Little Blue Heron Continues Plus a Semipalmated Sandpiper at Tatamy ~ July 31, 2025

Anne Coote, a resident at the Regency Boulevard retention ponds, sent me a photo of a Great Egret that was there in the morning. I had never seen one there, but I wasn't able to get over there until the early afternoon, and it had already left.

I stopped at the Trio Farms Boulevard retention ponds to see if the Common Gallinule might have returned after the vegetation around both ponds was cut down, but there was no sign of it. The only notable bird there was a Double-crested Cormorant.

I drove over to Green Pond to see if the immature Little Blue Heron was still there. When I got there, a construction crew had just finished paving the path along the golf course edge that used to be gravel. The continuing Great Egret was in the first pond next to Farmersville Road. I walked back the newly paved path to the southeast pond and found the Little Blue Heron there with 2 Green Herons.

The immature Little Blue Heron.

The flooded cornfield along Green Pond Road held 4 Least Sandpipers, a Lesser Yellowlegs, and a Killdeer.

The Tatamy Exit retention pond held a Semipalmated Sandpiper, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, one Spotted and one Solitary Sandpiper, a Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 Killdeer, a Great Blue Heron, and the continuing Great Egret.

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

Great Egret

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Pectorals, the Little Blue, and Lots of Swallows ~ July 30, 2025

The Pied-billed Grebe continued at the Hollo Road retention pond. A Bank Swallow was also there among some Barn Swallows.

Pied-billed Grebe

Over at the Tatamy Exit retention pond there were 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, 5 Least Sandpipers, one each of Spotted and Solitary Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Killdeer, plus 2 Green Herons, the continuing Great Egret, and a Great Blue Heron.

Pectoral Sandpiper

It was almost sunset when I checked Green Pond. The Little Blue Heron and Great Egret continued in the back southeast pond.

Little Blue Heron

They both eventually flew over and went to roost in the trees surrounding Green Pond.

Little Blue Heron

The Little Blue Heron (left) and the Great Egret (right) roosting at Green Pond.

Lots of swallows lined the wires next to the pond as they did around the same time last year. All of them were Northern Rough-winged Swallows with the exception of 3 Barn Swallows. An actual count of the birds in this photo was 293, so there were at least 300 there because several were flying around at the time.

Almost 300 Northern Rough-winged Swallows lining the wires.

The flooded cornfield along Green Pond Road held 4 Least Sandpipers and a Solitary Sandpiper.

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Little Blue Heron Still at Green Pond ~ July 29, 2025

I drove over to Green Pond to see if the immature Little Blue Heron was still there. I walked back the gravel path along the golf course edge to the southeast pond and found the Little Blue Heron there with a Great Egret.

The Great Egret (left) and the Little Blue Heron (right).

The immature Little Blue Heron.

There were also two Green Herons there. The flooded cornfield on the north side of Green Pond Road held 4 Least Sandpipers, a Solitary Sandpiper, and a Killdeer.

The Hollo Road retention pond was still very full, but the Pied-billed Grebe continued there along with 8 Barn Swallows, 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and 2 Eastern Kingbirds.

Eastern Kingbird

The Tatamy Exit retention pond held a Great Egret, a Great Blue Heron, 4 Killdeer, a Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 Spotted Sandpipers, and a Solitary Sandpiper.

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White Ibis AND Little Blue Heron in Northampton County! ~ July 27, 2025

In the early afternoon, Mike Schall posted a text alert that there was an immature White Ibis at East Bangor Dam! It took about an hour before I could head up there. When I arrived, Mike and Corinne were there along with Adam Miller and Adam and Owen Smith, but the bird had dropped out of sight in the thick vegetation. Adam, Owen, and I walked a little farther down the tracks to see if it had moved to the west, but it was still out of view. I had seen the previous two county records, so I wasn't that upset that it wasn't visible. It was really humid, so after about 15 minutes, we decided to walk back out to the car, watching along the way. Luckily, Adam spotted it flying east back towards where it was originally found. I got one fairly good photo of it in flight and another that was blurred, but I added it here to show the underwing pattern.

An immature White Ibis.

I also got a few of it after it landed near one of the Wood Duck boxes.

An immature White Ibis.

Three Wood Ducks, a Double-crested Cormorant, and a pair of Ospreys were also noted while there.

