A few highlights from the Lancaster CBC
written by Justin Bosler
This hatch-year male Painted Bunting was associating with Song and White-throated Sparrows in a scrubby tangle between PA-441 and the railroad tracks in Washington Boro (Lancaster Co.) - photo by Justin Bosler
Yesterday, 31 December -- the last day of 2011 -- was the 73rd Lancaster Christmas Bird Count. It was an unseasonably warm day for late December in Pennsylvania with an afternoon high of 52 degrees F. I was teamed up with Joe Meloney and Jonathan Heller on the Lancaster County side of the Susquehanna River sector. Similar to the weather, the species composition was also trending on the unseasonable side. At the Lancaster Area Sewer Authority's Washington Boro facility we noted at least one Eastern Phoebe, 5 Winter Wrens, 6 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Palm Warbler, and upwards of 5 Eastern Towhees. Things were off to an above average start.
Of course, the bird of the day was this glowing immature male Painted Bunting that I was shocked to find among a group of Song and White-throated Sparrows. This little lime green gem amid an otherwise winter-like landscape was totally unexpected and really got my adrenaline flowing. It's moments like these that make birding so fun. Not surprisingly, Painted Bunting is a first for the Lancaster CBC, only the third-ever Christmas count record for Pennsylvania, and one of only a couple documented in Lancaster County. Much to the delight of local birders, the bunting was readily observed well into the afternoon.
Later, while scouring additional flocks of sparrows I discovered this bright Fox Sparrow among Song and White-throateds.
This hatch-year male Painted Bunting was associating with Song and White-throated Sparrows in a scrubby tangle between PA-441 and the railroad tracks in Washington Boro (Lancaster Co.) - photo by Justin Bosler
This boldly-marked Red Fox Sparrow was associating with another group of Song and White-throated Sparrows between PA-441 and the railroad tracks just upriver from Blue Lane near Columbia (Lancaster Co.).
State College CBC wrap up
written by Drew Weber
Yesterday was the State College CBC which I have been looking forward to participating in for weeks now. I covered a lot of territory this year, starting at Bear Meadows and Alan Seeger Natural Areas with Alex and Steve. These higher elevation sites have extensive conifer stands so the hope was to find some less common species such as Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch and finches. We found most of our targets, only striking out on the finches, with only American Goldfinches making an appearance. We also did most of our owling in this area.
red phase Eastern Screech-Owl - Rothrock State Forest
We managed to find two Eastern Screech-Owls, one of which Alex photographed. We were fully expecting to be able to find this bird as we had seen it along with a gray phase several times at this location. The only other species of owl we found in the morning was a single Great Horned Owl hooting it up in the distance. Our best finds in the morning were lots of Brown Creepers everywhere and the immature Bald Eagle that was gliding through Bear Meadows as we pulled into the parking area. This fortuitous timing would characterize our day.
Our next stop was the Rockview fields Penn State just purchased along I-99/220. Our first bird upon pulling in was this big female Cooper's Hawk who was really fluffed up when we first spotted her, making her appear even larger.
immature female Cooper's Hawk - Rockview fields
We met up with Nadia and Justine in the parking lot and then drove over towards the farthest field. As we were about to turn off Benner Pike towards the entrance, I spotted a distant flock of birds winging their way towards us. Probably a flock of geese but I had Justine pull off to we could count them. About the time that I brought my bins up to my eyes, the birds started gliding- a serious strike against my naked eye identification of Canada Goose. My thoughts flashed to Tundra Swan which would be an excellent bird for the count, but then I noticed that these birds had long necks and long legs.
"Um, Alex...what are those?!?"
"It's Sandhill Cranes, it's Sandhill Cranes, it's Sandhill Cranes!"
And they were. Sixteen Sandhill Cranes that happened to fly directly overhead, providing us with a new record for the State College CBC and an almost record count for any Pennsylvania CBC. Apparently the Linesville CBC had flocks of 13 and 19 in 2008-09.
Sandhill Crane flock
Needless to say, Alex sprinted down the road to get directly beneath them as they flew towards us and snapped off hundreds of shots.
