Scotia Barrens Provides Again

It seems that almost everytime I go spend time at the Scotia Barrens game lands, I get a new year tick. So this evening I decided to make a quick stop at the 10-acre pond, after spending some time at Colyer Lake watching the osprey hunt that is.

 

 Osprey with a yellow-perch.

This is one of three osprey that were present at Colyer this evening.

 

I left Colyer when the thunder storm hit and made my way to Scotia's 10-acre pond, stopping on Circleville Road to check out a group of ducks that were dabbling in the cornfields. 3 canada geese, 7 mallards, 2 blue-winged teal, and 7 wood ducks were present.

 

Blue-winged teal pair.

The wood ducks, being wood ducks, retreated to the cover of the corn stuble before I could get a shot.

 

When I got to the 10-acre pond I was greated by many red-winged blackbirds as usual. Also present were white-throated sparrow, eastern towhee, american goldfinch, mallard, canada geese, and solitary sandpiper.

 

Eastern towhee pair, male on right.

White-throated sparrow

 

I also had great up close looks with blue gray gnatcatchers, a tick for my year list, which made for awesome photos. I just wish the lighting would have been a bit more cooperative.

 

Blue gray gnatcatcher

 

 



Recent Happenings In Pennsylvania

I haven't been able to do a whole lot of serious birding or spend much time outdoors for a while, but here and there I have been stopping at local birding hotspots when there are gaps in my schedule, and even got away for a weekend camping trip last week. I haven't posted in a while, so here is a recap.

 

On April 10th, I made a quick stop at the Toftrees Pond in State College searching for a pair of great egrets that were reported a day prior. There were no egrets when I got there, but I did see plenty of tree swallows, wood ducks, a yellow-rumped warbler, and an osprey.
 

Tree Swallows perched in the Toftrees Pond snag

 

 Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warbler

 

I left the Toftrees pond a went to Whipple Dam searching for the "Blue" Snow Goose that was reported the morning prior. Again, I dipped on the target bird, though I did get great looks at this Osprey hunting.

 

An Osprey with dinner

 

I left Whipple Dam for the 10-acre pond at Scotia Barrens game land. Not much was happening here, but the herps were very active due to the on and off rain that we had been getting that day.

 

Red Spotted Newt

"Red Eft" phase

 

 

The weekend of April 13th was the opening day of trout season in Northern Pennsylvania, so Friday afternoon I headed home to pack up for a camping trip that I had been planning for about a month. After I packed up all my gear, my girlfriend and I took a quick ride to Halton along the Clarion River, where we got great views of a pair of red-breasted mergansers.

 

Female Red-Breasted Merganser

 

Male Red-Breasted Merganser

 

The next morning, a friend of mine and I headed North to Sinnemahoning State Park for some fishing! Though we didn't catch any trout, we did see some birds! Common loons, double-crested cormorants, mallards, blue-winged teal, bald eagle, and osprey all made an apearance. I only had my point and shoot with me on my kayak, and since we didn't catch much of anything photo worthy, this is the only photo that is interesting enough to share.

 

Me testing out my new Old Town Kayak, and giving the sign of approval!!!

 

Last week we had some rough weather in State College, so I spent alot of time on school projects, though I did have a close encounter with an Eastern Towhee at the Scotia Barrens game lands on the 16th.

 

Male Eastern Towhee

 

This past weekend, I took my girlfriend to the Scotia Barrens shooting range to watch American Woodcocks in their courtship displays. While there, we were treated with many eastern towhees, a blue headed vireo, and a whip-poor-will calling, along with two american woodcock. Here is the best picture that I was able to get of one of the American Woodcock in courtship display.

 

American Woodcock

 

This evening, I had a pretty exciting hour of birding at the Scotia Barrens 10-acre pond after class. When I arrived, I noticed both greater and lesser yellowlegs foraging, lesser being a first of year bird for me. I quickly dropped to the ground and began crawling out onto a spit that jutted into the wetland, getting closer to the birds to get a better look.

 

Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater on the left.

 

The Lesser Yellowlegs flushed and began to forage to my left.

Lesser Yellowlegs

 

I turned back to see what flushed the Lesser Yellowlegs, and standing by the Greater Yellowlegs was a Saolitary Sandpiper, another tick for my year list!

 

Greater Yellowlegs and Solitary Sandpiper, yellowlegs on the left.

 

A Killdeer then flew overhead landing on the opposite bank, offering great looks.

