Warbler Weekend

I guess that I have been an idiot for years now thinking that fall migration meant that it happened in fall because I have seen a TON of stuff this month/week including shorebirds and warblers.

I already told you about the shorebirds that I saw at the shore but how about shorebirds in the middle of Pennsylvania.  How about that?  I went to Green Lane Reservoir up by Quakertown on Saturday with our trusty Bausch and Lomb scope to check out the shorebirds that have been posted on eBird.  The water level had dropped significantly since last month when we took our first trip up there.  On Saturday I was standing (with Roxy and Sammy) on firm ground where the big red marker is:

Lots of shorebirds along the water's edge.  I was very pleased with the fact that I could tell the difference between Least, Semi-Palmated, Stilt, White-rumped, and Pectoral Sandpipers - by myself, for sure.  Of course, some other jerk posted Baird's Sandpiper on Sunday which I didn't see.

Lori and I headed up to Lake Galena/Peace Valley Nature Center on Sunday morning for a quick look around.  We hit paydirt with warblers - at least 6American Redstarts, Canada, Blackburnian, Magnolia, Parula, Common Yellowthroat - along with other species including . . . 3 not-so-Solitary Sandpipers and a family of Towhees. Mom, Pop and fuzzy adolescent.

We tried our luck again tonight after work at Pennypack Trust.  Jackpot right out of the car with warblers, vireos and flycatchers flitting all around.  We made rookie identification mistake with one particular bird.  Drab gray, warblery size and shape, complete white eye ring, maybe a hint of olive on the back but not quite, double wing bar.  Yes, you guessed right - Chestnut-sided Warbler.  After an hour of looking up in the trees we finally figured it out.  Ouch.  My neck might not last until "Fall".

Hooters afterhours

So, at 445am this morning, our visiting collie started barking and work tara and I up. Tara went downstairs to quiet him, came back up. The windows were open, and as she came back up I heard "hoo hoo hooo, hoo hoo hoooo." She heard it too, then we heard 2 of them calling. So we got up at 5am, wandered outside to find the owls. They were 2 blocks away, unfortunately too dark to see into the trees, however, as we got closer one flew out clear as day, big ole owl. The other one was already too far away. So there you have it, 2 hooters in Ivyland, besides mine.
And, Mars was next to the moon last night, pretty cool.

Lori

Circle of Life

That's what they called it in The Lion King and that's what we call it when we see "nature in action" while birding.  We witnessed many herons and egrets picking fish and eels out of the shrunken pond at the lighthouse.  It was really easy for them to pick a meal and really natural for us to watch.  We noticed a group of Egrets standing in a circle with all bills pointed toward the center.  Then we focused on the center of the circle to find one Egret in an unnatural position at the water's surface.  But it is unsettling to see the bird laying there helpless, knowing that it will not survive. Snapping Turtles gotta eat too I guess. I don't know why it bothers me more to see that than when the birds are eating something.

At Forsythe, we had really great views of Gull-billed Terns.  These terns are not very common and always a treat to see. I was fortunate enough to snap a photo of one flying over with a meal in its bill.  Can you figure out what he dined on?

Then there was the tragedy of a big fish kill along the Delaware Bay.  I snapped this shot of the fish along the beach in The Villas.  We still don't know what killed them all.

This is all part of watching and nature.  Sometimes we overlook it and sometimes it stays with us. 

We Learned Alot - 2nd Post

We learned that we should start looking for shorebirds in "fall" migration during July and into August.  We learned that we should know which birds winter close and which go all the way to South America when trying to identify species.  We learned all about feathers and molting and juvenile plumage.  We learned that we should never assume that all of the birds in a flock are the same.  And we learned that a spotting scope is invaluable when watching shorebirds.

Here are some photos of shorebirds that we learned.  For instance, here is a Short-billed Dowitcher in fresh juvenile plumage:

Psych!  This is a Least Sandpiper in worn plumage.  This is really the second post on how to freak out the workshop leader.  Notice that this bird is in the grass.  That is another thing we learned - Least Sandpipers forage higher from the water than other "peeps".

Here is Semipalmated Sandpiper on the beach at the Villas.  I'll have you know that Barbara and I trudged through thick black muck to get out to the sandbar where these birds were running around.  We'll probably get some disease.

Notice the few black feathers on the back of this bird.  They are the leftover breeding plumage feathers that have not molted yet.  We learned that anyway. 

More tomorrow.

