Wow, does time fly by when you are on an eight day on, six day off schedule (this schedule is possibly the secret to life). I’ve finally gotten around to posting the second half of tour three on Santa Rosa Island, working for Institute for Wildlife Studies (Read part one here first!) Weather was excellent for the second half of tour 3 as … Read More
Fork-tailed Flycatcher – Hadlyme, Connecticut
Even aside from their ridiculously long tails, the Fork-tailed Flycatcher is beautiful. This bird’s black cap and light gray mantle make it one of the most interesting Tyrannus flyatchers – one of those birds that has always made me pause while skimming through a field guide and admire it. I always felt as if the Fork-tailed Flycatcher was a mythical … Read More
Somerset County Big Day, Spring 2012
Somerset County Spring ’12 Big Day On Sunday May 6, Jeff Payne, his son, Chris and I decided to do a big day in Somerset County PA. We were shooting for 150, a total Jeff thought would be very hard to hit in this county. We loosly planned a route in the days leading up to our big day, but … Read More
Townsend’s Warbler in PA!
A few days ago, Dr. Andy Green reported an adult female Townsend’s Warbler visiting his backyard along with a Pine Warbler. Once accepted, this Townsend’s Warbler will be PA’s 4th State Record. Today was the first day my friends and I were free to make the drive down to see this beautiful western warbler and we were rewarded with great … Read More
Nocturnal Critters
Conducting Flammulated Owl surveys requires a LOT of driving around during the dark as we try to get to our numerous ‘survey road points’. Sometimes we drive through forest, other times we drive through sagebrush on our way to forest; either way we see a lot of really cool nocturnal animals while driving. Often we also see lots of diurnal … Read More
Northern Lycoming CBC
This year I decided to try a new Christmas Bird Count, one much further north that had a chance of producing interesting birds such as Rough-legged Hawks, Lapland Longspurs and Northern Shrikes. The CBC that fit this bill and worked for my schedule was the Northern Lycoming CBC. We started owling at 5:30am and focused on two roads that held … Read More