Sandhill Crane flock
One of the Sandhill Cranes flew with its legs tucked up, something that Alex and I have never seen before with a flying crane.
Sandhill Crane flock
The rest of the count through Rockview consisted mostly of American Tree Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows and a single Savannah Sparrow. Our next highlight came when a female light type Rough-legged Hawk flew past, leisurely taking its time as it circled nearby and off into the distance. We saw the same bird several different times during our walk.
female light type Rough-legged Hawk
After finishing with the Rockview fields, we made the decision to head back up to Bear Meadows and try for the saw-whet owl I had heard the previous evening. We could get to the spot at about the same time I had it and so I had high hopes of a repeat. We sat in the car for a bit, tallying up our days numbers - 43 species. As it got dark we headed down the path and, with the help of the Sibley app on my iPhone, played some saw-whet toots and winter vocalizations. Just as I played a recording of a 'wailing' saw-whet, an awful screaming wail came out of the brush about 20 feet from us. This was the only sound we could elicit from the owl and soon, freezing cold, we left with our 44th species of the day.
Our goal was to hit 50 species, and while we missed that mark, the birds we saw definitely made for a very enjoyable day. We counted lots of common birds, and got really great looks at some of the rarer species as well.
Rock Pigeons - all species counted, no bird left behind!
Avon Park Christmas Bird Count
written by Alex Lamoreaux
On January 5th, I was able to help out with a Christmas Bird Count at the Avon Park Air Force Range in Florida. This CBC is entirely conducted within the Air Force Base. Our team consisted of Reed Bowman, Shane Pruett, Anna Fasoli, Jenn Smith, and myself. We started the day off at 5:45am, trying a few locations for Eastern Screech-Owl. We didn't get any to respond but Barred Owls were calling at various locations. We did end up hearing two screech owls later in the day. We drove over to a dike through a large wetland area to be there for sunrise. In the last minutes of darkness, we were able to hear King Rails, Common Moorhens, Mottled Ducks, and various other wetland birds calling. Once the sun rose, we were surrounded by Swamp Sparrow and Common Yellowthroats. Jenn Smith spotted a Purple Gallinule among some Common Moorhens. Various egret and heron species were flying overhead. Shane Pruett spotted a Northern Waterthrush foraging in some tangled brush along a small creek that ran through the marsh. Red-winged Blackbirds were lifting out of the marsh in massive numbers, we estimated at least 8000 blackbirds!
Purple Gallinule (PHOTO BY ANNA FASOLI)
For the next few hours we walked through areas of Bald Cypress swamp searching for warblers and whatever else we could find. At one location, we picked up Pine Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Palm Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat as well as White-eyed Vireo and Blue-headed Vireo. Some other areas of Pine and grassland produced Brown-headed Nuthatches, Hooded Mergansers, Chipping Sparrows, Eastern Towhees, Common Ground-Doves, and Eastern Meadowlarks.
Brown-headed Nuthatch
At one stop, overlooking a large empty agricultural field, we had a flyover flock of 40 Horned Larks. This is a species that has never been recorded at Avon Park and is fairly rare for southern Florida. Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, and Yellow-rumped Warbler were at each stop we made with Pine Warbler being the most plentiful.
Pine Warbler
We were doing pretty well for woodpeckers, and at one stop we picked up both Red-headed and Hairy which meant we had seen all of Florida's woodpeckers except for Red-cockaded which does breed on the Air Force Range, but not in our CBC block. Another location in great scrub habitat produced four Florida Scrub-Jays which came in close to check us out.
Florida Scrub-Jay
Raptors species were numerous with Turkey and Black Vultures everywhere; American Kestrels and Red-shouldered Hawks quite numerous; two Red-tailed Hawks; one Peregrine Falcon that Anna spotted soaring over an agricultural field. Near the spot we had the jays, we saw an adult and 4th year Bald Eagle chasing each other through the air. The eagles flew right over out car, so I was able to get some nice photos of their aerial dogfight. We ended up seeing 4 Bald Eagles throughout the day; two adults soaring near each other, and these two birds fighting each other.