How to Freak Out the Workshop Leader

It's easy really.  We showed up for the Shorebirds with the Man Who Wrote the Book workshop on Tuesday morning promptly at 7:30.  I asked Michael O'Brien (the man who wrote the book The Shorebird Guide) if we should carry the book into the field with us.  He said no need but the second leader, Pete Dunne who also writes books on these subjects, suggested that I could bring it if I needed another 1 1/2" of height to see through the scopes.  Of course, that comment lead to my now patented "Did he just call me fat?" comeback.  Later in the day, Pete made sure to let Barbara know that he didn't really call me fat. . .

We started Day 1 of the 3 day workshop at Cape May State Park (remember that the Birdnerds refer to this as "the lighthouse" or "the hawkwatch platform" interchangeably.  At 7:30 AM it was already stinking hot.  I had sweat rolling down unmentionable places by 8:00.  The water level in the pond just in front of the hawkwatch platform was really low which exposed alot of mud.  Dozens of Herons and Egrets were gathered picking fish out of the remaining water with ease but the group was there for shorebirds so we concentrated on those.  Peeps are notoriously difficult to identify.  Michael started with those - semi-palmated, least, western, stilt, and white-rumped.  We saw all but white-rumped right off the bat. We also had great lessons on Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs.  My favorite of the morning was the Stilt Sandpiper which feeds by probing the mud in a manner that reminds me of the old novelty item:

Here is a photo of the real bird taken with my Canon 100-400mm rented lens (more on that next post):

I will be making lots of posts over the next several days in order to break up all of the stuff that I want to tell you about our workshop so please check back often.

Things to See If You Can Get to the Shore

Following up on my last post.  I realize that I didn't give you a good account of the birding that happened on Sunday while we were scope shopping.  I did mention the King Eider but you may not understand how cool it is to see one of those birds floating next to the concrete ship in Cape May.  King Eiders are commonly found in the arctic, not New Jersey. Check out this link to learn more about the bird, see the map, and see some photos.  It was a life bird for all of us.  Granted, the bird seen this weekend was not the male in full breeding plumage, but we could definitely tell that it was a King Eider.

That wasn't the only life bird seen on Sunday.  We also saw 3 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks on the pond at the Lighthouse.  Once again, these ducks are way out of their normal range in New Jersey and cool to look at.  Here is the link to learn more about BBWDs.  They are most commonly seen in South Texas, Central and South America.  I have seen BBWDs in Arizona and Central America but it was a first for Di and Barbara.

More to come over the weekend.

There's One in Every Crowd

Everyone knows one of those people who can pick up a new skill quickly, play a game for the first time and win, doesn't need glasses . . . Well that ended today for one of the nerds.

Barbara started out not wanting to purchase, borrow, or even use binoculars.  "No thanks, I can see that bird just fine" (eyes rolling and choice words being mumbled from the rest of us).  We practically begged her to borrow an old pair of binoculars so that she wouldn't stand out.  Ha. That's a riot.  We wanted her to wear binoculars on a "bra" in a shore town where others were wearing sunglasses and bathing suits so that she didn't stand out.

Barbara and I are signed up for the "Shorebirds with the man who wrote the book" workshop next week.  It will be 3 days of shorebird identification with Michael O'Brien who literally wrote the Shorebird Guide.  I was willing to go alone since shorebirds are notoriously difficult and frustrating and not cute like warblers but Barbara signed up too.  We have been discussing where to stay, what to take, etc.  I told her that I was taking our spotting scope for sure.  It is an oldie-but-goodie from Connie's dad - Bausch and Lomb circa 1960 something.  That was the unintentional bait.

She just casually mentioned that she did some research on spotting scopes and found a few that had high ratings and were not very expensive.  She sent me the list and asked what I thought. By telling her that she should really try them out in person, the bait was alluring. Then she asked if I would go to CMBO store to try some out.  The hook was set, now all I had to do was reel in the fish and not let her spit out the hook. 

We spent a long time looking through all of the scopes on display at CMBO Northwood Center.  The scopes that Barbara had researched weren't even on display.  They were laying at the bottom of a display case for losers.  The clerk obliged us and put them out for comparison.  It was like looking through the bottom of a vaseline jar compared to the Swarovski, Zeiss and Kowa top models. 

The Swarovski ATS-80 HD Spotting Scope with 20 - 60 mm eyepiece turned out to be the bait that finally caught the 5 foot, 7 inch Barbara. The Bausch and Lomb is now relegated to the backup scope which is fine with me.

The first bird viewed through the glorious Swarovski ATS-80 HD just happened to be the rare and glorious King Eider that has been hanging around the Concrete Ship for the last few weeks.  Pretty fitting.

