Now that Christmas is officially over I feel as if I should past what I got today. Highlights include a brand new eastern edition of Sibley’s, a tiny little camera case, an awesome Mountain Hardwear down vest, and some clothes. But the most exciting present of all was a year’s subscription to Birds of North America (BNA) Online from Cornell … Read More
Strike on shrike
I have a brand new miss for my list. There was a Northern Shrike reported around the same area as that mystery empid (probably Least Flycatcher) during the Solanco CBC. It was in an easy to locate area and close to my girlfriends house so I decided to give it a shot today. There was at least one other birder … Read More
Happy Feet but sad Rockhoppers
For a great animated flick with a hint of conservation I would recommend the new movie, Happy Feet. The main theme is about a young Emperor Penguin who can’t sing the typical mate attracting song, but rather has a knack for dancing. The Independent in the UK recently had an article about the dramatic decline of the Rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome), … Read More
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Record Setting Year
As an intern at Hawk Mountain this past fall I was privileged to be there for an excellent season. Records set included:-the 4th highest one-day Broad-winged Hawk count (7,508)-a tie for the one-day Northern Harrier record (36)–season record for Golden Eagles (164)-season record for Merlins (204)–tied for season record for Peregrine Falcons (62)-Mississippi Kite (1, 5th record) Also, Turkey and … Read More
and I missed the Thayer’s Gull
Missed another good bird yesterday. There was a Thayer’s Gull reported at Memorial Lake State Park along with a first cycle Iceland Gull. Both are good for the area with Thayer’s being especially hard to find this far east. It was a second cycle bird that had been seen at least several nights coming in to roost. Due to the … Read More
Solanco CBC wrapup
The day started at 4am with a couple productive hours of owling around Octorara Lake. Using calls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s recent release, Voices of North American Owls, we managed to hear (but not see) 5 species of owls; 6 N. Saw-whet Owls, 6 E. Screech Owls, 2 Long-eared Owls, 2 Great Horned Owls and 1 Barn Owl. … Read More
my flickr groups
Thought you should all know that there are some excellent uses for the photo sharing site, Flickr.I just started two groups to document the variation of Song Sparrows and Fox Sparrows across North America. Because of the new mapping feature I hope to make it possible to quickly look at photos of all the different subspecies of these two sparrows. … Read More
Funny birding video
I found this on youtube.com. Pretty interesting characters giving some not so good birding tips.
Foggy Birding at Lake Ontelaunee
It was wonderfully foggy yesterday but I decided I wanted to see what the lake held before the fog lifted and everything flew off. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that I could barely see anything on the lake. There was a good flock of Canada Geese with one young Snow Goose mixed in as well as a Red-breasted Merganser. … Read More
Good News for Whooping Cranes
Sometimes good news is hard to come by so I am happy to say that the first wild hatched Whooping Crane chick from the Operation Migration flock has successfully completed its fall migration to Florida. Currently the flock consists of 64 released cranes plus the 1 wild hatched chick. I was lucky enough to see a pair of Whooping Cranes … Read More