Thursday Thoughts, 7/9/09

Terry and I went blueberry picking Wednesday morning. We only spent an hour and brought home nearly four quarts of blueberries. I put them all in the freezer.

WallyWorld is selling blueberries at $2 per pint so we picked about $15 worth of berries and paid only $7.50. Not too shabby.

I plan on going back either Friday or Monday.

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It never got much above 62 degrees on Wednesday as the sky was heavily overcast much of the day. Thursday was a little better. It started out around 50 degrees with lots of dense fog in the usual low-lying places but the sun eventually burned that off and the temperature at the Aerie reached 78 late in the afternoon.

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Terry and I met Gary over at Darling Run on Pine Creek and we did a bit of birding this morning. At first it looked like it might be a challenge since there was a pretty good layer of fog in the creek valley, but one of the first birds we spotted was a mature Bald Eagle across the creek. Later, a mature Bald Eagle would be seen in the same area feeding two fledged young.

Mature Bald Eagle at Darling Run

Newly fledged Bald Eagle at Darling Run

We also spotted a female Common Merganser leading her horde of eleven young down the far side of the creek. I must say the baby mergs are great entertainment and very beautiful little things. Wearing mottled brown and white fluffy coats they are much prettier than the usual dull yellow and gray of ducklings and gosslings.

Female Common Merganser and her brood.

As we were taking pictures of young eagles and mergansers, a pair of does, a fawn still in spots and a young buck entered the creek about 75 yards away. They came into the creek through the high grasses around a stream mouth, waded north a short way and then returned the same way. As soon as they stepped away from the waters of Pine Creek, they disappeared from view.

A short time later, Terry and I left the creek and headed back to the truck. Stepping into the rails-to-trails bike path, I looked north and saw seven more deer: six does and one spotted fawn. They were in the section of the trail we had walked just minutes before. (Sorry. No deer pics as they were either too far away or two fast for me.)

We ended up tallying 21 species. Here's the list:
Location: Pine Creek/Darling Run
Observation date: 7/9/09
Notes: Cool, foggy morning with the temperature just 60 degrees when we started from Darling Run walking north along the rails-to-trails bike path. We stopped at the Rt 6 overpass and walked back to the parking area.

Number of species: 21

Canada Goose X
Common Merganser X
Great Blue Heron X
Green Heron X
Bald Eagle X
Mourning Dove X
Belted Kingfisher X
Eastern Phoebe X
Red-eyed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Tree Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Veery X
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Cedar Waxwing X
Common Yellowthroat X
Song Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal X
Common Grackle X

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

Song Sparrow on Pine Creek

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Returning from our bird walk, I decided to check on the second clutch of American Robins that have been raised on the corner of the Aerie. I found that two of the four young have already moved on. Another seemed about to do the same.

Juvenile American Robin about to hit the air waves.

This is the second nest constructed in the same spot. I removed the first after the four young had left. This one, too, will be removed once the last baby robin hits the road. Since Dad (or Mom) has a penchant for the plastic strips from a rotted tarp that once covered the wood pile, he (or she) has served as a clean-up crew in collecting the strands that I missed. Consider it rent.

Meanwhile, on the opposite corner of the Aerie, the Phoebe clan has apparently left us. Not only is the nest empty, but the birds haven't been seen for two or three days. And what a mess they left behind on the rocks below the nest! Oh, well.