Southern Style - Living Like a Vanderbilt

Connie's niece is getting married on Saturday in Atlanta.  We decided that it would be best to drive down to Atlanta so that we had our own car and could do as we please.  We also thought it would be nice to take an extra day on our way down to break up the drive so we booked a night at the Inn at Biltmore on the Biltmore Estate.  Staying at the Inn was a splurge but not that expensive (relatively speaking) at $199/night during the week.  We lived like rich people for 2 days with bellmen and food servers and the like.

The photo of the Biltmore House above is from the website. The veiw is from the gardens looking back at the house. We took the audio tour which included 45 rooms and took over an hour.  We learned alot about the estate and about George Vanderbilt.  It was pretty hot and there is no air conditioning in the house but we managed pretty well. 


Here are a few photos from "Little Pink":

Connie at the Inn

Connie in the room

Our best photo of the House looking from the Italian Garden

The most shocking thing about the Biltmore Estate is the lack of birding information. I couldn't find anything about birding opportunities on the web prior to our visit, and eBird doesn't even have it as a birding location.  I had to make a personal location for the site. I also had trouble getting information from any employee at Biltmore.  The concierge could only tell me that he thought there was a Screech Owl down be the lagoon.  And even then, he wasn't sure. . .

This is surprising because the estate sits on 8,000 acres - 8,000 acres - of mixed land ranging from forested hills to manicured gardens to agricultural land.   George Vanderbilt planned the estate to be self sustaining with agriculture that would feed the 40 servants year-round plus the Vanderbilt family and the 20ish guests that were always at the house.  He also hired Frederick Law Olmstead as the landscape architect (the same guy that designed Central Park) to design the landscape for generations to come. How could there be no birding information?

This is what I found on my own just walking the "hiking" trail from the Inn to the Lagoon and walking the garden at the House - 39 species including Humming birds buzzing around the garden flowers (no brainer there), Goldfinches, Indigo Buntings, Song and Chipping Sparrows at the grass edges, Cedar Waxwings, Phoebes, Kingbirds, Orchard Orioles along the river. Cooper's Hawk sending all other birds into a tizzy and Red Tail Hawk acting like a Vanderbilt (he owned the place) sitting in the vineyard and not really moving when I walked past. Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a Spotted Sandpiper on the river edge.  I also watched 3 hens guide 8 Turkey chicks along the field and into the woods.  We learned that Turkey was George V's favorite meal . . . It was quite cool watching the Chimney Swifts flying directly over the house around the many chimneys. Maybe they roost there at night?

It was definitely worth the trip. It might be a great place to be during migration - spring or fall.

4th of July

Lori and I took a quick trip to Bulls Island State Park near Stockton NJ today.  I know that place because we used to go kayaking there a few years ago.  It is a nice park because sits along the Delaware canal and has a boat ramp to the river. Its a nice paddle downstream on the river, then cross over and paddle back up the canal.


Today, we didn't have kayaks or canoes.  We walked along the path between the river and canal.  We immediately heard chickadees scolding something high in a tree.  It was an owl for sure.  Lori spotted it hiding in some vines.  That owl looked right at us but continued to sit there "hiding".  A little further down the path, we heard a warbler high in the trees - a Yellow-throated Warbler which we got to see flitting around. Then, a Worm-eating Warbler sang too.  We didn't get a look at the Worm-eating, but it was definitely close.  An Acadian Flycatcher got up close and personal along the path.

The best part of the morning was that Lucy got to go swimming.  She chased a few sticks at the boat ramp and both dogs had a great time along the trail.  Oh, and the owl.  that was good too.

Snow Birds Vacate - Nesting Birds Stay

Well, alot has happened since my last post.  Mom and Dave visited and stayed with us for a few days.  My neice Meaghan graduated from high school! Which was one reason for Mom and Dave's visit.  We had a busy week or so with very little birding opportunities. 

This past weekend, Connie and I headed back to the cabin in Potter County for some chores and, as it turns out, rest.  We planned to hike, ride our motorcycles, paint, get the plumber and the bug guy.  We only got the plumber, one ride and one hike due to rain and pure exhaustion. People who know me will be shocked to learn that I splept until 9 AM on Saturday after working a full day on Friday, driving to the cabin and arriving at 1:45 AM.  I haven't slept until 9 AM since I was 14 years old and had the flu.

As it turns out, we didn't need to go far for the birds.  Here is the list of birds that are right in our yard or close proximity this year:

Warblers - Blackburnian, Black and White, Am. Redstart, Nashville, Hooded, Yellow-rumped, Common Yellow Throat, Yellow Warbler
Other birds - Great Crested and Least Flycatchers, Phoebe, Cedar Waxwings, Indigo Buntings, Tree Swallows, Bluebirds, Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, Turkeys, Ruffed Grouse (w/ 8 babies), Towhees, Pileated Woodpeckers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and more.

