Sunday on the Road

For the second consecutive night I woke up in terrible pain. My jaw and now my neck and left shoulder. Obviously this is not a muscle problem and must be nerve related. I'll be going to the clinic bright and early Monday morning even if, as it is currently doing, the pain eases up.

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Terry left Louisville, KY early this morning hoping to get home around 5 PM. I got a phone call around 8:30 AM and she reported she was stuck somewhere on I-71. There had been a traffic accident involving a fatality and everything was at a stand still. The trucker next to her was her source of information. He also told her that, based upon his personal experience, they might be there for a few hours. She has water, grapes and energy bars. What she lacks is a toilet. I told her to look for a motorhome/travel trailer but she says there's nothing but truckers. I then reminded her that some of those sleeper cabs may have a toilet, too. She said she'd pass.

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After Terry's call, I decided to get outside myself and do some more birding. I went back north to the Tioga-Hammond Lakes overlook, then to the Ive's Run Campground (both the lakes and the campground are Corps of Engineers projects created after the floods caused by Hurricane Agnes back in 1972) and finally drove the Rail Road Grade Trail but stopping at the food plots about half way.

Saw a couple of new birds for the year and listed more than I saw. (I've seen Rock Pigeons, Starlings and Grackles as I drive around, but never listed them on eBird until today. I mean, the roof of a barn or the spillage of a grain mill are not your prime birding spots. Well, at least they aren't mine.)

Here's the list(s) from today's foray: Again, first-of-the-year birds are denoted with an *.

Hammond-Tioga Lakes Overlook, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 9:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.5 mile(s)
Comments:     I started counting from the spillway of the Tioga Lake dam and right on up to and including the overlook of the weir between Hammond and Tioga Lakes.
16 species

Canada Goose
Redhead *
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Ring-billed Gull *
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) *
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
European Starling *
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle *

Ive's Run-Hammond Lake, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments:     Drove from the first boat launch to the second through the day-use areas between.
15 species

Canada Goose
Bald Eagle
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
European Starling
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Rail Road Grade Trail, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.5 mile(s)
Comments:     Drove the trail from east (Hammond Lake) to west. Stopped at the state gameland's food plots for a time and it was there I saw most of the birds.
14 species

Canada Goose
Common Merganser
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker *
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird


This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

The addition of these "new" birds brings me up to 41 species in Tioga County this year. I was hoping for more today since the wind shifted from the south to coming out of the north and that should have produced something of a fall out. Didn't happen here. The lakes were pretty much devoid of ducks . (Except for Tioga Lake which had quite a few Common Mergansers and Redheads.)

I ran into Gary and Ken, two of my birding buddies and they reported the same thing. The lakes are empty when they really shouldn't be. 

Oh well, there's always tomorrow...or the day after.