This afternoon I headed to the eastern edge of Centre County to look for the Rough-legged Hawks that Joe Verica has been reporting around Woodward. It didn’t take long to find a couple light morphs but the real treat was two dark morph Roughlegs that were sharing a branch for a couple minutes. It’s been pretty incredible how many Roughlegs are around this year; I found 6 light morphs and 2 dark morphs today in Centre County. This brings my total for the county to around 11 this year. It’s a bit hard keeping track of exactly how many Roughlegs are around since, at least close to State College, they seem to be moving around between different areas.
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It’s been a really good year for Rough-legged Hawks so far. I have seen 6 in Centre County and 5 more across Pennsylvania and they are being reported in many locations across the state. While there have been Rough-legged Hawks in the grasslands along 220, most of them have been brief glances or distant views. Most have also been light or intermediate morphs. Last week I managed to get much better looks at a dark morph which was a treat. The percentage of dark morphs to light morphs follows Gloger’s rule which states that more heavily pigmented forms of species tend to be found in more humid environments. From a survey of museum specimens, in the Aleutians and sw. Alaska, dark morphs were 19%, 3% in w. Canada, and 12% in e. Canada.
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Late update…I’ve been a bit busy recently with classes and helping teach ornithology. Anyways, I took my first trip ever up to Presque Isle State Park with Nate and Tim to look for waterfowl and the large number of redpolls that have been reported up there. We were pretty excited about birding in the 10 degree Fahrenheit weather but at least it was a clear sunny day. We were also hoping to jump start our year lists by spending the whole day birding. Black-capped Chickadee Things started off pretty slow, feeders were occupied by House Sparrows, ducks were a long distance out in the only open patch of water and not many birds were moving around. Downy Woodpecker We were about halfway around the loop before Nate picked up a flyover Common Redpoll which got us excited.
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Well I safely made it to South Africa. I have been in the Cape Town area the entire time so far. I dont have much time to write a full post right now, so check out the photo gallery I have made at this link.
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While walking around Presque Isle State Park at Fry’s Landing, Nate, Tim and I were surprised to find a Tree Swallow. Well, not entirely surprised as one was reported last week or so, but it was odd seeing it with all the snow.
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Justine and I walked around Toftrees late this morning and managed to see a total of about sixteen species, despite the frigid, bone-chilling temperatures. Â The highlight of the morning was a Hermit Thrush that popped up to protest Justine’s excellent screech-owl imitation. Even the sparrows have cleared out from Toftrees; only a few White-throated Sparrows remained to scrounge the bushes for food.
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Today I am flying to Cape Town, South Africa. I will be spending 10 weeks studying abroad in South Africa, traveling between wildlife refuges, but mostly centered around the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape Province. There are about 20 of us going from Penn State, including students and staff. The region of South Africa I will be in is characterized by a mix of coastal and dune forests, shrub, and grasslands. Over 300 species of birds occur on the Dwesa-Cwebe Reserve. The mix of vegetation types and the high amount of biological diversity make this area very important ecologically.
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Yesterday, Dick and Pat Williams found a light morph Rough-legged Hawk along Valley Rd in Southeastern Dauphin County. The hawk was still present today, hunting the fields on the south side of Valley Rd near a large barn and house. The landowners gave me permission to go on to their property to try and take photos of the hawk. I was able to sit near a small group of trees for a few hours and watch as this beautiful hawk hover-hunted around the area. The hawk made a few passes close enough to me for the following photos. Based on the bird’s dark mottled bib; barring through the belly, flanks, and leg feathers; and the white tail with a wide black subterminal band this hawk is a textbook light morph adult male – moderately marked type.
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Today, Mark Markiewicz and I made a huge birding loop from Hershey, down to Lancaster County, then Berks County, then Lebanon County, and finally back to Hershey. We were trying to pick up as many of the interesting species of birds recently reported as possible. The first stop was along Hess Road near New Holland to see if any wintering Wilson’s Snipes were along the stream that flows near the road, no luck there, but there was a beautiful Merlin nearby that allowed me to get close for some photos. Merlin eating a Dark-eyed Junco Our second stop was the farm fields near New Holland for the Rough-legged Hawks, Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, and Lapland Longspurs. There were quite a few large flocks of Horned Larks.
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