The search continues

This morning before class, I read that there was a pair of blue-winged teal at the Centre Furnace duck ponds, a good find considering that it is almost December here in PA! So I decided that after work I would go and check these birds out. When I arrived, I saw the same birds that I did last Tuesday. Mallard, canada geese, american black ducks, american coot, northern shovelers, ring-necked ducks, and the belted kingfisher. I started scanning through the mess of ducks, and found the teal swimming with another species of duck. I'll admit, at first I was stumped. But after mulling it over for a minute, I concluded that this bird was a female american wigeon.

 

 

Blue-winged teal, mallards, american black duck, and american wigeon

mallards and american wigeon

 

mallards and american wigeon

 

I rather enjoy getting to see the wigeon. I love the white forehead, blue bill, green eye patch combination, in males that is. I kept hearing a whistle, which I heard Tuesday and could have sworn northern pintail, but couldn't find one in the flock then or this afternoon. I observed the ducks mingle for about twenty minutes while taking these horribly out-of-focus pictures. It was going to be dark soon, and I hadn't eaten anything yet, so I began walking back to the jeep. At the north end of the pond I heard the whistle one more time, and stopped dead in my tracks. I turned and looked into the crowd of ducks, one sticking out significantly. This bird was facing me, yet had his head twisted around preening, revealing a snowy white breast. When he turned his head around, I quickly reached for the camera. One of my all time favorite dabbling ducks seen in Pennsylvania, the northern pintail.

 

Drake northern pintail with mallards

Drake northern pintail with mallards

Drake northern pintail with mallards

 

I do not see nearly enough of these sleek, well groomed looking birds. The brilliantly blue streaked bill, chocolate brown head with a dramatically contrasting white breast and parallel neck stripes leading to a back of elegantly slate margined plumage and a long slender "pintail" always makes this bird an absolute joy to see. This bird made my quick trip to the duck pond a success.

 

 

In search of ducks

Among my favorite groups of birds, ducks are definitely in the top portion of the list. I really am not sure why, maybe it is their beauty, maybe because of the physiological diversity among the breeds, or it is usually fun to watch them and to listen in on their conversations, or possibly because among all birds that I have handled they are the most polite. Whatever the case may be, I really enjoy my waterfowl. Speaking of ducks, have you purchased your duck stamp this year...? By purchasing a duck stamp, or two, at your local post office you can help aid waterfowl conservation efforts that are beneficial to all species of wildlife, not just ducks. And while you are in the conservation spirit, head over to Ducks Unlimited and sign up for a membership, or make a gift! Your donations are tax deductible, and 81% of every dollar goes to waterfowl education and conservation.

 

http://www.ducks.org/

 

OK, enough preaching. So I caught wind of some northern shovelers and a pair of gadwall that were hanging out at the Centre Furnace duck ponds last Monday night. I had an extremely slow spring as far as waterfowl goes due to the weather, and thought that it would be good to get looks at these birds. So Tuesday before work, I decided to check it out. As soon as I got out of my car, a flock of about 20 canada geese were flying overhead, and set their wings as if they were going to land on the pond. They must have seen me walking towards the water, because after contemplating the landing, they decided to flare away from the pond and keep going. A small group of five birds broke off of the main flock, circled, and came back in for a second look, setting their wings and dropping their feet as if to land.

 

Canada Geese coming in for a landing

 

 These birds also flared, and decided to move on to the next roosting opportunity.

 

The honking of the overhead geese must have got things a bit stirred up on the water. Before I could even see the water surface, there were ducks taking off every which way, exploding into flight in groups of a half dozen, give or take. These groups didn't fly more than one circle around the pond before landing again. I got low to the ground, and crept up to the brush along side of the pond to find a good number of ducks. I quickly started scanning through them, and the first bird I noticed other than the mallards was the coot.

 

American Coot among mallards

American Coot among mallards

 

There was a lot going on, ducks squawking, muttering, and a few chasing each other for a couple of laps around the pond.

 

Mallards

Drake mallard

 

I directed my attention to a pair of canada geese. My grandfather loved geese and ducks also. His reasoning was that an animal that picks up and flies thousands of miles and hangs out for a couple of months, then turns around and flies back out of pure instinct, is fascinating. I would have to say that I completely agree with him.

