Saturday, May 15, 2010

Aerie Report, May 15, 2010

A productive day at the Aerie. And a beautiful day, too. Clear skies with temperatures starting in the low 40s and working up to the mid-60s.

It started with our Saturday morning bird walk over at Colton Point State Park. bolstered by a few actual campers and the Grand Canyon Photography Club, we had 14 people attend. We all enjoyed a leisurely walk along the west Rim of the Canyon as we struggled to identify the clearly heard but difficult to see warblers high up in the trees. A few birds made our task easy by flying down low and sticking around in one spot long enough for us to make a positive ID even if they didn't pose long enough for any photos. I ended the day with a list of 27 species:

Location: Colton Point
Observation date: 5/15/10
Notes: Beautiful morning. Clear, little breeze, temperature rose from 45 to 57.
Number of species: 27

Ruffed Grouse X
Turkey Vulture X
Bald Eagle X
Sharp-shinned Hawk X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker X
Hairy Woodpecker X
Pileated Woodpecker X
Eastern Wood-Pewee X
Blue-headed Vireo X
Red-eyed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Red-breasted Nuthatch X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
Brown Creeper X
Hermit Thrush X
American Robin X
Chestnut-sided Warbler X
Black-throated Blue Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Black-throated Green Warbler X
Blackburnian Warbler X
Ovenbird X
Hooded Warbler X
Scarlet Tanager X
Chipping Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco X

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

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One couple who were camping over at Ive's Run, happened to be from Washington, New Jersey--the one in Warren County--which is where I used to do my hunting. We talked about a variety of things including trailer camping, places to bird in PA and NJ, and the beauty of this area of PA in general. They expressed concern that they were outsiders in a group that pretty well knew one another already, but I think they fit in quite well with their interest in birds and photography. They were there because the had seen Gary's pictures on Flicker and had been emailing him for a few weeks.

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After the bird walk, Terry and I went up to Camping World in Bath to look around and pick up some items for our up-coming trip. Looking at the prices of the trailers, they had on the lot, I've got to agree with Terry when she says we got a Cadillac of a trailer at a Volkswagon price. These things are not cheap--even used.

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Back at the Aerie by 1 PM, I got to work on doing some staining. In nearly six hours on the west side of the deck, I got 26 feet of balusters done on three sides. Since this side has the most uneven ground and required my propping the step ladder up with flat rocks every time I moved it, I feel I accomplished quite a bit.

Tomorrow I get to work on the front or northern side of the deck. While the ground here is pretty flat, the bottom of the balusters is close to 10 feet off the ground. This will put me at the very top of the ladder to reach the top of the balusters. Then I'll move on to the short 10' section on the east end of the deck. If I can get those done tomorrow, I can work from the deck surface on Monday to to the one side of each baluster and the inside of the bottom rail which will be a much easier task. I'll need to keep an eye on the weather, however. I need at least 12--and preferably 24--hours of drying time and showers are forecast for Tuesday.


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