Yesterday at Speedwell Forge Park in northern Lancaster County, PA I came across a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers building a nest and pulling material from the tent catepillars tent. I was able to get pretty close as they flew in and out and got some neat pictures and a video.
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I took a drive up into Dauphin County today to check out the Western Meadowlark and was not disappointed. As soon as I got there I heard the somewhat strange song of the Western Meadowlark and it seemed pretty close. Of course it took me a while to find it, but once I did I was able to set up the scope and get excellent views and compare it to nearby Eastern Meadowlarks. In comparison to nearby Eastern Meadowlarks, I was able to note several differences which I think made it relatively easy to pick out. The Eastern Meadowlarks had a much darker, almost black, eyeline and facial pattern while the Western Meadowlark’s facial pattern seemed pale and indistinct. I could also pick out the difference in malar area, with the Western Meadowlark having yellow and the Eastern having white.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Other Creek Rd birds

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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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I ran over to Creek Rd before work this morning to look for the Yellow-headed Blackbird and to see if the Harris’s Sparrow was still around. Both birds were very cooperative, staying for a while at the weed pile along the road. The Harris’s Sparrow is molting in a lot more black feathers, as you can see if you compare it to Tom Raub’s original photo. The photo is pretty poor quality because it was taken through my binoculars as I was hiding out in my car from the rain. The Yellow-headed Blackbird hung out at the seed pile with Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbird. It was in and out while I was at the site, but wasn’t sure where else it was hanging out.
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Tom Raub took this photo of the Harris’s Sparrow. More info and directions can be found on the pa listserv or at birdingonthe.net. I posted this from my iPod touch so when I get home I will revise this with any additional updates. –update– I saw the HASP at 4pm briefly thanks to Chuck Chalfant. Scroll down for a map of where the bird was last hanging out. Click on the photo for a larger view.
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taken at John Heinz NWR I made a couple stops today and managed to see or hear five species of warblers. At Evansburg State Park I heard Louisiana Waterthrush, and saw Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers. A quick hike later in the day at Nottingham County Park in Chester County netted me lots of Pine Warblers and 2 Black-and-white Warblers. I was planning on getting outside today but the rain may prevent that. It is pretty exciting to see some of the earlier warblers arriving and to look forward to the next wave of migrants.
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I recently received about 15 years of old Birding magazines and in reading through them I came across an article in the February 1994 issue with predictions for technology advances in the next 25 years of birding. It is now 15 years after the article was written so I thought it would be neat to look at what has come true so far and what is still just a dream. Predictions are in the text boxes with a bit of analysis below it. Optics were not expected to improve significantly, except for the addition of electronic gadgets like audio/video recorders and stabilization. These gadget laden optics have certainly hit the market, but usually in lower quality optics and have not been widely adopted for use in birding.
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