I stopped at the Tatamy Exit retention pond on the way back home and found 2 Great Blue Herons, a Great Egret, and 6 Least Sandpipers there.

Great Egret

The Hollo Road retention pond was very full from last night's rain, so there was no shoreline for shorebirds. I drove over to Green Pond and noticed the continuing Great Egret in the retention pond along Green Pond Road. A little farther down the road, I caught a glimpse of another white wader in the flooded cornfield on the north side of the road, but this one didn't look right for a Great Egret. I turned around at the intersection, parked, and slowly walked over to check it out. It was an immature Little Blue Heron! I took some photos of it and then sent out a text.

An immature Little Blue Heron.

A Green Heron was in the small, wooded pond by the house at the intersection.

Green Heron

Mike and Corinne showed up and saw the Little Blue. I checked the back retention ponds along the golf course edge and found a Great Blue Heron and two more Green Herons. While I was there, the Little Blue Heron flew over from the flooded field and landed in the southeast pond that I was at. I took a couple more photos of it and then had to get back home.

The immature Little Blue Heron.

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Green Pond, Hollo Road, and the Tatamy Exit Pond ~ July 24, 2025

I went over to Green Pond in the mid-afternoon. The flooded field on the north side of the road held some shorebirds. They included 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, a Solitary Sandpiper, a Spotted Sandpiper, a Least Sandpiper, and 4 Killdeer.

Five Lesser Yellowlegs.

Solitary Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

A pair of American Goldfinches were also there.

A pair of American Goldfinches.

Four Green Herons were in the back southeast pond, and a Great Egret was in the retention pond along Green Pond Road with 2 Great Blue Herons. A third Great Blue Heron was at Green Pond itself.

Great Egret

Over at the Hollo Road retention pond, I saw the continuing Pied-billed Grebe, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, and 2 Bank Swallows among some Northern Rough-wingeds.

Like the other day, my last stop was at the Tatamy Exit retention pond. There, I saw 11 Killdeer, 9 Least Sandpipers, a Solitary Sandpiper, and a Great Blue Heron among 97 Canada Geese.

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A Summer Sapsucker and Pond Checking ~ July 21, 2025

I went golfing with my friend, Ken, at the Shepherd Hills Golf Club near Wescosville. We got there around 7:30 AM. We were supposed to start on the 'back 9', so we went to the 10th tee, which has a line of tall White Pines along it. That's when I heard the down-slurring 'mew' calls of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! Unfortunately, I had no camera. I tried recording it, but it was barely audible during playback. I wish I would have thought about starting the Merlin app, but it didn't occur to me at the time, plus we had to continue on. On the opposite side of the open area, I then noticed a pair of Cooper's Hawk perched in a snag, which might have been why the sapsucker was constantly calling. Anyway, it was a bird I never expected to encounter in the middle of summer.

After golfing, I checked the Trio Farms retention ponds for the Common Gallinule. As another birder had reported, all of the cattails and other vegetation around the pond had been cut down, so its normal hiding and resting place was gone. I checked the other larger pond, which still had some cattails, but there was no sign of it. Three Green Herons were the only notable birds there.

My next stop was at the Hollo Road retention pond where I found a Pied-billed Grebe, a Solitary Sandpiper, 4 Cedar Waxwings, and an Eastern Kingbird.

Pied-billed Grebe

Solitary Sandpiper

Eastern Kingbird

My last stop was at the Tatamy Exit retention pond. There, I saw a Spotted Sandpiper, a Lesser Yellowlegs, a Least Sandpiper, and a Great Blue Heron plus 3 Killdeer.

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More Shorebirds at the Tatamy Exit Retention Pond ~ July 20, 2025

After mowing my mom's yard, I stopped at the Tatamy Exit retention pond. This new pond has been showing some real potential lately. I picked out a very early Pectoral Sandpiper, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, a Spotted Sandpiper, and 2 Least Sandpipers among 13 Killdeer.

Pectoral Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

Spotted Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

A Green Heron was also standing there along the edge of the pond.

Green Heron

I will definitely be stopping here more often during the shorebird season.

A stop at the Newburg Road retention pond produced a Great Blue Heron at the pond and 13 Killdeer in the grassy field by the hospital.

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