“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
This Week in Birding 36
Charlotte Wasylik is a young, active birder hailing from Alberta, Canada. A junior in high school, she has already done an internship with Long Point Bird Observatory helping with migration monitoring. Charlotte frequently posts excellent collections of birding news on her own Prairie Birder blog and will now be crossposting them on Nemesis Bird as well. We are looking forward to … Read More
Another year of birding underway!
With the first month of the year officially behind us now, I thought I would take a look the current status of my year list. Beginning a new year is always fun – every single bird is ‘new’, it’s winter, and there are typically a bunch of winter rarities and other good birds around to chase. You never really know what the … Read More
Hoary Redpoll and WRS Part 2
Due to a closed bridge, I was only able to access the western two-thirds of my Winter Raptor Survey (link to Part 1), so today Josh Lefever and I ran the last third as its own survey. The weather was great, with a bright sun and blue skies accentuating the snow-covered stripmines of northern Centre County, Pennsylvania. Within the first … Read More
Winter Rarities at Cape May Point SP
It isn’t much of a secret that Cape May Point State Park, at the southern tip of New Jersey, is one of the country’s top birding locations and rarity traps. Every winter something interesting turns up at the park and stays for a few days, weeks, or maybe even over-winters there. This winter, however, is totally off the charts! Besides … Read More
Common Redpolls invade central Pennsylvania!
Common Redpolls began showing up along Pennsylvania’s northern tier and particularly the Lake Erie coastline earlier this fall, but sightings throughout the rest of the state have been few and far between. Presque Isle State Park has consistently had flocks of 100+ migrating past or feeding on birches since October but in the central and southern portions of the state, birders that … Read More
Pink-footed fiasco turns into a great day of birding!
This morning, Ian Gardner and I joined up and drove from Hershey out to Peace Valley Park in Bucks County, PA to try our luck at finding the Pink-footed Goose that has returned for its second winter in the area. The bird would have been a lifer for the both of us and a species I REALLY want to see, … Read More
Review- Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania
[dc]M[/dc]y first field job was working as a point counter for the Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania. Not only did this give me a huge boost in my birding by ear skills, it also introduced me to the Pennsylvania birding community and was instrumental in starting my involvement in ornithology in PA. I ended working for three years … Read More
Thanksgiving Rarity Round-up Summary
It has taken me a month to finally post about all the rarities and other cool birds that Josh Lefever, Ian Gardner, and I chased through the southern New England states over the weekend before Thanksgiving. Since they are scattered around our archives throughout the last month, I thought I would make it easier and summarize the trip very briefly … Read More
State College CBC 2012
Sunday was this year’s date for the State College Christmas Bird Count. This was my second year running the Bear Meadows and Rockview Property routes. Last year Drew Weber, Steve Brenner, and I birded the route together but this year it was me and Josh Lefever. My goal for last year was to find 50 species, but we were only … Read More