Saturday at Hills Creek State Park

Today’s bird walk was part of the series at Hills Creek State Park. Because Gary was going to be out of town, I volunteered to lead the walk. The weather forecasters early in the week had predicted heavy rain much of the day. Then they changed it to scattered thunderstorms but kept te probability of showers at 80%. We had a very thin line of storms move through the region last evening but the sky has cleared considerably. The forecast is still 80% chance of thunderstorms with the possibility that one or two might be quite severe. Radar, however shows almost no activity anywhere in Pennsylvania so if it is going to rain, they will have to develop swiftly, a la Florida storms. Since the air temperature is up into the mid-70s (some 15 degrees above normal), I suppose that the storm development is a possibility.

All that is to say we had a beautiful morning for a walk. There wasn’t a breath of a breeze when we started at 8:30 AM as witnessed by the flag at the park headquarters. The lake was mirror smooth for much of the two hours we walked along its shoreline.

The group was small, consisting of only four people: myself, Audrey (the Park Ranger), and Ron and Mary Jo, a husband and wife pair who are also members of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society but who disappear for months at a time to travel around the country. They have a house near the park and are frequent visitors for walks along the trails and roads. We had a good time despite the low turnout.

Here’s today’s report:
Location: Hills Creek State Park
Observation date: 4/26/08
Notes: Warm, very clear and still. Temperature: between 55 and 75. The eagle was a juvenile and had not yet developed its white head or tail.
Number of species: 27

Canada Goose 6
Mallard 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Ring-billed Gull 8
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue Jay 10
American Crow 12
Tree Swallow 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Eastern Bluebird 2
American Robin 4
European Starling 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 8
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)