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a place to express my love for birds |
This is a blog/journal about birds and birding. I grew up watching birds, as I lived in a rural area with farms, fields and forests. As an adult, I got into "serious" birding around the year 2015 when I went on my first "guided" bird walk at a local state park in Pennsylvania. In 2017, I kept track of how many different species I could spot in one year, which was 137. In 2017, I saw 201 species! So I have some goals for 2019: Five "lifers" (A "lifer" is a bird I have never seen/identified before) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Enter a checklist every day on www.ebird.org Visit 10 new "hotspots" (popular birding sites like parks, gamelands and sanctuaries) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.  Sharp-shinned Hawk in my backyard, December 2017  Snowy Owl in Fleetwood, PA, January 2018 |
| I had a nightmare come true today. Recently I've been dreaming about birding. It happens when I become obsessed with a hobby - I'll inevitably start dreaming about it. Like two nights ago, I dreamed I was taking photos of hummingbirds that were coming right up to my camera! Great dream, right? But when I pushed down on the shutter button on my camera, nothing would happen! I had to really concentrate to try to take a photo (sort of like dreaming about running or flying). This morning I went out birding, and when I tried to take a photo of a bird, I pressed down and nothing happened!  It turns out my memory card was full.  Maybe I was having prophetic dreams... Weird.Anyway, I did get one new bird today, #76, Fox Sparrow. They're a migratory bird, as they typically spend Summers farther north, like in Canada. If I'm lucky, I can spot them while they pass through! They have a very reddish-brown color in my area, so they're pretty easily spotted even when they're just flying past, but I did get a good look at one through binoculars today, too. I also visited Tuscarora SP and saw a juvenile Bald Eagle. For a little while, I thought it was possibly a Golden Eagle (a friend spotted one near that location a couple weeks ago) but it was a Bald Eagle, which are really typical in that area. Very fun to see! I love seeing Bald Eagles! No matter how many I see, I'm still in awe of them. I just hope I remember to start deleting old photos off my memory card so I don't run out of room again! |
It's been a nice birding week so far. We had a big snow storm on Wednesday (8 inches of snow in my town) and I had some interesting visitors to my feeders, including a Red-winged Blackbird and this Eastern Phoebe  . They're not a typical feeder bird, though they will eat small seeds. It didn't seem interested in my feeders, but it did swivel its head about looking around. They're one of my favorite birds, so I was excited to get one in my backyard! (They're also one of the first birds to come back in Spring)Also this week, I was early for an appointment so I stopped at a lake. There were geese, ducks, and gulls, and then this Bald Eagle did a few laps around the lake! It didn't seem to mind at all that there were people around! It flew right over me a few times! I think this is my best photo of an eagle so far! They're tough to get close enough to get a good photo, I think.Yesterday I was driving along the highway with my husband when we saw #75, Cooper's Hawk, sitting in a tree along the road. I'm hoping to get out birding tomorrow morning. Most of the snow has melted pretty quickly from our storm. Wednesday this week is an American Woodcock event! We went last year, and I'm excited to go again. A guy learned he had the bird living on his land, so he has put in a great effort to keep his land the type of habitat the birds like. They do their courtship ritual in Spring at sunrise and sunset. They fly up into the air and around in circles, their wings making a whistling noise! It's really cool to see! |
| Temps are getting slightly higher. Still low for the average temps this time of year, but above freezing! Wednesday evening this week, I was driving home from work and two #70, Wild Turkeys, were crossing the road in front of me. I slowed down, and they flew the rest of the way across the road. I went on a bird walk with a local birding group Saturday morning. We hiked about 3 miles along a canal and the Susquehanna River. I got some new birds, #71, Brown-headed Cowbirds, #72, American Black Ducks, and #73, a Wilson's Snipe. (Another highlight of the hike was a flock of Tundra Swans flying overhead.) I also got photos of an Eastern Bluebird and a Hairy Woodpecker I went to a local park and game lands this morning and got one new species for the year, #74, White-crowned Sparrow. I also got some nice photos: Red-bellied Woodpecker, female Either I don't see many females of this species, or it's hard to see the top of their head to determine the sex (that grey patch tells you it's female)Eastern Bluebird These guys are just so photogenic! And they usually look ticked off. I'm so excited about Spring and Spring-time birds!  I haven't seen too many yet, but I'm getting excited that they'll be here soon! |
| I had my first Spring birds today! Yesterday a fellow birder saw a Yellow-rumped Warbler at Landingville Dam/Marsh area, so I headed out. It was a really active morning and I got a lot of good photos (posted on FB and my instagram )! I saw the Yellow-rumped Warbler but I didn't get it in my camera's sights. Later, though, I realized I did get a shot of it later in my walk. I wasn't sure what the bird was at the time. Sometimes I don't ID them until I get home and look at my photos! I also spotted #69, an Eastern Phoebe, which is a typical early Spring bird. Even though it's still barely above freezing temps during the day (and we had another bout of flurries today), I can now say it's Spring! I also got to hear Wood Ducks today! They have a crazy sound! They get spooked super easy. It's a dream of mine to one day get a photo of them! Listen to Wood Ducks here! |
