Nice Finds on a Transitional Day ~ February 17, 2023

While waiting for the morning's steadier rain to let up, I had 16 Common Grackles perch in one of the neighbor's trees. Once it wound down, I headed for Green Pond. The flooded field area held 61 Mallards, 9 American Black Ducks, 6 Green-winged Teal, 2 Northern Pintails, and 2 Killdeer.

Northern Pintail

Killdeer

A Great Blue Heron was at the main pond and 2 Eastern Bluebirds and 3 American Goldfinches were in the brush by the treeline along the golf course.

Four more Eastern Bluebirds were seen along Hecktown Road on the way to the Regency Boulevard retention ponds. The north pond at Regency held 3 Lesser Scaup, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, and 5 Killdeer.

Lesser Scaup

Hooded Mergansers

Killdeer

On the way to the Silver Crest Road pond, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew across Route 512 and landed in a pine tree by the Unangst Tree Farm. Then, just north of there, an adult male Northern Harrier flew across the road and continued westward.

Northern Harrier

The Siver Crest Road pond produced 4 Ring-necked Ducks and 3 Ruddy Ducks among the Canada Geese.

I drove past a pond on Sickle Road and saw 8 Gadwall and a Belted Kingfisher.

Gadwall

Belted Kingfisher

Next, I stopped at a spot in Moore Township and found 4 Red-winged Blackbirds and a Winter Wren, which not surprisingly, never cooperated for a photo. While there, a Peregrine Falcon zipped by. I did manage to get a few dark photos of that before it went behind the treeline.

Peregrine Falcon

I checked a few spots for Horned Larks but was unsuccessful.

On the way home, I checked the Nazareth Quarry. There were only five (yes, 5) Snow Geese there. Other birds seen there included 46 Ruddy Ducks, 17 American Black Ducks, 11 Buffleheads, 8 Common Mergansers, and 7 American Coots.

In a little over 6-1/2 hours, I registered 39 species. The day's list follows.

1 Snow Goose
2 Canada Goose
3 Mallard
4 American Black Duck
5 Gadwall
6 Green-winged Teal
7 Northern Pintail
8 Ring-necked Duck
9 Lesser Scaup
10 Bufflehead
11 Hooded Merganser
12 Common Merganser
13 Ruddy Duck
14 Great Blue Heron
15 Turkey Vulture
16 Black Vulture
17 Northern Harrier
18 Red-tailed Hawk
19 Peregrine Falcon
20 American Coot
21 Killdeer
22 Mourning Dove
23 Belted Kingfisher
22 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
23 Downy Woodpecker
24 Blue Jay
25 American Crow
26 Black-capped Chickadee
27 Tufted Titmouse
28 White-breasted Nuthatch
29 Winter Wren
30 European Starling
31 Eastern Bluebird
32 Song Sparrow
33 White-throated Sparrow
34 Dark-eyed Junco
35 Northern Cardinal
36 Red-winged Blackbird
37 House Finch
38 American Goldfinch
39 House Sparrow

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