Bald Eagles fighting; adult and 4th year
We had picked up pretty much all the species we could, but still needed two easy ones: Snowy Egret and Cattle Egret. We decided to swing around through some open ranchland to try for Cattle Egret, but amazingly had none. Our last hope was to go back to the marsh we started the day off with and see if a Snowy Egret was present. No Snowy Egret was found, but we did add Belted Kingfisher and Wood Duck. Flocks of Wood Ducks were passing in decent numbers on their way to a roost site.
Wood Ducks heading to roost
The sun finally set and our CBC birding day was over. We ended with 87 species of birds! We also had a decent assortment of butterfly species. Below is a complete list of the bird species we saw. For more photos I took during the CBC, visit this link and check out the photos towards the end of the album.
Wood Duck 135 - Flocks seen flying to roost location at sunset.
Mottled Duck 6
Blue-winged Teal 2
Hooded Merganser 2 - 1 adult male, 1 adult female
Northern Bobwhite 6
Wild Turkey 9 females
Pied-billed Grebe 6
Anhinga 14
American Bittern 1 heard calling only
Great Blue Heron 11
Great Egret 40
Little Blue Heron 3 adults
Tricolored Heron 8
Green Heron 4
Black-crowned Night-Heron 10 - 4 juveniles, 6 adults
White Ibis 132 mostly adults, very few juveniles were seen
Wood Stork 6
Black Vulture 39
Turkey Vulture 93
Bald Eagle 4 - 3 adults, 1 4th year; two adults were seen together at one point; later in the day an adult was seen chasing a 4th year; one adult was seen later in the day soaring alone
Northern Harrier 5 - 3 adult males, 2 juveniles
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 juveniles
Cooper's Hawk 1 juvenile
Red-shouldered Hawk 16 - 15 adults, 1 juvenile
Red-tailed Hawk 2 adults
American Kestrel 4
Peregrine Falcon 1 adult; seen twice during the day, both times soaring
King Rail 4 heard calling only
Purple Gallinule 1 foraging with Common Moorhens
Common Moorhen 14 - 12 adults, 2 juveniles
Sandhill Crane 121
Killdeer 38
Greater Yellowlegs 17
Wilson's Snipe 5 flushed out of wetlands
Rock Pigeon 8 foraging in field
Mourning Dove 38
Common Ground-Dove 11
Eastern Screech-Owl 2 heard calling only
Barred Owl 5 heard calling only
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 3 - 1 adult, 2 immature
Red-bellied Woodpecker 19
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4 - 1 adult male, 3 juveniles
Downy Woodpecker 9
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 4
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Eastern Phoebe 24
Great Crested Flycatcher 3
Loggerhead Shrike 8
White-eyed Vireo 5
Blue-headed Vireo 9
Blue Jay 27
Florida Scrub-Jay 4
American Crow 80
Horned Lark 40 single flyover flock; calling the entire time they were in sight
Tree Swallow 96
Tufted Titmouse 3
Brown-headed Nuthatch 10 - groups of 2 or 4 seen or heard at various areas
Carolina Wren 8
House Wren 4
Marsh Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 20
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 17
Eastern Bluebird 30
American Robin 147
Gray Catbird 11
Northern Mockingbird 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 153
Yellow-throated Warbler 2
Pine Warbler 211
Prairie Warbler 1
Palm Warbler (Western) 131
Black-and-white Warbler 8
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 66
Eastern Towhee 16
Chipping Sparrow 55
Savannah Sparrow 35
Swamp Sparrow 200
Northern Cardinal 14
Red-winged Blackbird 8000
Eastern Meadowlark 7
Common Grackle 405
Boat-tailed Grackle 33
Brown-headed Cowbird 20
American Goldfinch 8 heard calling as flyovers
Our favorite apps
birding shirts
blogs we read
- BrdPics
- Utah Birders
- Biological Ramblings
- Julie Zickefoose
- Sibley Guides Notebook
- Birding is Fun!
- The Birdchaser
- 10,000 Birds
- Jeffrey A Gordon
- The Birding Nerd
