I recently received a review copy of Birds of Europe (Second Edition) from Princeton University Press Field Guides. Lars Svensson wrote the text and designed the maps for the book, and the illustrations and captions were done by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterstrom. I have never been to Europe, but I reviewed the book as if I were planning on taking a trip there and wanted to use this guide in the field. Front Cover of Birds of Europe This second edition has updated taxonomical changes, newly revised maps, new info on how to seperate similar species, and has 10% more pages due to these revisions yet maintains a small, lightweight size.
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Radio-tagged Canada Goos
I birded today at Bald Eagle State Park and picked up new county year bird- a flock of 20 Common Goldeneye. There was a nice diversity with a couple rafts of all three mergansers, Ruddy Ducks, Great Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks and a lone Bufflehead. There was a flock of Canada Geese that I took some time to look over and I managed to pick out one with a green band on its left leg (BOX or 8OX) and a telemetry antenna of some sort sticking out of its back. The green band was exceptionally hard to read as it was always hidden in the grass. Radio-tagged Canada Goos I hadn’t heard of anyone putting telemetry units on Canada Geese so a quick Google search found some info on a couple older projects but nothing that I thought this bird might be part of.
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Tim Schreckengost and I spent several hours this morning walking around Toftrees in search of sparrows and any lingering birds that hadn’t been scared south by the snow. I try not to set expectations too high on a cold, snowy morning like today as so was pretty happy with the 28 species we saw. We saw lots of sparrows- American Tree and White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos were the most common, but the best was probably an Eastern Towhee, a hard to come by bird in mid-December. Another birder, Joe, also managed to find an Eastern Phoebe and a Gray Catbird, two other good birds for this time of year. I was interested in looking at the seasonal occurrences of some of these sparrow species in eBird so I initially looked at their frequency in Centre County.
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Between December 3rd and 7th, I spent quite a bit of time hawkwatching on the border of Bedford and Blair Counties. It was very, very cold but raptors were on the move, in very low numbers, but nonetheless, on the move. On December 3rd, I watched a subadult I Bald Eagle fly past the site as well as 6 Red-tailed Hawks. December 4th produced 7 Red-tailed Hawks; 1 Cooper’s Hawk; 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk; and 2 Bald Eagles, 1 subadult III and 1 subadult I. December 5th had 1 Red-tailed Hawk. December 7th was great though, with 6 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, 1 Cooper’s Hawk, 1 4th year Bald Eagle, and 1 juvenile Northern Goshawk! I had been waiting all season for a raelly good look at a goshawk and I finally got it. The goshawk appeared over the trees directly in front of us.
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I thought I would start up something new, make a weekly post of good birds being seen in Pennsylvania and nearby states. For directions to these birds, check the appropriate listservs. Leave a comment regarding any additional rare birds that should be added.  First we’ll start off with Pennsylvania.  Cackling Goose Small geese have started to show up, with a Ross’s Goose in Crawford County on December 4 and several Cackling Geese in Bedford County through at least the 8th.  One of the most exciting birds seen in the state last week was a white/light gray morph Gyrfalcon that provided great looks at Waggoner’s Gap Hawk Watch (Perry County) on December 6th. As of November 20th, the Prairie Falcon has returned to its normal wintering area near the intersection of Mud Level Rd and Duncan Rd (Cumberland County).
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The past five days, I have been down in Bedford County, PA birding and hawk watching. It was miserably cold most of the time, especially since the house I stay at doesnt have heat in the bedrooms. With enough layers on, going outside is tolerable though. Shawnee State Park is only about a quarter of a mile away from the house I stay at, so I tried to get over to the park as often as possible to keep track of what species are coming and going. Shawnee State Park is a 4,000 acre park, 451 of those acres are covered by a large lake. The proximity to the Allegheny Front Ridge flyway makes this a very important stop-over lcocation for many migrant birds. I managed to check out the park a total of 10 times over the course of five days. The birding was good.
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eBird has just started releasing some really neat animations of the abundances of birds throughout the year. They have been giving some supercomputer processor time to analyze the millions of data points that birders have submitted across the US. One thing that really jumped out at me when I first saw this animation is how low the densities are in the mid-Atlantic region where I study Grasshopper Sparrows compared to their core range in the Midwest and Great Plains. It is also interesting how they linger the latest in the upper Great Plains, long after they have vacated much of the rest of their range. It will be fascinating to keep an eye on these models as they fine tune them all the variables that are introduced when collecting data from multiple observers, in many different types of habitat.
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This afternoon, while hawk watching at the Dunning’s Mtn site in Bedford County, I spotted a Vesper Sparrow foraging along the roadside. Last weekend we had seen a Vesper Sparrow in the same spot with some Dark-eyed Juncos. Something looked a little weird today and when I tried to move in closer for a photo, I realized that its wing appeared injured. I was able to grab the bird and sure enough it’s wing was at least fractured if not broken. My guess is that the sparrow was hit by a car. Cory and Matt, friends of mine, who are the hawk watchers at the site took the sparrow to a local wildlife rehabber and she said the wing was fractured, but she could fix it and the sparrow should be able to fly again. I hope everything works out and this beautiful sparrow can once again fly.
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I am currently sitting on top of Tussey Mountain and it is snowing and 27F. Winds are out of the west which is generally prime for raptor migration at this site but I haven’ seen a single hawk since I got here over 2 hours ago. Now, this isn’t just an isolated event. I counted hawks for three falls at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and one spring at Montclair Hawkwatch in New Jersey. I have put in good time sitting up on the top of a ridge, perched on some cold, unforgiving rocks in often sub-freezing weather. In fact, these late season watches were among my favorite because of the solitude provided by the harsh conditions. Certainly no one in their right mind would subject themselves willingly, so I was often alone. These cold days also brought few birds, but the species that did come always excited me.
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First off, thanks for all the responses to the mystery bird quiz. Below is the photo again to refresh your memory. MYSTERY BIRD QUIZ The top bird and the bottom bird seem to be the best place to start in identifying these birds. Both birds are similar in size and immediately give the impression of one of the Calidris sandpipers. Both have a rather long, slightly drooping bill, grayish-brown head, white belly, and black legs. The bottom bird is showing a white underwing with gray tips to the flight feathers and the top bird is showing a gray upperwing with a white area through the middle of the flight feathers. The top bird gives the impression of being smaller, potentially being a Western Sandpiper.
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