Wildlife this trip includes plenty of deer and a close up look at a Porcupine.  Those things are much bigger than I thought. They look like Beavers with really pointy fur!  And they can move faster than I thought too but we stayed far enough away to still be able to drink beer without leaking it all over.

I did manage to get so many fly bites on my head and neck that I look like I have Chicken Pox! Gross.

More Camera Woes

We went to Connie's cabin in Potter County over Memorial Day weekend as we normally do.  I was determined to get you some photos of birds and other wildlife.  That all came crashing to an end - literally - when I slipped on some wet slate at the quarry and broke the camera.  I think it still takes photos but I can't see them on the LCD screen which is smashed.  Ugh.  One more thing to get fixed.

Anyway, you will have to take my word for the wildlife that we saw this trip which included:

• another up-close look at a Timber Rattlesnake (5-6 feet long) which was trying to cross the dirt road as we zipped past it on our motorcycles.  We turned around and got a really close look at it before it slithered back into the grass. 
• another close-up look at a Black Bear which was also trying to cross a dirt road.  I was standing next to my motorcycle talking to Di when her eyes got wide and she started saying "Oh, my, God" a few times while looking past me.  And there it was, a big black bear about 30 yards away looking back at us.  My reaction was to get back on the motorcycle and get ready to make a fast get away.  No need to worry though, the bear just turned around calmly and ambled back into the woods.
• chipmunks galore.  More chipmunks than I have ever seen  before in my life which thoroughly exhausted the dogs. Roxy became acquainted with the pain of the electric fence which the forestry department uses to keep deer away from new plantings!  She ran right into it while chasing one of those Chipmunks. "Yiiiipe, yiiiipe, yiiiipe" as she ran back down the road toward us.  HA.
• oh, and birds - including Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green warblers which have been conspicuously missing from our earlier trips at migration spots, both Cuckoos, a Barred Owl hooting ("who cooks for you") in broad daylight, tons of Chestnut-sided warblers, Cedar Waxwings and both Orioles (Baltimore and Orchard).  We were frustrated while birding the forests as we could hear lots of birds but had a hard time seeing them even though the trees were leafless due to . . .
• tent Caterpillars were everywhere.  To the point that it sounded like it was raining all of the time due to the amount of caterpillar poop falling from the tops of the trees.  The trees looked like winter/early spring with the amount of missing leaves.  It is really worrisome.  I hope that the trees recover.

That's all for now.  I will try to get some photos soon.

Just Remember It

Sorry I haven't had my camera out lately. It is difficult to manage the camera, binoculars, and two dogs on daily walks.  I really miss having the camera along.  Especially in this new era of eBird when any rare sighting is questioned and photographic proof is the best way to confirm the sighting. 

Take this week for instance.  Thursday morning was the best birding morning that I've had this season.  It was a beautiful morning after 2 days of dreary rain.  Birds were sure to be moving through.  Plus, I had an appointment in Mt. Airy at 10 AM which meant that I could take my time on the morning walk at Pennypack Trust.  There was alot of bird action at the beginning of the trail - Baltimore Oriole, Blackpolls (again), Kingbirds, a Parula singing and flitting about.  Then, a bird popped into a small tree just in front of me.  Kind of vireo shaped but smaller and browner.  I knew it was something different, so I sketched it and made notes of color and field marks on my notepad.  I even had time to look up possibilities while it bounced around the tree.  Through the process of elimination, I came up with Swainson's Warbler.  Rare in our region but it couldn't have been anything else.  No camera.

Next bird outing was Saturday with Lori at Peace Valley park.  We really worked for the birds that morning.  Hiking almost all of the trails around the nature center only getting a bird here and a bird there.  Still no mobs of warblers.  But then, at the end of our walk we heard a mob of crows going ape shit.  I knew they were trying to get rid of a hawk or owl, so we dashed up the trail for a look.  There sat a Great Horned Owl in a mess of vines being tormented and dive bombed by a bunch of crows and Blue Jays.  No camera.

On our way back to the car we finally saw the Yellow-billed Cuckoo that everyone else said was flying back and forth across the bridge.  Also had very close up looks at those beautiful Cedar Waxwings sitting in a Sequoia tree. Yes, you read that right. There are 2 Sequoia trees growing at the edge of Lake Galena in Pennsylvania.  Another guy was getting great photos of that scene but not me.  I'll just have to commit it to memory (or blog about it and read it to myself later).

Next up - Potter County trip for Memorial Day weekend.  I'll pack the camera for sure.

