My job as a Community Assistant kept me from doing any birding on January 1st. I had an appointment back home in Brockway, Pennsylvania at 1:00 in the afternoon on the 2nd, so I got up at 7:30 and did some early morning birding before going home. I decided to hit North and South Nixon Roads in hopes of seeing some sparrows, snow buntings, horned larks, maybe some raptors, and other song bird species. The first birds that I saw were big flocks of horned larks, with some snow buntings mixed in.
Along with the snow birds on S. Nixon Road were some Northern Cardinals, Dark-eyed Juncos, Black-capped Chickadees, and the like.
A flyover Red-Tailed Hawk didn't seem to cause the songbirds any stress, as they continued to forage in the shrub scrub and corn stubble.
After birding Nixon Roads for about an hour, I wanted to go to Wagner Road and check for the Rough-Legged Hawk and any other raptors. The first thing that I noticed was the large amount of Rock Doves at the farm on Wagner.
Perched on an electric pole was an adult male American Kestrel, overseeing the Rock Dove activities. American Kestrels come back to my family's property every year. I really enjoy watching them go after field mice or even large insects.
On the opposite side of the road, where I have seen the bird in the same tree on two other occasions, was the Rough-Legged Hawk.
After watching the RLHA in hopes for seeing something cool to happen for about ten minutes, I made my way to the Centre Furnace Duck Ponds to check for some waterfowl. Right after pulling out of Wagner Road and onto 322, this Red-Tailed Hawk sitting on the side of the road got my attention. And I normally don't pass up any kind of photo opp that presents itself such as this one, even in bad lighting.
When I arrived at the duck ponds, I found a ridiculously amount of canada geese. With the geese were mallards, an american black duck here and there, the male ring-necked duck, a few american coots and four gadwall. I froze out quick at the duck pond, and I had to get going to get to my appointment back home in time, so I took off.
On Friday, January 4th, I didn't do any serious birding. I did go for a quick drive around the property back home though. I didn't really see anything, except for this Northern Harrier.
I took a quick drive through a nearby spruce stand on Coder Road looking for Crossbills. I found none, but I did find some sparrows, cardinals, red-breasted nuthatch, and LOTS of black-capped chickadees.
I spent the late morning and early afternoon hanging out at my dads house, looking out the back window for birds now and then. For not having any feeders up, alot of cool birds were out there, like a tufted titmouse or this hairy woodpecker.
I'm going to try to get out in the morning, fingers crossed for finches!
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