The Nemesis Bird » PA Breeding Bird Atlas

Field season summary

Drew — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:54:59 +0000

My third and final field season for the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas is over. This last season I covered quite a bit of new territory for me in central and northern PA, visited 7 state parks I had never been to and camped in 4 of them.

I started off the season in southeastern PA where the highlight was several Blue Grosbeaks, Kentucky Warblers and lots of grassland sparrows including Vesper, Savannah and Grasshopper Sparrows. Warblers were few and far between although I did hear quite a few Tennessee, Blackpoll, Chestnut-sided and Canada Warblers that were still migrating through at the beginning of the season.

Mid-season I was doing surveys on both sides of the Susquehanna River north of Harrisburg where there were more warblers, particularly at higher elevations. Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Yellow-throated Vireos were fairly common. I stayed several days at Raymond B. Winter State Park where the most common birds singing at the campsite were Blue-headed Vireos and Blackburnian and Magnolia Warblers. I also had my first Golden-crowned Kinglet of the season at my site as well as my first Whip-poor-will’s in Pennsylvania.

I ended up the season further west, in Clearfield, Elk, and McKean Counties. I did lots of surveys on reclaimed strip mines that ranged from grassy mountain tops to scattered groves of locust to young forests. Sparrows were definitely the highlight of the reclaimed mines with the best being a single Clay-colored Sparrow and quite a few Henslow’s Sparrows.

Warbler diversity increased in the last part of the field season, especially in places with lots of mountain laurel. While I never happened across a Mourning Warbler, I did find a single Nashville Warbler singing in a sphagnum bog. Other northern species I picked up on surveys were Alder Flycatcher, Winter Wren, Brown Creeper and Golden-crowned Kinglet.

Interesting mammal sightings were several beaver at Parker Dam State Park, a black bear while doing a point count and several porcupines.

Overall it was a good season, although car problems did put a little damper on things. I managed to crack an oil pan and needed to replace my spark plug wires, both which were inconvenient when you are trying to work 7 days a week.

Surveys in Stony Creek

Drew — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:58:20 +0000

Tomorrow I will be doing bird surveys in the Stony Creek Valley which is just east of Dauphin PA. This is the same area where I saw 22 species of warblers in a half mile stretch, back in the beginning of May.

Then it will be off to camping in central PA, closer to my point counts. Hopefully I will have time for some digiscoping and can come back with some great photos to share.

Do you know the immatures?

Drew — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:15:50 +0000

Summer birding can be downright drab, depending on where you spend your time. Breeders have settled into their territories and are busy raising young while northbound migration has pretty much wrapped up. Soon these baby birds will have fledged and we will be seeing them out of the nest. Identifying these young birds can be extremely frustrating as they seem to show little to no resemblance of the adults.

David Allen Sibley, author of The Sibley Guide to Birds, also writes a column for Birder’s World titled ID Toolkit. His latest column focuses on identifying juvenal birds by focusing on wing and tail feathers and he has several good tips.

Wait for an adult to come feed the young songbird. This can immediately solve the puzzle but this does not work so well if the baby songbird is a Brown-headed Cowbird.
A fledgling songbird goes through a molt soon after fledging and replaces many of its head and body feathers. Before this molt, it looks very different from what young birds look like during fall migration. It keeps its wing and tail feathers for about 12 months and these feather regions are often very similar to the adults. Concentrating on the tail and wing feathers will often reveal the birds identity.

So go out and try this out. Quite a few states are working on Breeding Bird Atlases so any juveniles you find can be reported to the appropriate atlas projects below.

Pennsylvania 2004-08

Colorado 2007-11

Ohio 2006-10

Solano Co. (CA) 2004-2009

Yolo Co. (CA) 2009-13

Delaware 2008-12

Indiana 2005-10

Massachusetts 2007-11

New Mexico 2000-10

The aberrant warbler and a firethroat

Drew — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:27:00 +0000

Point counts have been good as of late. I was in Lancaster County a few days finishing up points in that area and my best find was a very outgoing chat. I had it singing during a point count near Muddy Run Reservoir so I marked the spot on my GPS and returned after my morning counts were finished. I only had to play a few phrases of its song on my car speakers before he popped up again, flying back and forth checking out who was trying to take his picture. Most shots I took were pretty bad but he landed on a utility tower long enough for me to fire off one shot and that is what you see. I had forgotten how fantastically goofy these warblers/tanagers look when doing their display flight. They have always reminded me of clowns.

I believe that chats are going to be separated from the New World warblers (Parulidae) fairly soon. I can’t remember the exact details but I think they will get their own family and be considered the evolutionary bridge between tanagers and warblers. Someone please correct me if my facts are way off.

In another lucky catch, I managed to photograph this brilliant male Blackburnian Warbler through my binoculars. This is not a method I have ever had much success with, and although its not a print worthy photo, and a little drabber than real life, I believe it captures some of the brilliance of the reddish orange throat these warblers flaunt. Blackburnian Warblers have a ridiculously high-pitched ending to their song and are one of the first to disappear as one’s ears lose those higher pitches. It makes me curious whether even with my good hearing I am missing parts of the song.

At the same place where the Blackburnian was singing, there was a large congregation of 30-40 butterflies all in one clump. If anyone know what they were doing please leave a comment…

Clay-colored Sparrow

Drew — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:02:00 +0000

I saw my 2nd state bird in as many days yesterday. Although its not very common in PA, Clay-colored Sparrows are findable in several parts of the state. They breed in some limited areas in the western part of the state and are sometimes seen in migration elsewhere.

This bird is coming to a feeder in Lancaster County and is the same bird the presumably frequented the same yard last summer. When I arrived I was greeted by the buzzy bzz bzz bzz bzz that is so characteristic of the Clay-colored Sparrows song.

It will be interesting to see if this bird continues to hang around for the summer and maybe finds a mate. Now I am off to training for my summer job doing point count surveys for the 2nd PA Breeding Bird Atlas.