Just a walk through the woods

Saturday morning, 11-26-11, I took an hour stroll around the property in Brockport with the nikon. I didn't see much, some black-capped chickadees, I heard some blue jays, american crows, and common ravens. Something overhead shooting by caught my attention, red-tailed hawk. I quickly raised my camera and snapped a few shots off. It's hard to get a good flight picture, and even harder when it is late fall, and no sun...

red-tailed hawk

The main reason I was out and about was to see what the deer sign situation was on the property this fall since I hadn't gotten out yet this year, so my bird list wasn't exactly long. The more popular trails were worn deep as usuall. Something caught my attention in the pine needles, a rib bone, and another, and  another, the more I kicked around the more I found. A vertebrae, a busted femur, a rat-gnawed pelvis, a shoulder blade, both lower mandibles, but no luck finding a skull. BUT, I had enough evidence to age the deer as a 6-7 month old. May have gotten sick, been shot and not recovered, taken out by coyotes, not too sure. 

 some ribs, back bone segments, joints, and lower right mandible of a white tailed deer

 Woodpecker holes in my front yard

On Sunday, 11-27-11, my dad, uncle Joe, and I went for a walk on game lands 44. We began our walk up a hollow called "pocket rocks" around 7:30 a.m. There is a dirt road that goes up this hollow, making the hike a little easier, but it is still no less than a hike. Beautiful scenery though!

Underground spring surfacing across the hollow 

another underground spring, which is dried up at the moment 

As I said, pocket rocks in no less than a hike, so if you are going to take it on,  you are going to need to take a few breaks.

Dad and uncle Joe taking a breather





If you have any parties with helium filled balloons, don't let them go...it's a real eye sore for outdoorsmen and conservationists...



We broke off of the road and started up an old trail that runs through "cub's crossing" between a thicket and a hillside.

 Dad walking up the trail through cub's crossing

 Self-grafted red maples in cub's crossing

 self-grafted trees in cub's crossing

Some people have told me that I am wasting time spraying for ticks in November. At that I will say, good luck with Lyme Disease. We were covered with them, COVERED!!! It is not uncommon to come in contact with these thirsty little buggers all year round in Pennsylvania, depending on weather conditions. Deer ticks are the carriers of the bacterial infection called Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis. This is a nasty infection for such a little bite. If you spend time in the woods, high grass, or mowing your yard, (I found a wood tick in my leg after mowing my grass near a tree line) I suggest reading up on ticks and tick prevention. Be sure to check reputable sites if you research online, cdc.gov is one of them. For repellent I use repel. It is in an orange can with a blue cap. I only found one tick on me and it was dying. Repel is a bit expensive, but I think it is well worth it. My cell bio teacher recomends repel also, trust her....shes a doctor..

 Deer tick on uncle Joe

After spending the day fumbling around on top of the mountain, we were headed back to the truck.

 Dad and uncle Joe headed down the trail

 Dad and uncle Joe coming down pocket rocks

Dad and uncle Joe coming down pocket rocks

I didn't do much birding this weekend while I was out. My head was geared towards the monday that was ahead, Pennsylvania's opening day of gun season. Which turns out wasn't successful..1 flying squirrel, 5 deer, 3 wild turkey, 2 ruffed grouse, and 2 white-breasted nuthatches were the highlights, can you guess who didn't have his camera with him!?



Thanksgiving sunset, tundra swan snow goose at DuBois Reservoir

While going to my house from my girlfriend Brooke's house for Thanksgiving dinner, I noticed that the sky was looking exceptionally colorful, and that we should take a quick drive on our property. While doing so, I watched my first Thanksgiving sunset, it was a beaut!

wasn't using the right filter for this shot, color is a bit off...

The next day, I had the pleasure of being at work from 4:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., dealing with the black friday hooligans. After that shift, I decided to see if there were any Tundra swans left at the DuBois Reservoir. I came to find that there were two tundra swans left, the immature snow with a big flock of canada geese, some mallards, mixed diver species, and a black duck.

Tundra Swan, note straight neck, black bill with yellow spot at base of upper mandible.