It's Madame Foreperson to you

Why am I posting my jury duty memoir to a birding blog?  Because this can only happen to me.  I was picked to serve on a civil case in Montgomery County this week.  The case was typical of what you would assume - a car accident that resulted in the plaintiff alleging back injury.  The part that can only happen to me?  The cause of the car accident was that the defendant was distracted from driving because she saw a woman running across the road chasing an injured Turkey. I am not kidding. I can't make this stuff up. 

I was juror #4 yesterday listening to testimony about back injury, herniated disks, injections, pre-existing conditions, loss of sex drive, you name it.  All I could think about was, what happened to the turkey?  Did the woman catch it and take it to the rehab?  Did it recover?

Today, I was promoted from juror #4 to foreperson when we went into deliberations.  I seemed to be the only person on the jury who had served before and wasn't afraid of the foreperson responsibility. Not guilty and no monetary award was our verdict.

Oh, and I had a Baltimore Oriole and Cedar Waxwing in the yard this morning. Cool.

We Weren't Last

But we were damned close to last place in the World Series of Birding.  The Seniors beat us.  The teams that did only the county beat us. The team that did only Ocean City beat us.  All of the school kids beat us. But we didn't come in last place.  A few teams actually had fewer birds than we had.

First, let's say that the winning teams (yes, there was a tie for first place) had 228 species which is off from other years when they had over 230.  Now, let's tell you that one of the winning teams failed to see White-breasted Nuthatch - a common bird that we have at our feeders.  They also failed to get Cattle Egret which you can normally get at 80 MPH while driving down the Parkway.  (click here to see the results)

Just like the winners, we failed to see the Nuthatch and the Cattle Egret.  We also missed 110 other birds that they got.  We ended up with 116 for the day.  We started our day at 4:30 AM and ended at 8:30 PM when we turned our list in at the firehouse.  We had alot of fun and saw some great birds including a life bird for me - Gull-billed Tern.  Everyone contributed in spotting birds and keeping the day fun.

Next year, we have agreed to do it again but stay in Cape May County. There will be less driving, and we will still have a shot at 140ish birds.  I think we can get 130.  We are also going to get T-shirts and sponsors.

Here They Come!

To quote Tom Petty - "The way-ay-ting is the hardest part".  Well, the waiting seems to be over.  Warblers are finally moving through our little part of the world.  This morning, I saw 7 Blackpoll Warblers at Lemon Hill.  That is more than I have seen in total all of my years of birding.  Plus, Connie and I had a singing Blackpoll at Pennypack Trust last night. And that needs to be added to the Blackpoll warbler from Higbee beach on Saturday. 

We met several birders who said that this is unusual.  One guy told us that he lives in Allentown area and they call the Blackpoll warbler "the kiss of death" because they are the last warblers to migrate. When you see Blackpolls, then migration is over.  Well, not this year.  It seems that they are coming through earlier than usual.

Along with the Blackpolls, Barbara and I had the first Black-throated Blue warblers, Parulas, plenty of Yellow-rumps, a lingering Palm, and a beautiful male Cape May warbler this morning.

Get your binoculars and get out there!

Did I mention that we entered the World Series of Birding?  Seems like we should have entered a regional competition and won it in order to be eligible for the "big day".  But, no.  We just signed up.  Any schmuck can enter apparently.  We decided to limit our day's effort to just Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic counties in order to cut down the driving.  We made an initial site survey last Saturday to test the driving and I now think that it is possible for us to get 100+ species in one day effort by concentrating on the following Hotspots:

• Turkey Point - Glades
• Heislerville WMA
• Stimpson's Beach
• Jake's Landing Road
• Reed's Beach
• Belleplain State Park
• Villas WMA
• Cape May Point State Park - Hawk Watch and trails
• The Meadows - Nature Conservancy
• Concrete Ship
• Higbee Beach
• Rhea Farm (Beanery)
• Nummy Island

It seems like alot, but some of these sites are concentrated in Cape May and do not require alot of driving.  Stay tuned.

Nerd Squared

Taking the nerd part of our name to new heights here lately.
We are birdwatchers - nerd strike one
We submit our sightings electronically - nerd strike two

Two of our submissions from Belize are under scrutiny by eBird.  We are emailing descriptions and photos to the guy almost daily.  The 2 submissions under question are Sparrow which we saw with our guide Eric and identified as Botteri's Sparrow and a hawk that we saw on Ambergris Caye that sat on a telephone pole and baffled us for more than 15 minutes.  Luckily, I have photos of both birds which I sent to the "auditor".  The sparrow came back as Lincoln's Sparrow which the guy says hasn't been seen in that pahe rt of Belize since 2003 and he was pretty excited about the sighting.

