On August 9-13 the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology had an out-of-state field trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. A total of 35 participants ventured down to NC for several days of land birding followed by two days of pelagic trips out of Hatteras, NC. This series of posts will show some of the highlights of this epic trip! … Read More
Rarity Round-Up: A Four Day Birding Adventure
Click on links throughout this post to see our full eBird checklists and more photos for the locations mentioned! Last week I was sitting around campus with my friends Mark Mizak and Josh Lefever, thinking about the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. We knew we would have four days free and we knew we wanted to go birding. … Read More
Common Chaffinch and Snowy Owl – New Jersey
This morning Josh Lefever, Mark Mizak, and I began what will be a weekend-long birding trip throughout eastern PA and NJ. We first visited the Green-tailed Towhee at Berks County, PA and were able to see it after a few minutes of waiting in the howling wind and extreme cold. Next we tried for the juvenile White Ibis in Hamburg … Read More
Paynes Prairie SP – Sweetwater Dike
On January 5th I met up with Gainesville Birder Rex Rowan, to go birding along the Sweetwater Dike area of Paynes Prairie State Park. The Sweetwater Dike Trail is an offshoot of the well-known La Chua Trail. Rex and I met at 11:10am and began our hike. There had been an Ash-throated Flycatcher reported along the trail recently, so that … Read More
Green-tailed Towhee and White Ibis – Berks County, PA
I finally had a free day to run down to Berks County and attempt to see the Green-tailed Towhee and White Ibis. At 7:45am, four of my friends and I loaded up in my car and drove to Blue Marsh Lake, from Hershey. We arrived at 8:45am and began searching for the towhee along with quite a few other birders. … Read More
White Ibis chowing down on crayfish
Andy got some great footage of the Berks County White Ibis breaking down and eating a crayfish. He shot the footage at high speed and slowed it down so you can see the process in great detail.