The Nemesis Bird » digiscoping

Western Willets at Middle Creek WMA

Drew — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:27:31 +0000

Field Birds and a Merlin

Drew — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:58:28 +0000

I drove around Lancaster County farm fields near New Holland and Leola looking for any field birds I could find. Other birders have reported seeing up to 5 Lapland Longspurs in the Horned Lark flocks and there is always the possibilities of Snow Buntings as well.

I missed the more interesting field birds, but did manage to find several large flocks of Horned Larks that were pushed closer to the road and feeding on any bare strip of ground they could find. At one point, a merlin strafed the flock and perched on a post near me. All these photos I took out of my car window, holding the scope by hand.

Interesting Herring Gull

Drew — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:39:01 +0000

Today I spent a few hours searching for interesting gulls near the landfill at Tullytown. Lesser Black-backed Gulls were pretty easy to come by and I also saw a first-winter Iceland and a first-winter Glaucous Gull.

I then came across an interesting gull. It piqued my interest due to the dark area around the eyes, coloration of the bill and what I thought was a longer primary extension.

In the end, the pink legs and light colored iris point to this just being a well marked American Herring Gull. It’s always neat to see the variation that Herring Gulls are capable of. This bird is likely either a 3rd cycle gull or a 4th cycle gull, due to several darker tertials and the darker bill color.

Perched Kestrel

Drew — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:48:02 +0000

Here are two shots I took when I was in Denver for Thanksgiving. The lighting was terrible.

Ash-throated Flycatcher in Lebanon Co, PA

Drew — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:30:57 +0000

Here are a couple shots of the Ash-throated Flycatcher in Lebanon Co. Behavior was very interesting, it foraged very low in the brush and grasses, often dropping down to catch something.

Below is the shot that can really clinch the id. The tail pattern on Ash-throated Flycatchers has a dark outer edge at the bottom of the outer tail feathers.

Below are some shots I had taken of the similar Great Crested Flycatcher.

What does a saw-whet do at night?

Drew — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:39:03 +0000

Well, let me tell you…

We have now been tracking Isra for over 2 weeks now, with a lot of good data coming from our long nights at King’s Gap and in the Michaux State Forest. With the migration season in full swing for the owls, we are now starting to hear the strange barks and whines of the saw-whets as we are walking through the forest. Sometimes it’s the owl we are tracking, but often it is another saw-whet in the woods.

Isra perched high in a pitch pine

Isra has a routine going for her that she repeats every night we have been tracking her. Soon after dark, she leaves her roost and becomes very active, flying back and forth along the King’s Gap/Michaux State Forest border. She keeps us on our toes as we run around, trying to figure out where she is off to. Several times she has completely ditched us, only to show up back at near the banding station at King’s Gap. o

After flying around for several hours, presumably hunting, she often settles down for several hours and gives us some time to relax and enjoy the night sounds other than our feet crunching the newly fallen leaves.

Isra often stays relatively still until soon before dawn, when she starts flying again and soon ends up in the pitch pine where she will roost for the day. As the sun comes up, we get to go search for the roost site so we know where to find her the following evening.

More P6000 shots

Drew — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:30:50 +0000

Here are two more shots I took the other morning. They give me an idea of what the camera is capable of when I have good lighting and more time to compose the shots.

Northern Cardinal

Song Sparrow

Esmerelda and her food

Drew — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:42:37 +0000

The newest saw-whet owl with a transmitter is Esmerelda. Here she is with breakfast in her talons. Does anyone know what it is?

Testing the new camera

Drew — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:22:34 +0000

I just purchased a new camera, the Nikon P6000, and took it out for a quick test to see how well it worked thru my scope. The lighting wasn’t too great but I found a Brown Creeper that was cooperative and managed a couple nice shots.

Berks Red-necked Phalarope

Drew — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:10:29 +0000

I took some distance shots of the Red-necked Phalarope that is in a flooded field on Evansville Rd in Berks County. Pretty far away for a good picture but it was neat to watch it actively swimming around. Hopefully it will stick around for a few days for more people to see it. Check out the map below for directions.

View Red-necked Phalarope in a larger map