Barbara and I spent a long time staring and photographing and trying to identify the hawk on the telephone pole.  Diane and I spent even longer staring at the computer screen and the field guide trying to identify the hawk from the photos.  We used 2 field guides.  Birds of Belize by Lee Jones which is rated the best guide for the country, and another guide that covers all of Central America.  We finally settled on Great Black Hawk (immature) due to field marks and process of elimination of all other species.  The auditor didn't like that submission stating that only one Great Black Hawk had been recorded on Ambergris Caye and could it possibly have been a Common Black Hawk which, by the its very name, is common in the area.  Once again, I sent photos.  His response was really, really nerdy and fascinating and exciting.  He said that his second review of the photos lead him to believe it was Broad-winged Hawk - which is b-o-r-i-n-g EXCEPT that only one of those have ever been seen on Ambergris.  Then, he asked if he could send my photos to Lee Jones - that's right, the guy who wrote the field guide. 

Oh, and if that is all not nerdy enough for you.  Here is nerd strike three - the PhillyBirdNerds are entering the World Series of Birding this year.  Yup. The biggest gathering of nerdiness outside of the computer expo.  To make matters worse, the PBNs are using technology including eBird reports, mapping tools, and "apps" on our iPhones and iPads (yup, we have iPads but no iTampons). 

Overwhelmingly nerdy.  More about the World Series of Birding in coming days.

First Time Sightings

I was so overwhelmed with the number of new birds that we saw in Belize last week, that I started to think about how I would remember them.  I started to think about some first time sighting that I remember often or when I see the same bird again. 

To that end, I have added a new "page" to the blog called "Total Life List" so that you can see my total list.  The interesting thing is that it lists the bird and location of the first sighting.  You will need to actually look at the blog to see this list, not just read the email alert for this posting.

For instance, I have seen hundreds of Northern Gannets (#6 on the list), but the first time that I recorded that species was in Witless Bay Newfoundland.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Connie and I drove out to a remote little park, walked through the sheep paddy to the edge of a high cliff overlooking the North Atlantic ocean.  There were hundreds of Northern Gannets flying over our heads and around a see stack island that had broken away from the main cliff.  The birds were nesting on that sea stack.  It was like being in an episode of Planet Earth on Discovery Channel.  Awesome.  Now, when I see a Northern Gannet off of the Jersey shore, I conjure up that wonderful day in my mind.

Whip-poor-will #115 seen and photographed at Fackahatchee Park along the Tami Ami Trail in Florida.  The bird sat motionless and camouflaged on a fallen branch just off of the boardwalk path.  Our friends Cee and Sarah were with us on that trip and pointed out the bird to me.  I set up the camera and tripod to get a photo.  Snap, snap, snap of the shutter just when the bird yawned with wide pink mouth.  Awesome.  It was so long ago that the photos are not in digital form but they are mounted and displayed at our house. 

I'll definitely remember the Fork-tailed Flycatcher #579 from this recent trip.  We were waiting in line to cross the river in the tour van.  The river is crossed by loading 3-4 cars onto a barge which is hand cranked across the river by 2 guys. Passengers must exit the vehicles and stand along the rail of the barge during the crossing for "safety".  Barbara and I got out of the van to look around when all of a sudden the bird with outrageously long tail flew across the road right in front of us.  I immediately banged on the windsheild of the van yelling something about "scissor tail, scissor tail".  2 Fork-tail Flycatcher, not Scissor-tails flitted and sat in the field for us all to gawk at.  Here is a photo, not mine to show you why I would remember this encounter.

You get the point.  All of this to say that there were so many new birds on this trip that I will probably not be able to remember the events surrounding each one.  I do fondly remember my first Violicious Trogon (photo in last post) seen near Playa Del Carmen Mexico while being chased around the woods by Iguanas - ask Connie, she'll back me up on that.

If you have a fond memory of a bird sighting, please post a comment below.  I'll share those with other readers of the blog.  It will be fun for a change to read a story from someone else.

Dare I Say

We arrived home Sunday night - late.  Eight days in Belize.  178 species of birds.  52 life birds. That's 52 types of birds that I have never seen before plus the other 126 that I already knew but saw more of.  It was almost too much. There, I said it.  Almost too much.  It was really terrific.

I am only posting a few photos of birds that might interest you. Other pretty and interesting birds escaped my camera but not the list. 

How would you like to see this guy at your breakfast table?  Well, we saw him every morning eating the leftover Papaya that Victor put out on the fence. Collared Aracari:

Oh, and his breakfast companion too.

