Appalachian Exposure: A great day outside!!!

Today after class, I couldn't help but go birding. I decided to run to Sabula Lake to check for a Northern Pintail that I heard of a couple weeks ago. When I got to the lake, there was no pintail. However, it was not a wasted trip. There was very little ice on the lake, and on the edge of the piece that was left rested two common mergansers. Both new ticks for my year list.

Common Mergansers

Male on left

I was not bored while at Sabula Lake, there was a raft of 47 Hooded Mergansers fishing right off my aunt's dock. There were also over a dozen mallards, and 4 canda geese.

Male Hooded Merganser with a species of sunfish in his mouth. The two hoodies in the top left corner of the photo were fighting over a fresh catch also.

Two male hoodies, my favorite species of North American Merganser

Male and female hoodies

Part of the raft of hooded mergansers.

While on my aunt's dock, I must have made the canadas nervous because they flew off shortly after my arrival.

One of the 4 canada geese

I also saw 5 turkey vultures and a red-tailed hawk share a thermal from the dock.

Notice the red head, and silver underside of the primary and secondary wingfeathers.

Turkey vultures have a deep "dihedral" when soaring. In other words, if the wings aren't flapping they form a distinct "V"

I decided since Sabula was open, I would check out the DuBois Reservoir. I drove by the Great Blue Heron Rookery on the way, and did not see either of the two Bald Eagles. I heard a rumor that one was capture and relocated, I can't think of any GOOD reason for this, especially since Bald Eagles mate for life. Here is a photo from February 20th of one of the eagles in the nest.

One of the bald eagles on the nest

I stopped by the wetlands along Platt Road, and only picked up a few species. It was pretty slow here, but I snapped a few pictures of this muskrat hut.

Muskrat huts are essentially a pile of mud and cattail stalks

When I arrived at the reservoir I was very surprised to see almost no ice on the water. I counted 7 male ring-necked ducks, 18 canda geese, and 4 mallards right of the bat from the dam breast.

Male ring-necked ducks

I started for the Anderson Creek end of the reservoir and noticed a large number of birds foraging around the cattails. I pulled my truck over and parked and started picking through the flock. Mallard, mallard, mallard, hoodie, mallard, canada, mallard.....PINTAIL! After two weeks of keeping an eye open for this bird, I finally got him. Of course since my sighting is in a different area, two weeks after I heard about the original sighting, I can only assume that this is the same bird. I watched him tip up and dabble and interact with the mallards, geese, and mergansers. The guy who told me that a Northern Pintail was in the area, Dan R., was actually birding the reservoir also and driving buy. I flagged him down and he stopped to check it out for himself. We birded the reservoir breast and causeway for about 45 minutes. I was VERY happy with this tick on my county and year list, and the pictures didn't turn out half bad either!!!

Male Norhtern Pintail

Male norhtern pintail next to mallards

Male northern pintail, female mallard.

4 Canadas taking flight

Dan had to take off, and I wanted to head to the Anderson Creek end of the reservoir for a bit. When I got there, I got this picture of a pair of mallards.

Male and femal mallard

I heard a familiar songbird in the shrub scrub by the road, so I nelt down in the weeds and listened. I couldn't put a face to the voice, so I imitated the sound. The bird came right in, a beautiful male Northern Cardinal.

Male Northern Cardinal

This bird was determined to find me. I kind of felt bad while watching how hard it was searching for it's companion, knowing that he would never find it. Made for some good photographs though!!

On my way home I stopped by the Tannery Dam and counted 114 canada geese and 30 mallards. It seems that spring migration has started. I took my detour route home over gameland road, and found this female ring necked pheasant. Not exactly sure how to explain this one....