Pymatuning State Park

So I'm FINALLY going to post the pictures from my weekend fishing at the Pymatuning Reservoir, a week later. My dad and I arrived at camp Friday night, April 27th around ten pm. Needless to say, we didn't get to any fishing. So we got settled in, and hung out around camp.

A plaque I made for camp

My grandpa had a camp in Linesville for years, and my dad would take us up here as much as he could when we were little. We had some really great trips up here, bringing home MANY walleye, perch, and crappie. When my grandpa sold his camp and passed, I was thrilled when we got a camp of our own.

A plaque I made for camp, and a picture of my grandpa

Saturday, we slept in. It was cold, windy, and looked like rain, so we were in no hurry to get on the water. The walleye fishing usually isn't too great this time of year anyway. When we were packing up the boat with gear, this Northern Flicker was calling from a tree in the yard, and seemed to be building a nest.

Northern Flicker

We launched the boat, motored out to the middle of the lake, and dropped in. As I said, it was cloudy, rainy, windy, and cold. Not the best weather for photography, and the waves didn't help steady my camera much. But I did the best that I could. There was a very large number of mixed species of swallows, some gulls, and a few terns. Double crested cormorants and great blue herons were flying over constantly, with a few common loons here and there. But the stars of the show at the Pymatuning Reservoir, and many other places, are the eagles. I don't get to see many gulls or terns, so bare with me on the ID skills.



Causeway from PA to OH

Causeway from PA to OH

A group of Double-Crested Cormorants

Bonaparte's gull, non-breeding

1st summer herring gull

3rd year herring gull

Juvenile Double Crested Cormorant

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Northern Rough-Winged Swallow

1st year Bald Eagle

Two 1st year Bald Eagles

1st year Bald Eagle

1st year Bald Eagle

1st year Bald Eagle

Tree Swallow

Canada Geese

It was very difficult to snap a good photo of the swallows, they are so agile in the air and incredible fliers. I was having a blast shooting them though. Needless to say, the fishing was slow, but I had these guys to keep me busy. Then dad asked, "What's that?" I looked through my view finder and saw a blue billed, small bodied duck with white cheeks. Male Ruddy duck. I tried to get pictures, but dad got a snag, thanks buddy. This is the only photo I got, I had to help dad out with his mess!!

Male Ruddy Duck

2nd year Ring-billed Gull

Forster's Tern

Barn Swallow

2nd year Ring billed gull

2nd year Ring billed gull

Forster's Tern

Common Loon

Purple Martin

Forster's Tern

1st summer Common Loon

Female Purple Martin

Barn Swallow

Pair of Great Blue Herons

Purple Martin

I was getting better at shooting the swallows, and starting to have fun with them. When I looked up, and in a tree on Tutle island was a pair of adult Bald Eagles. One of them flew off, but I managed a few shots at the second.

Adult Bald Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle

Now that both of the Eagles had flown off, I guess there was nothing else to do but shoot some more swallows, since the fishing wasn't picking up.

Purple Martin

Purple Martin

A pair of wood ducks flew over, which was a good sight. I love wood ducks!

Pair of Wood Ducks

Non-breeding Bonaparte's Gull

Non-breeding Bonaparte's Gull

My FAVORITE part of being in the natural world, is seeing pollution. ESPECIALLY emissions.

 I LOVE it.

Bonaparte's Gulls

Adult breeding Bonaparte's Gull

The first day at Pyamatuning went well. We brought back a nice crappie, 3 perch, 3 walleye, and threw one walleye back. Not the best fishing, especially since we were out for 8-9 hours, but when your outdoors, life is good. My computer needs a tune up or I would post from the last day of the trip. So I'm going to try and get it up to speed and post pictures from last Sunday.

Nest cams are pretty neat!!

Check out these nest cams from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, really cool! The first link will take you to the Red-Tailed Hawk cam, and the second will take you to a Great Blue Heron cam.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2422&utm_source=Cornell+Lab+eNews&utm_campaign=d03c5597ed-eNews_HawkHatch_Flash_April2012&utm_medium=email

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2433

2 ticks, and some turtles

Thursday before leaving for class, these two mourning doves were relaxing on the edging of the landscaping by my feeders.

Mourning Dove Pair

There were also a few others, as usual, hanging around the feeders. I'm glad that there are so many because the house finches that visit the feeders seem to empty my feeders on the ground, while only eating the sunflower seeds. So the doves clean the ground up.

Mourning Dove

So while I was sitting in chem class going over our "practice test", I couldn't help but think about how short my songbird list was for the year. So after class, I was hoping to pick up a few species of songbirds in the DuBois area before going home to pack for my weekend trip to Pymatuning State Park. I had planned on starting at the Reservoir, and then going to the Laborde branch to check the flood plane and shrub scrub. When I got to the reservoir, it was empty. I figured that I would check the Anderson Creek end, where nothing turned up other than these Midland painted turtles.

2 Midland Painted Turtles

Midland Painted Turtle

Midland Painted Turtle with American Bullfrog

I was on my way to my second destination when I saw a Gray Squirrel run across the road on Anderson Creek Road, so I pulled over to shoot some photos. When I crept up behind the guard rail, I heard movement in the leaves. No squirrel, White-throated Sparrow.

White-throated Sparrow

Then a truck drove by and honked the horn. Which kind of annoyed me, but it flushed up a female Ruby-crowned kinglet, an other new tick for the year. So, thanks buddy!

Ruby-crowned kinglet

Female

 So while I was walking back to the jeep, I looked down and saw a female mallard decoy on nest.

I saw a few Red-winged Blackbirds at the reservoir causeway wetland. I had snapped a photo of a female at the wetlands on Platt Road earlier, and thought that I would get a few photos of the males and upload photos of both sexes.

Red-winged Blackbird female

Red-winged Blackbird, male

Red-winged Blackbird, male

Red-winged Blackbird, male

While I was shooting the blackbirds, it started to rain and I was running out of time to pack for the weekend ahead, so I ditched my songbird search at Laborde branch, and saved the plan for a nicer day.