American Golden-Plover and White-rumped Sandpiper at Hollo Road! ~ September 17, 2023

Ryan Goodine had asked about the Horned Larks at the Newburg Road retention pond site. I told him that I was going to Jacobsburg State Park in the morning, so if he wanted to meet me there or later at the hospital, I'd try and help him locate them. He decided to meet me at Jacobsburg, so we met at around 7:30 AM and headed up the trail behind the Environmental Center building. We ended up with 37 species that included eleven species of warblers plus a Yellow-throated Vireo, 14 Red-eyed Vireos, 4 Eastern Wood-Pewees, a Swainson's Thrush, at least 30 Cedar Waxwings, and 17 'fly-by' Ring-billed Gulls. The eleven warbler species included Ovenbird, Worm-eating, Black-and-white, Cape May, Magnolia, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Northern Parula, and American Redstart.

We left Jacobsburg and drove down to the Newburg Road retention ponds site. We parked near the field by the hospital where I picked out a few Horned Larks in the patchy area of grass.

Horned Larks

We eventually ended up seeing fourteen birds. At the fenced-in retention pond, we saw a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron. Across the entrance road from the pond, I spotted 3 Savannah Sparrows, which was a 'lifer' for Ryan. He was able to get some nice photos of them.

I left Ryan and was driving over to my mom's house to mow her grass. I stopped along the way at the Hollo Road retention pond to see what might be there. I counted 2 Greater and 8 Lesser Yellowlegs before noticing a 'peep' in the northeastern corner of the pond. It turned out to be a White-rumped Sandpiper, a first-time sighting for me there! I put out a text about it and then slowly and carefully snuck down behind the near patch of trees and got a bunch of fairly nice photos of it.

White-rumped Sandpiper

Back at the car, I did another round of scoping of the pond when some more Yellowlegs dropped in. I was checking them out when I noticed another bird in that same northeast corner that turned out to be an American Golden-Plover! Once again, I sent out an alert and managed to get some pretty good photos of this, too!

American Golden-Plover

I got a mediocre photo of the plover and the White-rumped together, something I might not ever see again in the county.

The American Golden-Plover with the White-rumped Sandpiper.

A Common Raven also flew by, but I was only able to get a poor silhouette photo of it.

Common Raven

Several birders showed up a little later. While watching the birds, a 'fly-by' Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Great Crested Flycatcher were also spotted. I finally got to my mom's house and got her grass mowed just before the rain got too bad.

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