 

Pair of canada geese

 

While I was watching the geese, something was coming through the group of mallards in quite a hurry. Out of the crowd, pushing other ducks aside, was this little female ring-necked duck. Evidently, queen of the pond.

 

Female ring-necked duck

 

She wasn't swimming away from anything, so I started to scan the water in front of her to see what she was going for.

 

Male ring-necked duck

 

After catching up with her male, she calmed down as they relaxed, paddling around within the crowd.

I continued scanning through the group of birds, and picked out a northern shoveler. After finding one, the rest of the shovelers just came to me, 4 in total.

 

Female northern shoveler

Female northern shoveler

 

I thought that it was nice to see a good group of american black ducks as well. Back home, they are usually just in pairs when I see them. I counted 16 individual american black ducks, plus one black duck mallard hybrid.

 

Northern shoveler, mallard, and american black ducks

Northern shoveler, mallards, and american black ducks

 

At the south end of the pond where the northern shovelers seemed to like hanging out, was the Gadwall pair.

 

Drake gadwall, mallard pair, and drake northern shoveler

Drake gadwall and mallards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Thanksgiving Break

Over my short Thanksgiving break from classes, my girlfriend Brooke and myself did a little bit of what I like to call lazy birding. We were out and about the Sunday afternoon before Thanksgiving, and decided to stop at the local coffee shop and grab a brew. I happened to know the barista that was working, and we happen to be in the same major. We were getting caught up on our bird talk, and she began telling me sightings of ruddy ducks, great egrets, and bald eagles in the area. As you can imagine, the gears were turning as to where would be a good place to make a quick stop and maybe pick up a few ticks from the car, while Brooke's mind was probably gearing towards the American Eagle catalog. As we were leaving the coffee shop, I told Brooke how I'd like to stop at a few of my favorite spots before heading back home. She didn't object, so I took this as a green light and we were on our way to what I thought would be the best place to lazy bird from the car, of course, the DuBois reservoir. As we arrived I saw a lonesome duck on the water, and at first glance said American Black duck. I didn't give the bird too much attention after that, as I was trying to turn ring-necked ducks into scaup, canada geese into cackling or snow geese, and anything flying over into a non-passerine.

 

A good raft of ring-necked ducks, about 125 in this group

Mallards at the reservoir

 

 

Scanning the opposite shore line for anything good, and the middle of the reservoir for maybe a red throated loon, I was getting a little bit discouraged. It took a birder named Mike to park beside us and say black-scoter, and the american black duck dove under water, for me to get a little interested in what was going on. I put the bins on the bird and sure enough, after giving it a serious look, was a female black scoter. Boy did I feel stupid.

 

Female Black Scoter

Female Black Scoter

Female Black Scoter

 

Mike and I discussed the recent sightings in the area, as well as a few exciting experiences of our own. After a few minutes he was on his way, telling me of a spruce stand that was holding good numbers of crossbills that was near the reservoir before taking off. I was familiar with the area, so I had to check it out. After a short drive we arrived at the spruce stand to only find black capped chickadees, ultimately turning the search for the crossbills into a bust. I was happy however with the scoter sighting, and I think that I may be getting Brooke warmed up to this strange "birding" thing.

 

The afternoon of Thanksgiving, Brooke was on her way to work 2-6 at the hospital, and I was on my way to a pine stand on the boarder of Jefferson and Elk counties. I needed to see a crossbill. After spending about an hour in the area, the only thing that caught my interest was this single red-breasted nuthatch. I know birding is typically better in the mornings and evenings rather than afternoon but c'mon....I must really be out of practice..

 

Red breasted nuthatch

Red breasted nuthatch

 

I watched the nuthatch pick at the pine cones for a few minutes before it tired of my camera shutter and nuthatch imitations, and flew off.

 

I didn't spend as much time birding last week as I had hoped and planned, but when do we ever? Saturday I will start a new job, freeing up my day time, and allowing me to get back out into the woods! For now, I'm off to get some looks at the Northern Shoveller and Gadwall pairs that were reported yesterday! I hope that everyone's Thanksgiving break was as relaxing, but perhaps a little more productive, than mine was!

