Birding with Brooke

School has really taken the toll this year on my outdoor time, so last Saturday I decided that it would be a good idea to get out. My girlfriend Brooke was visiting for the weekend so it was nice to spend some time with her outside as well. We first hit the Centre Furnace Duck Pond to see the locals.

 

Mallard

Redheads

Ring-necked Ducks

Buffleheads

Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Duck

Common Goldeneye

Mallard

 

I was comparing and contrasting all the ducks that were present, and what makes them different for Brooke, when a couple of American Coots started to chase each other around, which made for a few action shots.

 

American Coots

 

American Coot

 

There was also a Canada Goose with a roughed up wing, I have seen this bird the past several times visiting the duck pond.

 

Canada Goose

Canada Goose

 

We left the Centre Furnace Duck Pond and headed for Bald Eagle State Park where we saw a TON of Red-breasted, common, and hooded mergansers, ring-billed gulls, a pair of common loons, tundra swans, and an adult bald eagle. Most birds observed were distant, making it hard to get good photographs.

 

Tundra Swans

Common Merganser

Common Loons

Red-Breasted Mergansers

 

Also present at the park, were both the men and womens Penn State University CREW.

 

Mens PSU CREW

Womens PSU CREW

 

There was not a wide variety of bird species at Bald Eagle State Park, but my student was very attentative.

 

Brooke, she hardly ever complains when we go out!

 

On our way back to my apartment, I noticed a light morph Northern Harrier along I 99 near the I 99 / Route 150 overpass. So I decided to stop for a quick photo.

 

Norhtern Harrier

 

On Saturday the 16, the PSU Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences 407 Ornithology class went on a birding trip to Hadleman's Island. I only had taken a few pictures during the trip due to the bad weather, but here is one of at least 200 mallards flocking to corn stuble. I had never seen this many ducks on dry land in Pennsylvania up to this point. there were also some american Black Ducks, and Northern Pintails mixed in the flock.

 

Dabblers flocking to corn stubble

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



3 Wise Men

When I was younger, my dad once told me, big bucks don't get big by being stupid. I believe that there is allot of truth to that statement. I also believe that it goes with more animals than just deer. As some of you may have already found out for yourselves from hunting, photography, or birding, that birds can be the smartest critters there is. I think that this is especially true for wild gamebirds. It seems odd to me that you can search and search for these things, and come up without a trace; they disappear, they can be invisible, they are ghosts. Yet you look out of the kitchen window, and they can be found digging up your backyard in search for food. Over spring break, I found that these three gobblers spent some of their time in the afternoon scratching around the Northern Red Oak tree in my back yard.

 

Though these birds are leaving themselves vulnerable in the open like this, there is no doubt in my mind that they are very wise.

These boys got some ropes on em' eh!?

 

 

One of them seems to have a busted, and slightly deformed spur. It could be from getting shot, maybe an unsuccessful attack from a predator, or even disease. Or maybe he was just in a gobbler scuffle. Either way, the leg knob that this guy is yielding gives him character, if you ask me.

 

You can see the unusual spur on the right birds' right leg as these two do their turkey scratchin' line dance.

Here is a better view of the spur.

 

I watched these birds for a good ten minutes, how one bird would take watch as the other two had their heads down picking, taking turns watching their perimeter, scratching at the ground, sending each other certain vocalizations which I'm sure each had their own meaning.

 

Two birds scratchin', with one always keeping watch.

 

These guys seemed to be more concerned with the corn kernels and bird seed that they were finding, rather than me and my camera; as soon as I started to get a little bit restless, they had had enough of my presence, and the 3 wise men made their retreat back to the safety in the stand of hardwood which they came from.

 

The last of the three birds bringing up the rear, as they scurried back into the forest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Gettin my Waterfowlin on

This afternoon I stopped by the Centre Furnace Duck Pond to see what was new and exciting, and to greet me was the Great-Blue Heron.

 

Great-Blue Heron

Great-Blue Heron

 

Also present were several mallards, canada geese, gadwall, ring-necked duck, a handful of american coot, the usual.

 

American Coots

Ring-Necked Duck with Canada Geese

Redhead

 

This muskrat kept me company while I was shooting the birds too!

 

Muskrat

 



Centre Furnace Duck Pond's 4th

This past Saturday afternoon, I went to check out the 4th ever Double-Crested Cormorant at the Centre Furnace Duck pond. While I was there, the  bird just hung out on the opposite bank with the canada geese and american coots.

Canada Geese, Mallards, and American Coots

Double-Crested Cormorant

Other birds present were white-breasted nuthatch, american black ducks, ring-necked duck, and gadwall.

Gadwall

I also saw a red squirrel, two grey squirrels, and a muskrat, which was a challenge to get photos of.

Muskrat

After hanging around the duck pond for about fifteen minutes, I headed for S. Nixon Road to search for songbirds, I'm not sure why due to the lack of snow. But I thought that it might be worth a try. I pulled off of Whitehall Road heading SE on S. Nixon, and spotted a larger bird in one of the trees adjacent to the farm house on the left. I pulled off and put the bins on it, and found that it was a mature Cooper's Hawk, a female I believe judging by size.

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Copper's Hawk

I sat and watched the accipiter for about ten minutes preen it's feathers and watch over the fields. And that was it....the rest of my time on S. and N. Nixon was a bust....nothing happened.. BUT, I always enjoy getting looks at a raptor, so it was worth it!



First Birds of 2013

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.

 Horned Larks

Horned Larks and Snow Buntings

Along with the snow birds on S. Nixon Road were some Northern Cardinals, Dark-eyed Juncos, Black-capped Chickadees, and the like.

 Northern Cardinal

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.

Red-Tailed Hawk

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.

 The corn silo provided a resting place off of the ground for some of the Rock Doves

Rock Dove

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.

 American Kestrel

American Kestrel

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.

 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.

Red-Tailed Hawk

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.

Northern Harrier

Northern Harrier

 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.

One of the many 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.

Male Hairy Woodpecker

I'm going to try to get out in the morning, fingers crossed for finches!

Another look at Wagner Road's RLHA and the last bird for 2012

Late yesterday morning I recieved a text stating that Rough-legged hawks perch higher in trees, reffering to the picture that I took of the hawk on December 28th. I began to question myself on the I.D. of the bird. Knowing that it would drive me nuts if I didn't, I grabbed my camera bag and went back to Wagner road to try and get a second look at the bird. I found the bird right away very near where I saw it the other day. It was about 250 yards off of the road, quiet a snipe for a 55-300mm. Luckily, the bird flew ito the same tree that I photographed it before. Even though the bird was still about one hundred yards away, you can see in the photo that the bird has a white undertail with dark bands and a black terminal band. Telling me that this bird, assuming that it is the same bird that I saw on the 28th, is a rough-legged hawk.

 

 

Rough-legged Hawk

 

Rough-legged Hawk

 

I actually had to wait for about ten minutes for the RLHA to either fly closer to provide better veiws, or just fly in general so I could get looks at the upper and under wing patterns. While waiting, there were countless crows, mourning doves, and songbirds flying over and foraging along side the roads.

 

 

American Crow

 

This savannah sparrow was haning out around my jeep for quite some time, keeping me distracted from the RLHA.

 

Savannah Sparrow

 

My girlfriend was coming to State College for New Year's Eve, so I had to hurry up and get back to my place to cook dinner. When I got home, I heard a chip in a tree outside of my appartment. My last bird of 2012 was..........

 

A Male House Finch