(double click to enlarge)

Immature Snow goose with canada geese

Distant shot of American black duck



Tundra Swans at the DuBois Reservoir

November 23, 2011 I stopped by the DuBois Reservoir before work to try and get a few wtarefowl shots, hopping that the weather had pushed some species down the night before. When I arrived around 11:00 am, i counted 96 Tundra swans. This was my biggest count of Tundra Swans ever. I was pretty excited to get a few good shots, and a video of the swans feeding. Among the swans were many ring-necked ducks, buffleheads, hooded mergansers, common loons, 1 red-throated loon, mallards, 1 american black duck, canada geese, 1 immature snow goose, pied-gilled grebes, and horned grebes. One common loon circled the reservoir for about 3 minutes, allowing for some decent flight photos.

Tundra swans

Tundra swans

Tundra swans

 Tundra swans

Tundra swans

Common Loon circling the reservoir

Mallards, canada goose, and immature snow goose

Here is a video of the tundra swans. My camera is for photography, not videography, so video quality is a little poor. My main purpose for the video was to give the reader a chance to see how many swans were present, and if you turn up the volume you can get a good idea of what a large flock of feeding tundra swans sounds like.

Red Tailed-hawks

Saturday, 11-19-11, I went to the original site of the Pennsylvania Ross Leffler School of Conservation, A.K.A. "The Game School" for some small game hunting. I saw 2 ruffed grouse, one from my truck which I couldn't get any photos of before he flushed, and one flushed low denying any shooting oppourtunity. I also observed many blue jays, american crows, american robins, and black-capped chickadees while at the Game School. I walked and worked the brush and hedge rows for about an hour before I left to meet my cousin on James Bond Road to see if we couldn't get into any ring-necked pheasants. On the way out, a small white-tailed buck was pushed by bear hunters and ran infront of my truck, and into the brush. Behind him was a confused doe, who just kinda stood around for a bit before running off in the opposite direction, allowing for a few photos.

White-tailed deer, doe

My cousin and I didn't have any luck, but we did see some songbird species, cedar waxwings, american robins, black-capped chickadees, and blue jays were a few. We only spent about an hour hunting because I had to get to work, but on my way home I pulled over, several times, to watch the red-tailed hawk migration. The peak of the migration is the first half of November, and they migrate the months of October and November, though can be found in Pennsylvania year round. This is the most common large hawk in most of North America, and is an adaptable feeder. Eating anything from reptiles, to mammals, amphibians, fish, and can be a scavenger when the going gets rough. Red-tailed hawks that occupy a dessert landscape can have a diet that is up to 50% snakes. In open country, this species tends to hunt from perches, but when in a forest setting will ambush prey from the air. The red-tailed hawk has well-protected feet and legs, allowing stalking of prey on the ground. The heavy scales on its legs help protect it from snake bites and other prey. They are also adaptive nesters, from rocky ledges, to cacti, building ledges, and transmission towers, this raptor will make itself at home. This information was found in "Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide" by The Audubon Society.

red-tailed hawk perched in a tree line on Game School Road

red-tailed hawk soaring in a thermal

(note the wrist patches that look like croissants or "commas", overall white underside, and the redish orange tail)

red-tailed hawk gliding

red-tailed hawk soaring in thermal

this photo shows the "headlights" on the foredge of the wings

red-tailed hawk gliding

this photo also shows the "headlights"

Red-tailed hawks can be fun to watch. I have seen them being mobbed by crows, fight an osprey for a fish, and fight each other over a deer carcass in the winter months when food isn't always easy to find. For more info on Red-tailed hawks and similar species, I found a few good websites.

http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/red-tailed_hawk

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-tailed_hawk/lifehistory

Ring-necked ducks, DuBois Reservoir

I would have to say, that the DuBois Reservoir, aside from Hawk Mountain and the Pymatuning Reservoir, is my favorite place to go birding. It's a great place to watch the waterfowl and waterbird migrations during the spring and fall. And during the summer, you can usually pick up a good number of song bird species. Around this time of year, you will see great numbers of ring-necked ducks, and a few other divers. I have been consistently seeing a good raft of divers every time I make it out for the past week or two, usually containing at least 100 ring-necked ducks and several other species of divers. Today, I saw over a dozen buffleheads, maybe a dozen hooded mergansers, an american black duck, a common merganser, a good number of canada geese, with an immature snow goose tagging along, a pied-billed grebe, and a few mallards along with the ring-necked ducks. When these birds are on the water, it can be difficult to get any good shots of them before they take off. But there isn't anything bad about an action shot...

