but if you read my last post then you'll know that the weather has not cooperated with that. So, June 21st was the day that we decided to go explore the new place.

One of the attractions to Hawkins Road is that it's pretty close to Philly just in Medford Lakes. It only took 45 minutes from my house but of course it took us longer on the first trip. We only had vague directions from the web so we went to far North on Rt 70 and had to turn around. But we finally found the pull out for the preserve at the high tension line cut. Here is the Google map link

Don't get me wrong, we did this in the rain but at least it was light and intermittent rain. The power lines were buzzing and smelled like burnt electric. We walked along the service road under the power lines so that we could see some birds and maybe get some big tumors. The sand road and clearing turned out to be good for seeing birds like Blue-winged Warbler, Common Yellow Throat, Prairie Warbler, Indigo Buntings and lots of Catbirds. With all of the rain lately, the road had giant puddles and running water in many places. We did our best not to get too wet.

We finally found a true trail at the third power line tower and took the opportunity to get out of the rain and into the woods. We were immediately greeted by Ovenbird and Pine Warblers mixed in with Chickadees and Gnatcatchers. Then we came across an old Chevy Vega on the trail. Then we tried to track down a Black-throated Green Warbler that we could hear very close but we could just not see it. Then more Chickadees came in and another bird that sounded different. And there it was, Prothonotory Warbler for a fleeting second and then gone. It was mentioned on the DVOC website as a nesting bird in the area and we were walking along a very very small creek at the time. Unfortunately, I was the only one that got a look at the bird. Lori never got to see it although we heard it calling for 5 minutes before it went silent.

Anyway, it was great to explore a new place that turned out to be a good birding location. We got 30 birds in all which is good for us. We even got very close looks at a Broad-winged Hawk in the woods.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Oy. It's been over 2 weeks with no post. That is due to the $*#!% rain. No birding opportunities before or after work or on the weekends.

Di, Barbara and I went to Delaware Water Gap on Sunday. Di and I took the canoe for about 5 miles downstream ending at Kittatinny Ranger Station. It was literally the only nice day that we've had in weeks. We saw some things along the river including a few female Common Mergansers (where are all of the males?), Cedar Waxwings, Baltimore Orioles and the like. Nothing to write home about.

Lori and I plan to go to Beaver Swamp this weekend - depending on the weather - to see if we can find nesting warblers as listed on the Delaware Valley Ornithology Club website:
http://www.dvoc.org/DelValBirding/MonthlyBirding/MonthlyIndex.htm

Wish us good weather. . .

Cuckoos, Flies, Caterpillars, Pies and the Club

Connie and I went up to the camp in Potter County this weekend to do some work in preparation for the July 4th trip. We needed to cut down some limbs and prepare a spot for the Bounder since we'll be taking it up for the first time over the 4th. What good timing too, because the Potter County Bird Club - of which we are members - was having their first summer picnic at Lyman Run Lake on Sunday. We would finally be able to make a meeting after being members since Sept.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and decided to just stay around the cabin. All of the usual birds were there plus we heard 2 Pileated Woodpeckers calling in the woods behind the camp and found a Green Heron in the pine trees out front. The Bluebird baby was fledged so I took the old nest out of the box. They were building again by Sunday afternoon. I'll bet we see another baby on the 4th.

Cuckoos
The trip turned out to be a good one for Cuckoos. We spotted a Black-billed Cuckoo along the stream path on Sunday morning. He (or she) accommodated us by hanging around for awhile. We saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Lyman Lake later in the day with the bird club. This bird also hung around so that we could get good looks. And then another Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Nelson Run Rd today.

Flies
The trip was also full of black flies. We couldn't sit outside for more than 30 seconds without being swarmed. No amount of deet seemed to keep them away. They didn't bite but they were maddening just the same.

Caterpillars
And tent caterpillars. Everywhere. It sounded like it was raining in the woods but it was just caterpillar poop falling from the trees. I'm not kidding. The ground was covered with little black dots of caterpillar poop and half chewed leaves. There were caterpillars all over the place including on us. What a shame. Bringing the story back around - someone from the bird club told us that Cuckoos are one type of bird that actually eats tent caterpillars. Maybe that's why we saw so many Cuckoos on this trip and have never seen one in Potter before.

Pies
The Bird Club picnic was great. We arrived late and found only one person at the picnic pavillion. He told us that the group was up the road looking at a Pied-billed Grebe nest. We went to join the group and found them with scopes trained on the nest. It is very unusual for Pied-billed Grebes to nest so far south. We made our introductions to the group and lingered to see the female leave the nest and get some fish, several babies try to swim and the male diving, swimming and calling on the lake. There was also a male Common Loon on the lake. Another unusual sighting. The club members think that he is either a young male that isn't interested in nesting yet or an injured bird that couldn't make it further north.

More Pies and The Club
Mary coordinated the picnic. Larry manned the grill and cooked the hotdogs and hamburgers. All of the club members brought a dish and each was delicious. What a nice group of people. Everyone introduced themselves and made us feel welcome. Connie made baked beans (so did 2 other people). We all ate very well including desert which included a Lemon Chiffon Pie. David led the meeting with unusual sightings in the county and a recap of the Austin Bio-blitz that was sponsored by the high school. Scientists from all over descended upon the area around the ruins of the Austin dam (the dam that could not break but did in 1911 after only 2 years) to count and document anything living.