 



Need an asprin....?

Ever wonder how a woodpecker builds a cavity for nesting..?

Check out this video clip of a Pileated Woodpecker making a new home!

 Notice how it is using it's tail feathers to help stabilize itself on the tree.

You would think that these things' brains would rattle loose!!

Skip about half way through to get to the good stuff.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFrrA5lVkRQ

RECAP

Greetings birders and bloggers from all corners! I hope this post finds you, or you find this post rather, in good health, high spirits, and long plentiful checklists!

As for myself, I have REALLY let myself down this fall as far as birding. I haven't done any serious birding in months!!! 

Last October, a ring-necked duck was being reported at a local water body here in state college, and reporting it as a rare. I had my girlfriend staying for a few days, and we had some time to kill, so I thought that we could go try and get some looks at this bird. As soon as we got there we were greeted with numerous mallards and a pair of canada geese, swimming quickly towards the bank, climbing up onto the grass, and coming within a couple of feet from us hoping for a free handout. I thought that this was a great opportunity to get some great mallard close ups.

 

Male and Female Mallards

 

Female close up

 

Female close up

 

Male close up

 

After spending some time with the mallards, I remembered what we had come in search of, and started to scan the water surface and nooks and crannies in the shore line for the diver. All alone on the opposite side of the pond, hanging out in a snag, was the star of the show, a drake ring-necked duck.

 

Male ring-necked duck

 

It was starting to get late, and I had the feeling that my companion for the evening was getting bored, so we headed for GIANT to get things to cook dinner. I thought that it was a good  "birding ice-breaker" for my girlfriend, maybe she won't mind coming with me more often...?

 

About a week after the search for the ring-necked duck, I was looking for a continuing group of green winged teal and a northern shoveler. After walking and searching for the water body that they had been reported on for about a half hour, I finally found it. I began walking down into the valley where the retaining pond was. Flushing several song sparrows and red-winged black birds from the thick thistle weeds and brush along the way.

 

Song Sparrow

 

As I got closer to the water, the red-winged blackbirds were NOT having it, and started aggressively calling and flying over.

 

A not-so-happy male red-winged blackbird

 

These RWBB were making me nervous. I knew that the ducks, if they were even still there, knew that something was wrong, that these squawking birds were not making a production for the sake of practicing for a Broadway musical. I got as low to the ground as possible, crawling on all fours with my camera bag on my back when necessary. I heard movement in the water, I could see ripples on water's surface. I crept around the edges of the cat tails, listening to the chatter of nervous ducks just ten feet away on the other side of the thick vegetation. I stopped where the cat tails parted, and gave me a clear view of the water. Just then, four green wing teal came around the spit of grasses. Spotting me, they exploded into the air, wings and water making quiet a racket. I snapped this one shot as they lifted off.

 

Green wing teal exploding into flight

 

Knowing that these birds had been here for several days, I grabbed the nearest cover that I could find and waited for them to come back. In doing so, the female northern shoveler nervously flushed from the cat tails. I dug in and waited, and sure enough after about a minute they all came back.

 

Green wing teal coming in for a landing

Female northern shoveler coming back to rest

 

These birds all landed in the same place that they took off, the other side of the vegetation that I could not get looks at. I hung out there for a few minutes, listening to their grunts and skwauks of a conversation. There were seven teal and one shoveler in total, one teal revealed herself for a brief moment and allowed me to get the bins on her, and snap a quick photo.

 

Female green winged teal

 

I had a low flyover while I was sneaking out of the area, one that I am not quiet used to being from a one stop light town!

 

 

 

 

 

Again, Why Birds.....?

It has been WAY too long since my last post, or trip outside with my nikon in general.....

BUT, to make up for lost time, and followers, I will post a link to a video sent to me by one of my former professors a couple of years ago. I have it saved in a folder in my webmail.....because it's awesome..and this is one of the many reasons that make birds, especially raptors, awesome...ENJOY!!

http://wimp.com/hawkssee