Female buffleheads taking off

Two Male and two female buffleheads

There IS however something bad about overexposed out-of-focus action shots.....(prime examples right here)

Photography, wildlife photography especially, can be one of the absolute most dissapointing and frustrating hobbies that in all honesty can drive me insane, but sometimes when the planets align and somehow you accidently get that "perfect shot" out of pure luck, it makes the frustration completely worth it. I just really wish that happened more often, but it's nice to get outside.

Mallards, male trailing female

Tundra Swans at Kyle Lake

Tuesday, 11-115-11, I ran to the DuBois reservoir before class hoping that the rain had pushed some waterfowl down. I counted 5 american crows, 3 blue jays, 4 canada geese, 28 mallards, over 150 ring-necked ducks, a belted kingfisher male, and a few pied billed grebes, hooded mergansers, buffleheads, and rudy ducks.

Hooded margansers, male in back



Belted Kingfisher

While I was leaving the reservoir, I noticed a large number of geese coming over the tree line. So I managed to snap a few quick and sloppy photos, and pick get a count of the flock after they landed on the reservoir. 142 canda geese, and 1 immature snow goose made up the flock. I then hussled back to campus for class.

Canada Geese



After my biology class, I met my cousin Justin Marshall, and we went to Kyle Lake in Fallscreek to check for waterfowl. Again, nothing exciting. There was 1 pied-billed grebe on the lake. When we were walking back to the truck, we noticed a good flock of swans, which once were overhead were identified as tundra swans. There were 16 in this flock. Again, I managed to get a few quick and sloppy photos of the group.



Tundra Swan flock, the bird at the bottom right of the photo has been fitted with a neck collar (double click to enlarge)

We then made our way to the DuBois reservoir, where we found that the large flock of canada geese had left. The raft of diving ducks and mallards were still there though. We watched for a little while before leaving, I had another class to get to. It wasn't my best day of birding, but things should start picking up once I get more free time. 







Winchester Mountain

Saturday, 11-12-11, my dad and I went hunting, dad took his bow while I carried a shotgun for turkey. Due to school and work, I don't get out much, so I was really excited about this trip. I got up a bit after 4 a.m. and went to my dad's house. After we fueled up for the day with some venison sausage and fried potatoes, we were on our way. We arrived to State Game Lands 44 around 5:30 a.m. and started our climb up the "Winchester Trail." This is an old logging trail, from when the ghost town of Blue Rock was still around. We reached the top of the hill around 6:45, and by 7 I had my bird. A gobbler with an 8" beard and 3/4" and 7/8" spurs, my biggest gobbler yet!

                                                 dad and me, Winchester hill in the background

It was so early and the last day of the archery season in PA, I didn't want to spoil my dad's hunt. So I dropped my gear, and took my bird back to the truck, grabbed my camera bag, and made my way back up Winchester. On the way up, I ran into a flock of dark-eyed juncos and black-capped chickadees

 Black-capped chickadee

           everything was still covered in frost on my way back up

                  "the tunnel" an overhang of eastern hemlocks on the "Winchester Trail"

        this is about the halfway mark on the mountain

                 This memorial to a friend can be found at the spring at the top of Winchester

There are three beech trees at the spring with initials on them, this being the most scarred. In the middle of the carved graffitti you can see EJ '64, my great grandfather. The oldest date on the tree.


It took me about an hour and a half to get to the truck and back, which my I found surprising. Me and dad wondered through the woods on Winchester all morning,

Dad leading the way. I love how the snow gets thicker the higher you climb. It was a beautiful day on the mountain!!!

We ran into a few NICE buck rubs. This was one of the less impressive rubs we saw that day, notice the size of tree this monster gouged!?

It was around 11 a.m. by the time we decided to sit and have lunch. We found a good spot on a point where we could see a good distance, and keep watch for any deer. Being this close to a good rub line, I had my camera ready, and dad was on gaurd with his "Fox" recurve. We sat on the point for quite some time, the same location that I harvested my first turkey when I was 12. While there we observed quite a few species of birds. White-breasted nuthatches, blue jays, hairy woodpeckers, black-capped chickadees, a red-tailed hawk, and red-bellied woodpeckers all made an appearance.

                                                             Hairy woodpecker

                                                                 Hairy woodpecker
(note the black line separating the red patch on the head, which the similar downy woodpecker lacks)

                                                                     Hairy woodpecker

                                                          Red-bellied woodpecker

                                                                              Blue jay

Last Saturday was absolutely a success, I got a nice bird, a few pictures that didn't turn out half bad, and spent some time hanging out with dad, the way we enjoy it.