The day was capped off with a Bald Eagle catching and eating a fish at the lake! A pretty good trip over all.

Nests

The theme of this post is nests. My Grandmother's house in Cinnaminson has been for sale since last September. It is finally under contract. My Grandmother hasn't lived there in over 2 years since she has been living in long term care facilities - first in Moorestown and now in Florida. My mother and I went through the house today for the last time. It's sad to go through a house that you have known for 35 years to take things that mean something and leave others behind knowing that they will be discarded by the new owners.

Take Peter for instance. Peter is a life size boy doll that my Grandmother has dressed in his Christmas best and only brings out of the closet (no comment) at Christmas time. Peter has been with us for 50 years but now he's sitting in the basement and probably doomed for the trash (which is where my Grandmother found him in the first place).

Our house is starting to look a lot like my Grandmother's house. We now have an entertainment center, sleeper sofa, dry bar, kitchen table and chairs, and other knick-knacks that belonged to her all over our house. I just can't bear leaving them behind. In addition, our dining room set and spare bedroom set belonged to my mother. We have them for the same reason. The only room that is completely void of hand-me-downs from other nests is our living room.

On to the birding part of the bird blog. While my mother and I were at my Grandmother's house today, we noticed another new resident that had a nest - a Robin had build a nest on the kitchen windowsill. I guess it's been so quiet with nobody living in the house. Here are some photos of the nest with eggs and chick:


Not much happening bird-wise here. I go out with Binoculars but don't see anything to report. Lots of Cedar Waxwings and such. I hope we see more at the cabin this weekend. We also plan to attend the Potter County Bird Club picnic on Sunday. Stay tuned . . .

Getting Attached to the Dog(s)

Memorial Day Weekend is spent up at the cabin with Connie's family. We have been doing it for a few years now so that we can spend the weekend with her Mom, Dad and sister. This year we brought the new dog, Roxy with us. She is really getting attached to me. She follows me everywhere. In and out of the cabin, around the property, and along the trail. She has proven to be a great birding dog already. She stops when we stop and stays around while we listen and look at birds along the trail. This trip really awakened Roxy's nose. It is obvious that this was her first trip to the country. Here is a photo of our new girl:

I got attached to another dog this weekend too. Roxy and I were walking along the new clear cut in the pines on the property when she suddenly disappeared. She was right behind me one minute, and gone the next minute. I thought she might be down at the camps along the dirt road, so I went down to look for her. A woman in one of the camps yelled out of her screen porch that she saw Roxy running in the woods. So I started walking down the dirt road in that direction when all of a sudden a boxer came charging out of the camp and ran down the road after me. He bit me on the hand, then bit me again in the back of the calf:

Blood really ran out of the bottom puncture wound. It gave me Curt Schilling sock and sneaker (you need to be a Phillies fan to get that). It hurt, but I'm fine.

Anyway, back to the birding report. We put up a Bluebird box last summer and viola, we have nesting Bluebirds in the field - with a baby inside. Part of the roof was blown off when we arrived, so I pushed it back into place and got to see the baby. We watched the parents bringing big bugs all weekend. Here is pop on top and mom at the entrance hole.


We also had a singing male Blackburnian Warbler hanging around in the pines next to the cabin all weekend. He is obviously setting up his territory. Really pretty orange throat which is shown in the photo:


We had at least 6 separate Chestnut-sided Warblers singing at the stream this weekend. Connie and I discovered a few last year and managed to remember their song this year. We also saw real Purple Finches. The male is really purple all over. Not like the House Finches that we used to call Purple Finches as kids. This is a really bad photo but it shows the purple coloring all over:

More later.

Boom or Bust?

Bust. Trust me. We took the Bounder to Cape May on Friday - supposedly the best weekend of spring for migrants. Cape May Observatory even scheduled their "Spring Weekend" for the same weekend. I feel bad for them. Hundreds of people at our usual spots wearing weekend tags, following leaders, seeing basically nothing but mosquitos.

Diane and I drove the Bounder, Barbara drove her truck, Lori and Tara drove the "Schmellow". We all departed from separate points and ended up 3 in a row at the end of Route 55. What a coincidence. We stopped at Belleplain State Forest on our way down.

Oh, did I tell you about our new dog Roxy? She's a half pint Cocoa look-alike - but we didn't really plan it that way. We got her from a horse rescue in Quakertown called Last Chance Ranch. They got her from the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter (PACS) where she was scheduled to be euthanized in 2 days because they didn't have space for all of the dogs. Sad. But, this isn't a dog blog. She did pretty good on her first birding trip.

Belleplain was not very good but we did get Ovenbird "teacher, teacher, TEACHER, TEACHER!" And Least Flycatcher "chePEEK". And Acadian Flycatcher "pyew". And a water snake.

After we parked the Bounder at the Depot Travel Park, we headed out to Higbee Beach. Tons of mosquitos, Prairie Warblers and Spring Weekend people. Tons of people. We walked the fields without much luck then we hit a little hotspot of Northern Parulas, a Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler and Red and White-eyed Vireos. Then it was over. We also saw the most evil looking orange turtle with evil red eyes along the path.

We also went to Cape May Point State Park (we call it the lighthouse) and the Villas WMA. Also busts except for Red-headed Woodpecker which was a life bird for Lori and Tara, and Blue Grosbeaks (M & F) which were lifebirds for Di.

And then it started to rain! It rained all day on Sunday so we packed up and came home early again.