Each of the four seasons has something special to offer the birding world. I will always cherish the lively color and music of spring when birds return after months of absence. Winter brings the festive joy of Christmas Bird Counts and new year lists, while summer offers breeding bird surveys and plenty of free time for adventures. Even so, I … Read More
Finch Flight Frenzy
“Mr. Healy, I have a question I’ve been meaning to ask you.” My coworker approached me as I was stowing my binoculars after a brief pre-work survey of the schoolyard. “I’ve been at my place in northern Jersey for years now, but this year I’ve noticed something different. There are these birds, I can only describe them as…finches?” I smiled, … Read More
Failed chase, waterfowl, and a dark Rough-legged Hawk
My friends and I were bummed that we had missed out on a very chase-able Eurasian Wigeon during the spring and thought we had lost our chase to get that species for our PA state lists. That was until last week, when a male Eurasian Wigeon was reported at Yellow Creek SP, which is about 1.5 hrs from State College. … Read More
Rochester finches
On Sunday Ramsay called itching to take a trip to see some winter finches. A couple spots around Rochester have been reliably reporting good flocks of crossbills and redpolls at the Holy Sepulchre cemetery and Pine Grosbeaks at campground area of Webster Park along Lake Ontario. We had great luck immediately when we arrived at #21 in the Riverside/Holy Sepulchre … Read More
Connecticut Crossbills
November 20th was the last day of our 5 day birding trip through coastal New England. Our goals for the day were to bird various hotspots in Connecticut and try to find some of the recently-reported rarities as well as build a nice state list. None of the three us (Ian Gardner, Josh Lefever, or myself) had ever eBirded in … Read More
White-winged Crossbills have arrived!
Yesterday was yet another great birding day all over the state. On top of a number of rarities still hanging around (Black Skimmer, Western Grebe, Pacific Loon, Calliope Hummingbird), winter finches have really arrived in full force, including more Evening Grosbeaks, Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins, and finally, White-winged Crossbills! Â Red Crossbills arrived in September and many are currently pushing their … Read More
Winter Finch forecast 2011-12
Ron Pittaway has released his annual Winter Finch forecast and there is not a lot of good news for all us in the mid-Atlantic hoping for a good year for crossbills, redpolls and grosbeaks. Despite the fact that we have a good cone crop in our region, birds will likely stay to our north were there are also good cone … Read More
Laws of Winter Birding
I saw this on the Birdchat listserv several years ago and enjoyed it. And boy, are they true. 1) The older we get, the colder it feels while birding. Global warming is counterbalanced by personal cooling. 2) The possibility of seeing a Gyrfalcon is inversely proportional to the listing need. 3) Red Crossbills never land. Never. As in nada. 4) … Read More