| I visited two "new" hotspots this week: West Penn Township Park East (a little playground area with a large field and pavilion that I've never visited before) and Sweet Arrow Lake (which I have visited, but not yet this year). I didn't see anything new at either of those places, but it's always nice to check out new spots. Yesterday I went to Landingville Dam again and saw four #67, Green-winged Teals, flying away from me. I didn't get to see them clearly in the water, but their sound identified them. They don't sound like ducks at all! I saw one other unidentified water bird with them, but I don't know for sure what it was. I suspect it was a Common Goldeneye because its wings whistled as it flew away, but it seemed much darker than the photos I've seen, but I also only saw it as it flew away, so I can't be sure. While I was there, I also saw two #68, Fish Crows, harassing This Common Raven (not a great photo, but Ravens are so cool!). There are a few birds that will stop me in my tracks and I just have to watch and admire them. Ravens are one. Bald Eagles are another. It's so hard to choose a favorite bird when I love so many of them!The second nor'easter fizzled out and we only got a few inches of snow. Last night we got some more snow that I don't think was even predicted... At least I wasn't seeing any storm alerts! Last year, when we had a March storm, I had some Brown-headed Cowbirds at my feeder, so I'm keeping an eye out for those! |
| We had a few days of warm weather and then we had a "Nor'easter" storm come through. Sometimes in early Spring when we have a snow storm, I'll get a few "rare" birds in my backyard, but none this time. I saw #65, Great Blue Heron, at Landingville Dam on Wednesday this week. Then today I went out birding with a fellow local birder, and we heard #66, Ring-neck Pheasant. It's a questionable bird, because while they are wild birds, they're often bred and released for hunting. Still, it's in my bird book and it's in the Ebird lists, so it counts as a new sighting for the year! Last year's first Spring bird sighting was an Eastern Phoebe on March 25th. They are often one of the first Spring birds to come through, so I'm looking forward to hearing their call soon! |
| It always surprises me how long it takes for the lake to thaw around here! We had a day of upper 70-degree weather last week and the lakes are still mostly frozen! They're starting to thaw around the edges, though. I took a trip to Tuscarora State Park today and saw Common Mergansers, and #64, Hooded Mergansers. I got some really bad, blurry photos, but I could definitely tell they were male and female "Hoodies!" They're probably on their way north to their breeding grounds! According to my research, they typically show up within a few days of the ice melting! Years ago, I thought birding in Winter wasn't a thing. I went for a walk in the woods on a nice Winter day, and I didn't see or hear a single bird. I assumed they didn't stick around in Winter. Not true at all! You just have to learn where to look!I'm slowly getting better at identifying waterfowl! Ducks can look so similar! I like to keep my Sibley guide in my backpack so I can look at photos to tell them apart. |
| Two blog posts in one day! I heard my first #62, Killdeer, calling today, and I got a lifer, #63, Wood Ducks! I've been wanting to see Wood Ducks for years! They're a pretty common bird, but I haven't seen one yet! They're our most colorful water bird in PA! I'm working on staying in the top five in my county, so I was excited to get some more water birds. I've seen them in other counties, but I don't know as many spots in my county (I tend to stick to forests more, I guess). Today I saw a Ring-billed Gull and a flock of Tundra Swans that flew overhead. While I was walking along railroad tracks, I heard something splashing in the water next to me, and I spotted this adorable otter ! My new hiking boots are pretty awesome! |
Yesterday poisonivy  and I went to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Stevens, PA (near Lebanon, PA, and about an hour East of Harrisburg). They get huge numbers of Snow Geese around this time of year (like, 100,000 of them!) that stop at the lake during their migration!I took some photos of #60, Snow Geese, as well as Tundra Swans and Canada Geese. It was really, really cool! We went last year, but I didn't submit a checklist to ebird while we were there, so I'm counting it as a "new" hotspot. Plus, this year we got to go to the Visitor Center which was recently remodeled. It was really cool! Lots of informative stuff! They even had a large window with binocular stations to view the lake!While outside the Visitor Center, we also heard #61, Field Sparrow. I got new hiking boots yesterday and I'm really tempted to go for a hike today. It's raining right now, but I think it should stop by Noon or so, so I might go out later. I'm on a mission to find waterfowl in my county! |
| I went on another bird walk with the North Branch Bird Club. They don't cover my county, but an adjacent county. It's in the area where my sister lives, so we meet up and go for walks with this club about once per month (at least in the Winter and early Spring). It wasn't as successful of a year as the previous years, but almost. We had 31 different species this year, including two new ones for me, #58, Ring-billed Gulls and #59, Ring-necked Ducks (also another lifer, I think).Birders in our area (central PA) have noticed sings of Spring this week! Several species of birds have started singing. Birds have calls and songs (typically only the males "sing" as a way to attract mates). Song Sparrows and Northern Cardinals have started singing this week! I also heard some American Robins in my neighborhood this week! Robins don't typically migrate, but they move into deeper woods and change their eating habits in Winter. As Spring approaches, they come back to more urban areas. This weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count, where they try to get people all over the world to submit bird lists of what they see in their neighborhood. (Our bird walk yesterday counted as a checklist) Actually, if you have an ebird profile, any checklist you submit this weekend counts! I highly suggest checking out www.ebird.org if you like looking at birds! You can see checklists and hotspots in your area (and all over the world), plus they have a lot of good resources about birds and birding! I'm trying to be patient and wait for Spring, but we had another 5 inches of snow last night, and I'm really hoping it melts fast!  |
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