 

Killdeer

 

The Lesser Yellowlegs that flushed to my left had made its way towards me pretty quick, which offered great photo opportunies!

 

Lesser Yellowlegs cruisin' the shore

Lesser Yellowlegs

 

The bird had seemed to find something to snack on, but was having difficulties gaining control of the prey. After a short struggle, the yellowlegs pulled this tasty leach from the water, thrashed it around a bit, then swallowed it whole. 

Lesser Yellowlegs with its catch

 

The Greater Yellowlegs was also on the prowl for dinner.

 

Greater Yellowlegs with a small fish

 

After the meal, the greater yellowlegs began to bathe in the shallow water of the pond.

 



Greater Yellowlegs bathing

 

And then took a nap

Greater Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs resting

 

By this time, the Solitary Sandpiper had gotten used to my presence, and began to forage a little closer to where I had been laying for the past twenty minutes.

 

Solitary Sandpiper

 

The Canada Geese were being very territorial this evening, and were chasing each other around the pond for most of the time that I was there.

 

Canada Goose

Canada Geese

 

I had an Accipiter sp. flyover which I did not get an ID on, but judging buy size I would say it was a Cooper's Hawk. I also heard a Broad-winged hawk's T-shirt call, several eastern towhees, red-winged blackbirds, common grackle, wood duck flyovers, and a first of year Green Heron.

 

Green Heron

 

It was a fairly productive evening.....as far as birding goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Banding: Day 2

Yesterday was my second day of banding at the Arboretum at Penn State. I was not expecting to do to well, assuming that there was snow on my Jeep before I left my apartment at 6:30 am, my thermometer read 25 degrese, and there were constant hand numbing wind gusts. Our first round of net checks at about 7:25 surprised us with several birds, including 2 fox sparrows!

 

Fox Sparrows

 

Throughout the day we caught more birds than I expected, including dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, american robins, and a northern "yellow-shafted" flicker. This was a first for our bander in charge, who has banded thousands of birds.

 

Josh taking a wing measurement of the Northern Flicker

Northern "yellow-shafted" flicker

Ten points to the person that guesses why this is a "yellow-shafted" flicker...

 

The day ended early due to high wind and cold tempereatures, after all our main concern while doing any kind of field work is the well fare of the animal and environment. So we closed the nets at 9:30, making our last birds of the day 2 american robins.

 

I wasn't wuite ready to go home, so I checked out the Centre Furnace Duck ponds for anything exciting. There wasn't much other than mallards, ring-necked ducks, canada geese, and american coots, though I did pick up golden-crowned kinglet, and snapped a few pictures of northern mockingbirds picking at berries and an american goldfinch.

 

Northern Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird

American Goldfinch

 

This pair of canada geese were upstream of the pond at what seemed to be a potential nesting site. It is amazing how camoflauge these birds can be when they have their heads down, trying to remain undetected.

 

Canada goose in stealth mode

Canada goose

 

I will be back at it first thing tomorrow morning setting mist nets, Saturday morning as well. Hopefully we can get some good birds banded!! Take care and check back!!

 

 



Banding Season is Upon Us!!!

Here at Penn State, some of my coleagues, classmates, other volunteers, graduates, and myself have been anticipating the start of spring banding at the Arboretum at Penn State. Last Thursday was the first official day of the banding season, it would have been the Tuesday prior but it was cancelled due to weather. The first bird that I banded this year was...

 

A Dark-eyed Junco

 

We caught several juncos, black-capped chickadees, american robins, and a white throated sparrow last Thursday. I was not at the banding station Saturday, but some highlights were fox sparrow and 13 cedar wax wings!

 

Last weekend I was at home getting some things together for an upcoming camping trip. I got to do a little birding in DuBois Pa while I was in town. Nothing to exciting, most water was still frozen over, though I did see this adult bald eagle fly over while I was checking out the wetlands on beaver drive.

 

Adult Bald Eagle soaring over Beaver Drive

 

I had more than a dozen species while on Beaver Drive, with lots of canada geese, commonn grackles, and red-winged blackbirds. One of these canadas stood out from the rest.

 

Canada Goose

 

The canadas were all stirred up, chasing each other away from mates and claiming resting areas along the banks.

Canada Goose pair.

 

On my way to the DuBois Reservoir, to find out that it was frozen over, I saw a Red-tailed Hawk being harassed by a couple of american crows.

 

Red-tailed Hawk and foe.