I’ve always appreciated the seasonality of birding. When you’re paying close attention to the goings-on in the world outside your windows, the annual cycle of nature is conspicuous and easy to track. This visible, reliable schedule has been a major boon throughout the pandemic, which has caused weeks and months to blur together and warp all perception of time. The … Read More
Blue Heron Wetlands in Titusville FL – a birder’s guide
Last year during the World Digiscopers Meeting, there was an outing to a local birding hotspot in Titusville called Blue Heron Wetlands. We spent a few hours in the afternoon sun and wind, which produced very little. Needless to say, I wasn’t too impressed. That was until I revisited the site last week. In this post, I’ll give tips and … Read More
Stilt Sandpiper and Friends at Merritt Island NWR
Anna and I visited Merritt Island NWR late in the afternoon on May 26th. Birding was relatively slow due to the time of day and because of how few migrants are around. We were able to find 32 species along the Black Point Wildlife Drive (eBird checklist), including a few FOY species for us – Least Terns, Gull-billed Terns, White-rumped … Read More
Centre County Waterfowl Report 2/29/12
Many of us here in Centre County have brought up the idea of trying to coordinate efforts on rainy days when waterfowl could get forced down, by checking every single body of water in the county during the same block of hours, and trying to get a full picture of how the storm affected waterfowl migration. Today everything fell into … Read More
Eared Grebe- Bald Eagle State Park
I had already spent a good portion of my morning looking through the sparse waterfowl at Bald Eagle State Park and was planning on spending some quality time at Jo Hayes Vista, looking for Golden Eagles and Northern Goshawks. This was not to be. Soon after I left Bald Eagle State Park today I got a text saying that Joe … Read More
Coot flock
The last several times I was at Bald Eagle State Park there was a large flock of American Coots foraging, diving and rough-housing around one of the better vantage points looking across the lake. I think it is amusing to watch them jump out of the water before they dive under and then pop back out. I took this video … Read More
Return of the Waterfowl
Ducks, geese, grebes and loons are coming back which is exciting as it is one of the groups of birds that I am largely missing from my Centre County bird list, having moved to the area too late to catch them on their northbound migration in the spring. I just added both Red-necked Grebe and Black Scoter to my county … Read More