Almost every winter portions of the Great Lakes freeze up for the winter. This winter the Northeast already has two episodes of a ‘polar vortex’ under its belt, and a large percentage of the Great Lakes are frozen tight. Surveys earlier this month have reported 88% ice cover on January 12 and 62% on January 14 by the NOAA Great Lakes … Read More
Winter Red-necked Grebe – Centre County, PA
This afternoon I found this adult Red-necked Grebe at the Axemann Rd pond in Centre County. This is only the 2nd January record for the county, and the location is very odd (small, shallow pond along a road). Red-necked Grebes are rare migrants in central Pennsylvania. Typically only single birds or small groups are seen on stormy days during fall … Read More
EVERY Grebe Species at Memorial Lake
Pennsylvania Grebe Perfection. Every species of grebe (Avian order Podicipediformes, family Podicipedidae), that has EVER been documented in Pennsylvania was present at the SAME place, at the SAME TIME, at Memorial Lake State Park on Sunday, November 4, 2012. Coincidentally, it was also my birthday. While my girlfriend and I were originally planning to visit a brewery in Downingtown, by … Read More
BESP – Red-necked Grebe, etc
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
First Week of Flammulated Owl Surveys!
This past week instead of searching for curlew nests, my coworker Oly Olson and I went to southeastern Idaho to begin the first week of surveys for Flammulated Owls. Anna stayed behind to keep an eye on the curlews and search for nests. Oly and I visited some really amazing places and this week of traveling around southeast Idaho really … Read More
Red-necked Grebes and Black Scoters at BESP
Since Drew and I are living in the State College area for this year and the next, the posts on this site will be quite centered around Centre County, PA. As you might have read, Drew is attempting a Centre County Big year, while I am desperately trying to catch up (although I just started birding in the county August 23rd). On … Read More