Then there was this bird that made us feel like we might be his breakfast.  Plumbeous Kite:
 

I managed to get a decent photo of Violicious Trogon that hung around the resort.  One of my favorite birds:

Some other birds that I did manage to get photos of are not the kind that people say "ooh" or "wow" about.  Dull or ordinary birds, but I photograph them when I can so that I can study the photos later for better identification and to learn more about them.

More later.  Lots of funny stories from the trip that I will try to post in coming days. 

Ambergris Caye

We planned to snorkel, dive and relax on the beach here in Ambergris Caye.  We couldn't find anything on the Inter-web about birding the island and our Belize field guides are not clear about describing occurrences of birds on the Cayes.. Well, we were pleasantly surprised!

First, there were the 13 Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring over the beach waiting for fish scraps. Then there are the Pelicans and Caspian Terns.  All birds that you would assume on a Caye (caye is what they call island or key down here).  But then, we went bombing around on our golf cart and saw warblers, vireos, orioles, woodpeckers and all kinds of birds that we didn't expect to see on the caye.  Here are some quick photos:

First is Mangrove Warbler.  It is listed as a subspecies of Yellow Warbler in some books.

This is a White-collared Seedeater.  Tiny little bird with a grosbeak beak.

More later.  I'm just happy to have Internet access.  Now back to drinking and laying about.  Suckers . . .

Getting Ready

This may be the last post for a week unless we have Internet access in Belize so I wanted to just check in with a few tidbits.

First, I forgot to tell you about the woodpeckers.  In 2 consecutive days this week, I saw all of the common woodpeckers possible in our area:  Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied, Pileated, Flicker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Second, the frost bitten Pelicans are ready to be released back to Chesapeake Bay this week according to Heidi at Tri-State Bird Rescue.  She told me that the water is warming up enough for the fish to come to the surface.  This is important for Pelicans as you know if you have ever seen them diving for food.  The Pelicans will be transported from Newark DE to the Chesapeake in a van, then transferred to a boat and taken out to some little island.  Pretty cool.

Third, we are off to Belize for a week. We will start in Ambergris Caye for snorkel/scuba/beach then off to Crystal Paradise Resort near San Ignacio.  We have been to Crystal Paradise a few years ago and loved it.

Anyway, I'll post if I get Internet access.  Stay tuned.

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.

March Madness

I feel sorry for all of you who had a bracket pool on the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Two of the Final Four teams are West Virginia and Butler. I never even heard of Butler. Nobody picked these teams to go past the first few rounds.  It has been exciting to follow little teams such as West Virginia and Northern Iowa as they slayed the big names.  It was disappointing to see Villanova knocked out in the second round though.
March has also proven to be an interesting time for bird life at our house.  We had our third surprise March visitor today.  I wasn't blogging when the first surprise showed up in the yard a few years ago - a Woodcock fluttering straight up and down and making peenting sounds (yes, I spelled that right - peent) for courtship.  I also didn't have a camera ready that day, so there are no photos of that day's event.

Last March, you may remember that I saw and photographed a Ring-necked Pheasant hanging around the pond.  Here is a link to that post and a photo refresher:

Well, today March Madness struck again!  I was washing up the breakfast dishes when Connie proclaimed "Oh - My - God.  There's a turkey at the feeder".  And sure enough, there she was pecking at the seed in the driveway as if it was her normal routine.  This is a photo through the kitchen window.  Kind of fuzzy, but I wanted you to see how close she was to the house:

She stayed 10 minutes or so before moving on to the yard.  She even stayed put as Connie went outside, got in the car and drove off.  She even stayed in the yard while I photographed her. 

Which team will win the NCAA tournament?  Its anyone's guess at this point.  Will I have my eyes trained on the yard in March?  Absolutely.  You just never know who will show up next.

2 Memories of the Same Day

2 sisters are at the same place at the same time, doing the same thing on the same day - together, all day and yet be storing very different data in their brains.  Here is an example. Di and I went to Palmyra Cove birding today. Below are 2 accounts of the same day. 

Diane:

I was up early but Linda was already gone to walk the dogs.  Linda made eggs and toast for breakfast.  I had scrambled and Linda had fried.  Then we went to Palmyra Cove for some birdwatching.  I drove the Mini because I wanted to get cheap Jersey gas while we were there. Linda took me the back way all through Abington, Cheltenham past the cemetery, and Philly to the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge - which was open and kept us sitting there for 15 minutes.  That reminded us of the time that we were late going to our grandmother's house when she lived in Cinnaminson and we got stuck at the bridge opening.  When we arrived and told her that the bridge was up she said that she knew.  We asked how she could know that the bridge was up and she said "because I called"  "Called who?" "Called the bridge.  When you were late, I thought the bridge might be up, so I called.  The man said that it just went down so I assumed you would be here soon."  That's Mom Mom for you.

