Disappointing morning at Marsh Creek State Park
written by Drew Weber
I took some time this morning to walk around Marsh Creek's trails in the hope of finding some warblers and other migrants. To my disappointment, the woods were very quiet with scarcely anything singing other than Gray Catbirds, White-eyed and Red-eyed Vireos. Blue-gray Gnatcatchers have really thinned out and it see like the the ones still here are breeding pairs.
The only warbler that wasn't on territory were the Yellow-rumped Warblers, which nest in northern PA. Other warblers seen were several Ovenbirds, a Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler and a Prairie Warbler.
Hopefully this weekend brings another big flight of migrants into the area.
Conejohela Flats Avocets
written by Drew Weber
After an early morning of looking for warblers, I got an email about two American Avocets that were hanging out on Avocet Point at Conejohela Flats. After several years of checking out the flats regularly, I finally get to see an avocet at Avocet Point, fitting I guess. I didn't have time to kayak out so I had to be content with viewing it from the boat launch which is about 2500 ft away from the spot where the birds were. Needless to say, with the long distance and heat distortion, I wasn't able to get very good shots.
Migration schabang
written by Drew Weber
Today seemed like the first real good day of spring migration, with a huge influx of new species. On a walk around Lancaster County Central park this morning I found four vireo species and eight warbler species as well as Scarlet Tanager and both Baltimore and Orchard Oriole.
I took this picture lasts year on April 30 at Homewood Preserve in Paradise, PA.
- Image by DaveMaherPhotos via Flickr
The other exciting thing today was the 277 Broad-winged Hawks that were streaming over the house and kettling to the north of me. It's always neat to see a big group of Broad-winged Hawks, especially from the comfort of your own backyard. In addition to the broadwings, I also spotted two Cooper's Hawks, an Osprey and two Northern Harriers heading north.
Other Creek Rd birds
written by Drew Weber
I didn't manage to get great pictures of the rarer birds at Creek Road but I managed to hook my camera up to my scope for some pictures of the more common species coming to the seed pile. I was hand holding the scope out the car window while it was raining so the photos are still not top notch, but you can see water drops on the feathers of the cowbird.
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