John Heinz NWR day trip

On Sunday, January 6, I drove to John Heinz NWR located near Philadelphia Airport - a 95 mile one trip from my home. I left my home at 8am and with fairly light traffic - enter the NWR at 9:45am. I was surprised to see the parking lot almost completely full - a little more on why coming. Below is a link to the site.

John_Heinz NWR

The visitors center was closed (due the gov't shutdown) so I started my walk around the 3 mile loop trail. The firs thing I noticed was how wet and muddy the trails where and also how the wind was gusty up to 20mph across the lake...things where not looking good for birding. My target species for the day where Black Headed Gull, Northern Saw whet Owl and Rusty Blackbird.

Rusty Blackbird - target species not seen

As walked about a 50 feet on the trail when I saw my first species - a downy woodpecker. after another 1/2 mile is began seeing more species including: white throated sparrows, Carolina wrens, and Red bellied woodpeckers. a passed a few birders heading back toward the parking lot and we chatted...I learned that the saw Whet was being seen another 1/4 mile along the trail.

As I approached the area where the saw Whet was being seen, I spotted some movement in the brush - and added the following species to my day list: Tufted titmouse, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Carolina Chickadee and several others....being my total to 21 species.

I was lucky enough to have people standing near where the saw whet owl was being seen and they quickly pointed it out to me....lifer number 504!!! Yeah!!.

Northern saw Whet Owl - lifer number 504

As I continued my walk I added a few more species...but didn't get to see the Black headed gull or a Rusty Blackbird....maybe next trip.

I did however find out why everyone was walking the trails,...a Long Eared Owl was spotted the day before and everyone was looking for it...with no luck...here is picture from the ebirder that found the owl on Saturday.

Long eared Owl

A I walked back toward the parking area, along the impoundment, there where hundred of Ruddy Ducks, a few tundra Swans, Hooded Mergansers and Ring necked Ducks to name a few. The last bird of day was a pair a Belted Kingfishers flying along the canal just off the parking lot.


I ended the day with 38 species after 3 1/2 hours and 3 miles of walking - all in all a good day.

Until next time good Birding 

Black Throated Gray Warbler 

Wow..it's been awhile since I lasted posted anything in this blog. well it's a new year and good time to renew my efforts in keeping this blog up to date starting today.

Yesterday, January 4th was a rather mild winter day....with temps in the low to mid 40's...so I decided to start my year off by looking for the mega rare Blacked throated gray warbler that has been seen for about the past 3 months on and off in Noel Dorwart park near Millersville, Lancaster County, Pa. 

I left my house around 8am and it's about a 45 minute to the park. I arrived at 8:35am..there we very little traffic, and was the only one in the parking lot. I gather my gear and started walking the trails, immediately I saw several species of birds including White Throated, House, and Song sparrow in the weedy area next to the parking lot - a good start - 8 species and I didn't even leave the parking lot yet.

after checking the map of the trails I decided to walk the river trail where the BTGW was consistently being from. as I proceeded thru the now forested area, I didn't have my luck in seeing anything...a few red Bellied and Downy Woodpeckers...but as I emerged to the weedy area along the creek I heard the distinct call of a Catbird. I spotted and listened and watched and sure enough after about 5 minutes the Catbird popped up giving my a short but good look....another rare bird for the winter in this area   

After viewing, I continued on the trail, but had no luck seeing the BTGW on my first loop...I did see lots of other species but not he target bird I was looking for. I made two more loops around the 1/2 mile trail and finally after 2-1/2 hours I spotted movement in a large Sycamore tree. The movement turned out to be the Black throated gray warbler, that I was looking for...not the best looks but they where diagnostic enough to make a positive id..below is a photo taken the same day by another birder in the same area as I observed the species.

I returned to my car, with a total species of 27...that included two rare species for our area...the Black throated gray warbler and Catbird.

Until next time - good birding.

More Butterflies in Meadow

My butterfly yard life list continues to grow, with the addition of the following:

Pearl crescent, Summer Azure, Wild Indigo Duskywing and Spicebush swallowtail.

