Tioga County Birding: Other (usually) Hot Spots

My second stop was at Darling Run at the northern end of the Pine Creek Gorge. There has been an active Bald Eagle nest across the creek from the parking area and I was hoping to find someone home. No such luck. They had two nests in a pine tree (always with the renovations!) but two winters ago one had been destroyed by high winds and ice. Last year a mated pair of eagles fledged three young out of the remaining nest. But this year, it didn't look like they were back again.

Worse, there were no birds along the creek either. No geese, no mergansers, no ducks. Nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Time to move on again.

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The next stop was at The Muck along Route 287. The Tiadaghton Audubon Society has built and maintained a boardwalk and blind on the south end of The Muck for several years. Usually it's a good place to see lots of Wood Duck, Mallards, Egrets, Herons, Kingfishers and Rails. Usually. Today: three or four Red-winged Blackbirds, an Eastern Bluebird, one Great Blue Heron, and several pairs of Canada Geese.

A pert little Eastern Bluebird greeted me to The Muck

The Great Blue Heron wasn't as friendly.
First he hid amongst the reeds...

...then he headed off for a more distant location.

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One more stop before I headed back to what were sure to be some angry, hungry pussycats. Hills Creek State Park.

I knew they were having an open house at the sugar shack so, even if there were no birds around, I could visit with my friend, Ranger Patterson who is the Maple Syrup Queen of HCSP when she's not leading nature walks at Leonard Harris SP.

First thing I noticed when I drove in was the lack of ice on the lake. It was there just three days ago. And a small raft of what looked like Ring-necked Ducks were sitting just far enough out that pictures were out of the question. Same for the small number of Tundra Swans at the other end of the lake.

As for Ranger Patterson, she was giving a demonstration to a family on how to tap a maple tree and hang a sap bucket on one of the trees in the parking area near the beach. The park's little sugar bush is some 110 or so trees and she uses tubing and plastic spiles on that hillside, but for the small timer a dozen metal buckets and spiles in the trees closest to the house are easy to maintain.

We talked for a bit after the demonstration was over. The campground areas of the park are still closed and she couldn't open them on the weekend for me to go down and do some birding so I was restricted to the area I could pretty much see unless I wanted to do some hiking.

Then, just as I was about to give up and head home, I spotted an immature Bald Eagle over the northern end of the lake and though I'd walk down to the shoreline to see if it would come closer. As it turned out, there were three immature eagles circling one another and tumbling in the air. They broke up and started to gain altitude prior to slipping over the hillside. I managed to snap a few pictures before they disappeared. This one turned out the best.

Immature Bald Eagle