This morning Drew Weber, Josh Lefever, Nadia Barkawi, and I drove out to Bald Eagle State Park to see if any of the waterfowl Drew and I had found yesterday were still around. Our first stop was to Lower Greens Run, where Josh spotted a Red-necked Grebe. Before long, Joe Verica, Mike Dreibelbis, Jim Dunn, and one or two other … Read More
Bald Eagle State Park – Black Scoters
This morning, Drew Weber and I birded BESP in the rain/snow and were able to find some great birds including 6 Black Scoters, 2 Surf Scoters, and a lone Brant among a lot of other waterfowl. These were the first Black Scoters reported so far this fall in Centre County and our second Brant of the year. Weather conditions made … Read More
Ruddy Turnstone and banded Common Tern at BESP
Four of us went back out to Bald Eagle State Park this morning to try to find the Ruddy Turnstone again. As soon as we arrived at the dam, we saw the Ruddy Turnstone foraging down in the grass alongside Killdeer and Bonaparte’s Gulls. Twice the entire group flushed for some reason but then quickly resettled on the grass. The … Read More
Six Species of Shorebirds at BESP
This morning, I made a very quick run out to Bald Eagle State Park to see if any interesting birds were put down by the storm at the swimming beach. As soon as I pulled up to the beach parking area, I saw some Caspian Terns loafing with a few gulls. The Caspian Tern group contained 2 adults, 1 juvenile, … Read More
More storm birds at Bald Eagle
This afternoon, amped up by reports of Hudsonian Godwit and a jaeger at Conejohela Flats in Lancaster County, Alex and I decided to make another quick run out to Bald Eagle State Park to see what birds had dropped down in the continuing bad weather. The four Sanderlings from this morning were still on the beach but the most exciting … Read More
Semipalmated Plovers and Sanderlings at BESP
Yesterday afternoon Nate Fronk reported Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers, and Semipalmated Sandpipers at the Bald Eagle State Park swimming beach. I wasn’t able to run over yesterday, but first thing this morning Josh Lefever, Mark Mizak, Ian Gardner and I drove over and met up with Nate and Drew Weber. Four juvenile Sanderlings and two adult Semipalmated Plovers were foraging on … Read More
Storm Birding 8/28/11
With ‘Hurricane Irene’ moving up the east coast, and coming in it’s closest contact yet with Pennsylvania today all of us Centre County birders were excited to see if it would cause any interesting birds to stop at Bald Eagle State Park or any of the other water bodies in the county. Anna and I got to Bald Eagle early … Read More
BESP 8/25/11 – Forster’s Terns, Common Loon, etc
I made a quick run over to Bald Eagle State Park this morning and was rewarded with a few interesting species; two Forster’s Terns (a juvenile and an adult at the swimming beach), a very early Common Loon, two juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers, and a Least Sandpiper. The Common Loon, which was a 1st summer bird, this is the third record … Read More
Bald Eagle SP Caspian Tern and Dunlin
This evening I went to Bald Eagle State Park to help set up a banding site for the Bald Eagle Birding Festival. I got there a bit early to see if there was anything around and I was glad I did. On the beach there was a single Caspian Tern in the company of about 20 ratty looking Ring-billed Gulls. … Read More
Molting Horned Grebes
Today at Bald Eagle State Park there were quite a few Horned Grebes. They are not yet in their full breeding plumage but a few of them were working on it. I got photos of one grebe that was swimming close to shore and was starting to molt in some of the gold ear patch. One thing that really stuck … Read More