left: @ Middle Creek by Geoff Malosh- right: @ Conejohela Flats by Drew Weber Above is a comparison of a photo Geoff Malosh took of the Middle Creek White Ibis with a photo of the ibis I took at Conejohela Flats. Although these pictures show different sides of the bill, Geoff has another picture that shows both sides of the bill are similar in the Middle Creek bird. The dark/light pattern on the bills is quite different, confirming that these are different birds.
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Finally got out on the flats for the first time since late April. There had been both an immature White Ibis and a Sandhill Crane hanging out there together so I was hoping to see both these birds. Unfortunately, only the White Ibis was around while I was on the flats but it was very cooperative. It was hanging out in the cove by Avocet Point and as we were watching it, the ibis wandered back up along the woods, almost disappearing. This is my second White Ibis in Pennsylvania, the first being the immature bird that showed up last year in Harrisburg. Apparently juvenile White Ibis were annual at one time in Washington Boro, attracted to the rookery there. During an invasion year in 1977, 17 White Ibises were counted at the Conejohela Flats on August 11th.
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Image via Wikipedia 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.
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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.
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I and the Bird #77

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Image via Wikipedia The latest compilation of bird blogging is out. Check it out at Great Auk – or Greatest Auk? My last post about identifying juvenile birds is included.
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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.
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Vesper Sparrow by jerryoldenettel Doing point counts in south eastern PA during the last weeks has left me feeling that some fields birds are a lot more common than many birders suspect. On any given day I have heard multiple Savannah Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows and Horned Larks. I have also come across at least five Blue Grosbeaks in the area this year, including one that is within the safe dates for the PA Breeding Bird Atlas. These birds all breed across Pennsylvania, mainly around large areas of farm fields. They each prefer slightly different types of habitat. According to Birds of N.A. Online, Vesper Sparrows “prefer dry grass fields, with some shrubs or similar structure, and are found in open habitats, including old fields, shrubsteppe, grasslands, and cultivated crop fields.
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I spent an afternoon on the Conejohela Flats on the Susquehanna River yesterday. The water behind the dam was amazingly low, resulting in acres of mud. This benefited the birds by giving them more foraging habitat but made it a bit more difficult to get close looks at the birds. Least Sandpipers and Dunlin outnumbered everything else. A couple dozen Semipalmated Sandpipers, two Black-bellied Plovers and one each of Greater Yellowlegs and Spotted Sandpipers wrapped up the shorebird action. Initially the birds were far off, but we hunkered down at a good vantage point on the mud flats and allowed them to get accustomed to us. They would slowly forage towards us, getting closer and allowing me to do some digiscoping. The birds would periodically flush, flying in large circles across the water until they felt safe enough to sit down again.
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Currently there is a rash of sightings of phalaropes in Pennsylvania. I know of at least 8 different birds that have been reported in the last two weeks. 5/9- a Wilson’s Phalarope reported at the Polk Wetlands in Venango County 5/10-12- female Wilson’s Phalarope on Gremar Rd., Lower Nazareth Twp., Northampton County 5/12- Red-necked Phalarope at Lake Nockamixon, Bucks County 5/12-14- female Wilson’s Phalarope at Mud Level Rd, Cumberland County 5/13- two Red-necked Phalaropes at Mud Level Rd, Cumberland County 5/18- Wilson’s Phalarope at Greencastle Reservoir, Franklin County 5/19- male Red-necked Phalarope at Shartlesville Pond, Berks County Here are two pictures I took of the female Wilson’s Phalarope at Mud Level Run.
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Training

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Today I am heading off to training for my third season as a field biologist for the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Altas. I will be doing point counts across the state as part of an effort to determine densities of breeding birds in PA. On the drive out, I will be stopping at some flooded fields in the hopes of seeing shorebirds. I was out there yesterday and picked up three new state birds for my list: Stilt Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, and Wilson’s Phalarope. Apparently there were also 2 Red-necked Phalaropes there but I missed them. These fields have produced 20 species of shorebirds this season, a very respectable number for an inland site. After training I am heading to Cape May, NJ for a weekend of birding with my family and some friends. Maybe I will have some good updates from that.
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