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
Finding a Little Gull in Illinois
Three days ago, March 26th, I had only about six hours to go birding. I talked with my friend Andy Sigler to see what would be possible, and we outlined the possibilities. We could go to the Kankakee River (Kankakee County) for White-winged Scoters, go to Dresden Lock and Dam (Grundy County) for White-winged and possibly a Surf Scoter, hit … 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
Bald Eagle sightings
This morning I ran over to Bald Eagle State Park to look for any waterfowl put down by all the rain we had received. I had read on the PABirds listserv of other good sightings in the western part of the state, most notably a Black-legged Kittiwake at Yellow Creek State Park. I didn’t find anything rare, but I did … 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