Anyway, we finally got to Palmyra Cove and the police stopped us to say that we had to park in the overflow lot.  We parked and made funny, inappropriate comments about the other people in the parking lot then headed on to the trails. We saw some birds and walked for almost 2 hours. I had to find a bench to rest because my feet and back started to hurt. Then we decided to leave but I had to go to the bathroom in the nature center.  It's really nice inside.  We went to Wawa for the cheap Jersey gas, fountain Diet Cokes and sandwiches to take home for lunch.  I sent Linda in to order me a Wawa premium turkey, lettuce, tomato, pickles, little mayo on wheat, no toast; Lays Kettle Cooked chips with salt and vinegar, and a fountain Diet Coke.  When we left the Wawa, we passed the Savoy Caterers which used to be the Woodbine Inn where I used to go clubbing when I was in high school (don't tell my Mom) with my friends.  Linda said to pull into the Savoy because she saw some gulls in the creek behind the parking lot so we pulled in and decided to eat our sandwiches and look at the gulls.  How funny is that.

Linda:

Di didn't get out of bed until after I took the dogs to the field for a walk so we got a late start birding.  To make matters worse, the bridge was up and delayed us even more.  Then we couldn't get a parking spot in the main lot.

We finally got on the trail and immediately rung up 10 easy species. Then, Di saw something different which turned out to be male and female Eastern Meadowlark.  What a find!  We also got a great look at Swamp Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow (male in great plumage) and Eastern Towhee.  We didn't get Spotted Towhee that has been at the park all winter but we did get Golden-crowned Kinglet.  We ate lunch behind the Savoy to look at gulls but they were just Ring-billed, nothing unusual.

So, months or years from now we'll see a Meadowlark and I'll have to remind Di that she saw one that day when we went to Palmyra Cove.  And we'll see a sign for some Savoy diner somewhere in the world and she'll remind me about the time we sat behind the Savoy-that-used-to-be-the-Woodbine in Jersey eating our sandwiches which were Wawa premium turkey, with cheese which she didn't want ( I ordered it wrong) and gave to me, lettuce, tomato, pickles, little mayo on wheat; Lays Kettle Cooked chips with salt and vinegar because she likes them occassionally, and a fountain Diet Coke. Remember?

Weather Fit for a Duck

I thought Hurricanes and Monsoons were summer weather events.  If yesterday's weather wasn't a hurricane, then what was it?  A Nor'easter?  I guess so.  That didn't stop the bird nerds from going to check out ducks at Lake Galena (Peace Valley Park).  What a couple of idiots.  I packed the spotting scope, binoculars, camera, and iTouch into Lori's Shmellow (big Ford Expedition) and off we went.

It was already raining all day.  By the time we got to the lake it was literally coming down sideways.  There were 3 foot swells and whitecaps on the lake that made finding any ducks nearly impossible.  We parked down by the dam which is where the ducks and gulls like to congregate.  We did manage to see the 100+ Common Mergansers floating around but none of the other ducks reported on eBird.  We headed up to the top of the lake to see if some other ducks were taking shelter up there.  I even made Lori get out of the car and wade through ankle-deep water to get out to the bridge for a better view.  Nothing but Tree Swallows. Nothing.

We got back into the car and headed to Core Creek Park.  The weather got worse. We still didn't see anything.  By the time we headed home roads were flooded, trees were down and the local police were closing roads.  I had 3 detours and no good ducks. 

I guess the point of the story is that we could have stayed home but then we wouldn't have the experience.

Cape May - 59 Degrees and Sunny!

2 more life birds for me today in Cape May.  The first was Eurasian Wigeon. 2 males have been seen for weeks at the Light House pond.  There were more than 50 American Wigeon on the pond with their white foreheads and green heads.  Then there were the two with buffy foreheads against red/maroon heads.  We probably would never have seen them unless I read about them on CMBO's blog and eBird for weeks.  We really concentrated and picked through the others to see them.

The second life bird was Great Cormorant (coooomarant, as we say) at Poverty Beach.  Again, we saw these birds perched on pilings and diving for fish specifically due to the blogs and eBird alerts.  Wow, these birds are huge.  63" wing span (that's as tall as me). The Cormorants were swimming along side Red-throated and Common Loons and Black Scoters.  There was a King Eider reported but we didn't see it.  We would have needed more time or a good scope.

Other highlights include 2 Bald Eagles, a Northern Harrier, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, and close up looks at Red-breasted Merganser and Bufflehead. Of course, no camera with me today.  Oy.

Other birds that we missed which have been reported in Cape May lately are Black-headed Gull and Redhead Ducks. 

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.