It seems the warmer weather and the meadow in my yard have attracted more than I expected. The list keep growing..I expect it will soon begin to decline at the flowers begin to fade ad the weather starts to cool. I will keep posting any new finds.

My butterfly life yard list now stands at 15 species.

Pearl Crescent

Note the beautiful bright orange colors  

Wild Indigo Duskywing

 Note the 4 white spots in the forewing area and overall color

Summer Azure

Spicebush Swallowtail - female (top) & male (below)

Until Next time - good birding.

 

Glossy Ibis at Middle Creek Wildlife Area 

Yesterday, July 6, I decided to visit Middle Creek Wildlife Area to do some birding. As I drove into the area, I noticed a taller darker looking bird moving thru the high grass in the now 'flooded' pond - from last night thunderstorm's.

I pulled over, and glassed the bird - it turned out to be a Juvenile Glossy Ibis (see picture below from M Shull). As several more people arrived after I posted the find, there was some discussion of this being a Juvenile White Faced Ibis - those discussions remain indeterminant and are still ongoing - if this changes I will update this post..as this would be a mega rare bird for our area.

Until next time - Good Birding

Juvenile Glossy Ibis 

A few more Butterfly to the list

I have observed many butterflies in the meadow by my home, and have on occasion tried to obtain photo's of them. Not being the very best photographer, I was a challenges - as butterflies are seldom very still for very long...seems they are always moving.

Since I re-started my list listing of Butterflies, I has become more of a challenge - as I like to have photo's of any butterflies on my list.  With that being said, the last few days I have been watching a Black swallowtail butterfly appear and then disappear in and around the meadow..never staying (or sitting still)  long enough for me to get a descent photo opportunity. 

On July 2, as I was walking around the meadow I observed the Black Swallowtail again, I watched it for a short time and was lucky enough to see it land on a tree near the meadow. I slowly moved forward and snapped a photo - not the best but enough to get a positive id (see below)..so as of today I have #2 on my list Butterfly list - a Black Swallowtail.

 eastern black swallowtail

The best way to id is there is a conspicuous red spot with a black bulls-eye on the inner hind margin of the hind wings and an isolated yellow spot on the costa of the front wings - you can see both of these features in the photo. 

Black Swallowtail - #2 on life Butterfly list

And I just saw a Silver spotted Skipper and added that to the list....my list Butterfly list has grown to 3.

Silver Spotted Skipper on Burning bush

Until next time good birding and butterfly hunting.

Butterflies - 2018

Since I have a meadow on my property with lots of wildflowers, it attracts a lot of pollinators - including Butterflies. I have recently acquired a series of books on ID'ing Butterflies and have decided to post some of the species ID'ed in my blog for everyone to observe and enjoy.

Great Spangled Fritillary link

Since this is a new venture for me, I except that it may take some time to verify the species and or get proficient at identification of the varies species for butterfly.

So with field guide, binoculars, and camera in hand I walked to the meadow yesterday to start my 'life' list of butterfly observations.

In retrospect, it was probably not the best time to my observations on a very hot summer end of June day with temps in the low 90's..but I gave it a shot.

While the meadow was very active with bees, insects and birds - I only observed one (1) species of butterfly: a Great Spangled Fritillary (see the attached photo's. 

So as of today, my Butterfly Life list stands at 1...with more to come I am sure.

Great Spangled Fritillary - #1 re-started life list.

Great Spangled Fritillary in meadow 

   

Until next time - good birding and butterfly observations.

Snowy Owl 

In May I traveled to the Magee Marsh area in Ohio for the annual warbler migration festival called the Biggest week in American Birding (see link below) .

biggest week in american birding

Our group had a wonderful week and we observed 165 species of birds during our weeks stay in the area.

 Perhaps the highlight of the week we the observation of a Snowy Owl in May in Ohio. Needless to say - it was quite a surprise see to see a Snowy Owl and much less in Ohio in early May.

It was nearing sunset and not the best lighting - but here are a few photo's.

 

Snowy Owl - Oak Harbor, Ohio - May 15, 2018

Until Nest time - Good Birding