While the Wood Sandpiper is considered accidental, i.e. very rare, in the lower 48, it has been recorded breeding in the Outer Aleutians. It is even rarer on the east coast. Wood Sandpiper- Delaware, 5/9/08 A Wood Sandpiper showed up in Rye, New York in early winter 1990. The sighting was covered in the New York Times. Check out the article, it quotes Roger Tory Peterson. There is also a report from the NYSARC of a possible 1907 specimen although the committee is possibly unsure of the ID. 1907 Accepted Report WOOD SANDPIPER (Tringa glareola). 1980-35-A. specimen, Gaines, Orleans Co., 10 Oct. 1907 (PDeB). The details of this first New York record are published in American Birds Vol. 34: 231; 1980. The Committee has attempted to ascertain the possibility that this is a mislabeled specimen. Our results are equivocal. The Milton S.
Read More
Friday afternoon I posted that I was off to chase the Wood Sandpiper being seen in Delaware. I got picked up at my house around 11am and by about 1:30pm we were driving down Broadkill Road, looking for a swarm of cars. When we pulled in, people seemed to be milling around, not really looking at anything in particular. This was not a good sign. The first birder we talked to told us the bird had last been seen about 10 minutes ago. It had taken off and the birders present hadn’t been able to see where it flew and had not been relocated yet. Being only the second east coast record, this was easily the ‘best’ bird I have ever chased and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomache when I heard this.
Read More
In just a couple minutes I will be getting picked up to chase the Wood Sandpiper that is being seen at Prime Hook in Delaware. It was seen at 9:00am this morning and we should be there around 1:00pm. Hopefully we get there while its around! This is the first East Coast record since the Rye, New York bird found by Tom Burke on October 31, 1990. Pictures by Jeff Gordon.
Read More
The highlight of a mornings walk around Lancaster County Central Park was the Olive-sided Flycatcher I found perched at the tippy top of a tree. I did not have my camera along so I took some shots with my phone, through by binoculars- phonescoping! They didn’t turn out amazing but you can see the vest like coloring of the chest. It was a nice bird and I was surprised to get both my first Olive-sided Flycatcher and Eastern Wood-Pewee on the same date. The unknown of what might be around during migration is really what keeps me going outside. My full list from the day is below.
Read More
Image via Wikipedia An Aechmophorus grebe (either Western or Clark’s) was reported today at Blue Marsh Lake by a local birder. Being only about 45 minutes away I jumped in my car and drove down to the lake, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bird. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the bird from the multiple vantage points that I checked. Since the lake is formed by a dam, it has a bunch of hidden areas that aren’t visible easily so it could still be around. I would guess that tomorrow morning would be a good time to check it out as boaters will not be disturbing it yet. Related articles Red-necked Grebes and Black Scoters at BESP (www.nemesisbird.
Read More
was all we needed to find 22 species of warblers. Located in Dauphin County along Stony Creek Road, the ‘back’ powerline cut can be a hotspot for warbler migration when the conditions are right. They were right this morning as we discovered soon after arriving there. The Blue-winged Warblers that are common here were bee-buzzing away as we walked down towards the creek. Yellow-rumped Warblers were also everywhere. Soon we had added Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green, Nashville, Magnolia and Black-and-white Warblers to the list. A Louisiana Waterthrush singing by the creek brought us up to 9 warblers for the day. On our walk back up from the creek we heard a different buzzy call. A Golden-winged Warbler! It played hard to get for a while, but we managed to get some good looks, confirming that it was indeed a real Golden-winged Warbler and not a hybrid.
Read More
This morning I went to Homewood Nature Preserve to see if there were any new migrants around. The property doesn’t get the first morning light so it was quiet when I arrived just after dawn. Walking around the first field, I happened to glance at the lone tree in the middle of the field. A small bird flew into the tree and I found it pretty quickly. My first impression from the size was that it was going to be a warbler but that proved to be wrong. The bird was a male Orchard Oriole, my first of the year. I continued birding around the property, finding warblers such as Black-and-white, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green and Ovenbird. All this time I was hoping that when I returned to that first field, the Orchard Oriole would still be there so that I could try to take some pictures of it.
Read More
Three species of swallow were present at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge while I was there. The most common were Tree Swallows followed by Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Barn Swallows. The Barn Swallows were the most cooperative to photograph, perching on the boardwalk and not taking flight until I was about 10 feet away. Barn Swallow Tree Swallows were a little trickier to digiscope because they usually perched on their boxes or in trees, staying further away from me. They seemed much flightier than the Barn Swallow. Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallows really seem to enjoy perching on smaller vegetation on the lake, but I digiscoped this one in a tree. Rough-winged Swallows are perhaps not as strikingly colored as other swallows but they are still beautiful in a very earthy way.
Read More
A couple of weeks ago I went to Middle Creek during the height of the Snow Goose influx. I snapped a couple of flight shots that I thought were neat.
Read More
Sunday afternoon a post showed up on the PA Birds listserv stating that a Western Tanager had been found at John Heinz NWR. Not much detail at first but as people descended on the refuge to look for it they posted that it was a female and that it was being seen near the observation deck. Luckily for me, Monday is my day off and so I decided to try my luck at finding the tanager as well as see what else was at the refuge. Both Little Blue and Tri-colored Heron had been reported in the last week. I arrived a little after dawn and began walking down the path towards the observation tower. I was a little surprised at how quiet it was, none of the trilling songs of Palm, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers I had just heard at Middle Creek WMA.
Read More