Saturday, In the Park

What with all the Earth Day activities going on, the beginning of garage sale season and everyone being out of town (Pittsburgh, southern Maryland, Costa Rico!) and the very cold early temperatures (around 25 degrees before the sun got above the yardarm), turnout for the weekly Saturday bird walk at Hills Creek State Park was pretty light--as in just five of us with one having to leave early to go to work.

No matter. Those of us who were there had a good time and spotted some great birds! There were the Ruddy Duck and and Horned Grebe as well as several Common Loons on the lake, the several (!) pairs of Ospreys, a Barred Owl in the woods, and what we believe to be a Lincoln's Sparrow on the edge of one of the fields. The last is a real rarity in the area and will probably lead to some questions from eBird. But we got a pretty good look at it, got to hear it sing a couple of times and, between my Merlin App and Sibley's guidebook, I'm fairly confident with the ID.

From: ebird-checklist@cornell.edu
To: joated@aol.com
Sent: 4/21/2018 12:41:54 PM Eastern Standard Time
Subject: eBird Report - Hills Creek SP, Apr 21, 2018

Hills Creek SP, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Apr 21, 2018 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.5 mile(s)
Comments: Beautiful morning, but started a bit chilly at around 25 degrees. [It was in the upper 40's when we finished.]  Walked the usual route for a Park bird walk.
46 species

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Barred Owl: In the woods along the Mid-State Trail between the campground and the lake.
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow: One bird. Viewed out in the open. Distinctive song, yellowish mutton-chop whisker markings, thinnish bill. No yellow above the eye visible as in a Savannah Sparrow.
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch

Wednesday Birding around Wellsboro, PA

  

I took advantage of a relatively nice day on Wednesday (I won't call it a spring day as it was still a bit chilly for April 18th) to do some birding over around Wellsboro. I visited Hills Creek State Park, Darling Run on Pine Creek and the blind at The Muck off route 287. I only spent about an hour at each yet got to see some real nice birds. HCSP afforded some close up views of Horned Grebes and Common Loons as well as a Pine Warbler and Sharp-shinned Hawk. Being quite overcast, the lighting wasn't the best.

Horned Grebe

Common Loon

Pine Warbler

Sharp-shinned Hawk

The are of Darling Run (from the parking lot up to Pine Creek's confluence with Marsh Creek) allowed plenty of sightings of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets but those little buggers were way to quick for me to get a picture. The Belted Kingfisher always had its head turned the wrong way! And the Common Mergansers were j-u-s-t too far for a good shot.

The Muck provided pretty good views of Bufflehead and Green-winged Teal, but the use of autofocus with my camera gave me mixed success with other birds that hid behind and among the cattails. I had a Harrier fly past, too.

Bufflehead, four males and one female (on the left)

Green-winged Teal

I tried to get a picture of the Swamp Sparrow right outside the blind, but the camera kept focusing on the reeds. Then the bird took flight just as I pushed the button compounding the problem.

Swamp Sparrow

 Even a relatively cooperative Red-winged Blackbird sitting on a nesting box got messed up by the reeds.

Red-wing behind the reeds.

 I had to be careful to shoot between the reeds with a point focus setting.

Red-winged Blackbird.

I might have to go back to using my (heavy) Sony Alpha with the 600mm lens and manual focus.

Active Morning in Tioga County, PA

I had an interesting morning. It started with an early wake-up at 5 AM because today is Saturday and there was birding to be done at Hills Creek SP.

As I was feeding the cats, I heard a suspicious "thump!" out on the deck. Flicking on the outside lights my thoughts were confirmed. There were two bears out there raiding the feeders. The smaller was about my size (a shade over 200 pounds) while the larger was half again as big. I rapped on the windows and the large bear high-tailed it over the gate and into the woods. The smaller was too busy eating sunflower seeds and even ignored my second attempt to scare it away. It wasn't until I opened the front door and shouted at it that it reluctantly gave up its post and headed off after its partner in crime.

I decided NOT to feed the outdoor cats at that time...just in case.

******
After a brief stop at the McDonald's in Mansfield for a couple of sausage egg McMuffins a cup of coffee, I headed to HCSP to eat breakfast and listen to the birds wake up. I didn't start counting species until 7 AM. (The bird walks start at 8 AM, but by then I had already listed 15 species just around the park headquarters. We were to see/hear all of them during the walk.)

We started our walk shortly after 8 AM with 15 participants, several of whom are expert birders and photographers. We had a young girl with us--with her grandmother, a science teacher from Wellsboro, several members of the Methodist Church of Wellsboro (Rich Hanlon is the pastor there and was a leader of the walk this week), seven were members of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society, and a few other folks dropped by for the birding. Being as such a large group tends to move more slowly, not everyone could stay for the entire hike, but I believe everyone had a good time.

Three of us were keeping the (more or less) official count and, while we didn't quite agree at the end, we were all pretty close to the 48 species I recorded.
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Spotted Sandpiper
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch

All in all, not a bad day. This may have been the best morning I've had at HCSP in a long time.

PS: The outdoor cats did get fed when I got home at noon. The three of them were present.