With the first month of the year officially behind us now, I thought I would take a look the current status of my year list. Beginning a new year is always fun – every single bird is ‘new’, it’s winter, and there are typically a bunch of winter rarities and other good birds around to chase. You never really know what the … Read More
Common Redpolls invade central Pennsylvania!
Common Redpolls began showing up along Pennsylvania’s northern tier and particularly the Lake Erie coastline earlier this fall, but sightings throughout the rest of the state have been few and far between. Presque Isle State Park has consistently had flocks of 100+ migrating past or feeding on birches since October but in the central and southern portions of the state, birders that … Read More
Now it’s December.
Not too long ago it was October 30th – Hurricane Sandy was ripping through PA and we were chasing storm birds like crazy. Then when we had time in November, we went on a 5 day birding trip and then did some PA rarity chases. Now all of a sudden, it’s December. I figured it would be a good idea … Read More
Hurricane Sandy storm-birding at Bald Eagle SP, PA
Hurricane Sandy created perfect conditions for rarities to show up in Pennsylvania. I will admit I was skeptical of just how disruptive this storm would be. Hurricanes in the northeast tend to get exaggerated by the media, and they always seem to lose power quickly and break up once they hit land. But Hurricane Sandy was really the perfect storm; … Read More
PA Fall Migration Predictions – End of Oct: Part 1
October is a very special time of the year in Pennsylvania. The first week of the month there are still a ton of neotropical migrants around, but then their numbers start to drop off drastically. Coming to the rescue are the sparrows and raptors, which really excel during the second half of the month. Waterfowl also begin to trickle through … Read More
Evening Grosbeak! – Centre County, PA
Due to low conifer and hardwood tree seed supplies in eastern Canada, it has been predicted that this year could be a good one for Evening Grosbeaks to visit Pennsylvania. Evening Grosbeak is a species I have been missing on my PA list. They are also the ABA Bird of the Year so I knew that as soon as a chaseable report came … Read More
Slow Summer Birding…..
The past few weeks birding has been pretty slow here in central Pennsylvania. Most of the breeding warbler species have stopped singing and are busy tending to their young and fall migration is just barely getting underway. It gets very hot by nine or ten in the morning and then activity stops altogether until around 8:30pm. Really the only thing … Read More
Yellow-breasted Chat – Bald Eagle SP
On June 10th, Joe Verica found a singing male Yellow-breasted Chat near the Frog Pond at Bald Eagle State Park. Chats are fairly uncommon in Centre County, with rarely more than 2 or 3 reported per year. I was lucky enough to get my first Centre County chat on September 3rd, 2010 when we captured one while bird banding in … Read More
Birding Cup Results!
We are excited to announce that the Nemesis Birders won the Birding Cup with 151 species! Read below for a summary of our 24 hours of birding. We started the evening of the the Cup by scouting out areas around Bald Eagle State Park. After some lucky finds, we headed to our starting place and waited until 7pm to twitch … Read More
Nemesis Birders live updates from the Birding Cup
As part of the fun of spending 24 hours chasing birds for the Birding Cup, the Nemesis Birders will be periodically sending out updates from the field. Justine’s group, the Loonatics, is competing in the Potter’s Mug competition and will also be posting some updates. Check back periodically to join in the fun and see how we are doing! And … Read More