TX - FL Trip ~ February 7, 2010

With the exception of one guy who was apparently having a bad day, I found all of the U.S. Airways employees to be extremely helpful considering the many stranded travelers who weren't very happy. I was among at least 40 other people on 'standby' lists. Philadelphia International finally reopened and, at 2:00 PM, I got on a plane to Philadelphia, arriving about a day-and-a-half later than planned. I was very happy to find that the two feet of snow had been blown off my car by the strong winds, so I did a little shoveling behind it, got in, and drove back home, getting there about the time the Super Bowl started.

It was a very successful trip as I managed to see four 'lifers', five if you include the 'uncountable' Purple Swamphen, among the 96 species. Here's the species list.

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Texas and Florida Trip - February 1-6, 2010

1) Pied-billed Grebe----(Texas)(Florida)
2) Red-footed Booby*----(Florida)
3) Brown Pelican----(Florida)
4) Double-crested Cormorant----(Texas)(Florida)
5) Neotropic Cormorant----(Texas)
6) Anhinga----(Florida)
7) American Bittern----(Florida)
8) Great Blue Heron----(Texas)(Florida)
9) Great Egret----(Texas)(Florida)
10) Snowy Egret----(Texas)(Florida)
11) Little Blue Heron----(Florida)
12) Tricolored Heron----(Florida)
13) Cattle Egret----(Texas)(Florida)
14) Green Heron----(Texas)(Florida)
15) White Ibis----(Florida)
16) Glossy Ibis----(Florida)
17) White-faced Ibis----(Texas)
18) Roseate Spoonbill----(Florida)
19) Wood Stork----(Florida)
20) Mottled Duck----(Florida)
21) Blue-winged Teal----(Florida)
22) Gadwall----(Texas)
23) Ring-necked Duck----(Florida)
24) Hooded Merganser----(Florida)
25) Masked Duck*----(Florida)
26) Black Vulture----(Florida)
27) Turkey Vulture----(Texas)(Florida)
28) Osprey----(Texas)(Florida)
29) Bald Eagle----(Florida)
30) Northern Harrier----(Texas)(Florida)
31) Sharp-shinned Hawk----(Texas)
32) Cooper's Hawk----(Texas)(Florida)
33) Red-shouldered Hawk----(Texas)(Florida)
34) White-tailed Hawk----(Texas)
35) Red-tailed Hawk----(Texas)
36) Crested Caracara----(Texas)
37) American Kestrel----(Texas)(Florida)
38) Plain Chachalaca----(Texas)
39) Purple Gallinule----(Florida)
40) Common Moorhen----(Florida)
41) American Coot----(Texas)(Florida)
42) Purple Swamphen*----(Florida)
43) Sandhill Crane----(Florida)
44) Limpkin----(Florida)
45) Killdeer----(Florida)
46) Black-necked Stilt----(Texas)
47) Greater Yellowlegs----(Texas)
48) Lesser Yellowlegs----(Texas)
49) Spotted Sandpiper----(Texas)
50) Least Sandpiper----(Texas)(Florida)
51) Laughing Gull----(Florida)
52) Ring-billed Gull----(Texas)(Florida)
53) Great Black-backed Gull----(Florida)
54) Caspian Tern----(Florida)
55) Rock Dove----(Texas)(Florida)
56) Eurasian Collared-Dove----(Florida)
57) White-winged Dove----(Texas)(Florida)
58) Mourning Dove----(Texas)(Florida)
59) Inca Dove----(Texas)
60) Monk Parakeet----(Florida)
61) Buff-bellied Hummingbird----(Texas)
62) Amazon Kingfisher*----(Texas)
63) Ringed Kingfisher----(Texas)
64) Belted Kingfisher----(Florida)
65) Green Kingfisher----(Texas)
66) Golden-fronted Woodpecker----(Texas)
67) Pileated Woodpecker----(Florida)
68) La Sagra's Flycatcher*----(Florida)
69) Black Phoebe----(Texas)
70) Eastern Phoebe----(Texas)(Florida)
71) Great Kiskadee----(Texas)
72) Couch's Kingbird----(Texas)
73) Northern Rough-winged Swallow----(Texas)
74) Blue Jay----(Florida)
75) Fish Crow----(Florida)
76) Ruby-crowned Kinglet----(Texas)
77) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher----(Texas)(Florida)
78) American Robin----(Texas)(Florida)
79) Northern Mockingbird----(Texas)(Florida)
80) Loggerhead Shrike----(Texas)(Florida)
81) European Starling----(Texas)(Florida)
82) Blue-headed Vireo----(Texas)
83) Orange-crowned Warbler----(Texas)
84) Yellow-rumped Warbler----(Texas)
85) Palm Warbler----(Florida)
86) Common Yellowthroat----(Florida)
87) Northern Cardinal----(Texas)(Florida)
88) Painted Bunting----(Florida)
89) Lark Sparrow----(Texas)
90) Lark Bunting----(Texas)
91) Savannah Sparrow----(Florida)
92) Red-winged Blackbird----(Texas)(Florida)
93) Eastern Meadowlark----(Texas)
94) Great-tailed Grackle----(Texas)
95) Boat-tailed Grackle----(Florida)
96) House Sparrow----(Texas)

* Denotes "Life Bird".

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Allen's Hummingbird in PA! ~ December 13, 2009

Scott Weidensaul got word about a hummingbird visiting a feeder near Leola in Lancaster County. In the process of catching and banding it, he documented the 1st record of Allen's Hummingbird for Pennsylvania! Arlene Koch and I drove down at first light and got to see this bird in dark and rainy conditions. Here are some very poor photos of it.

Allen's Hummingbird near Leola, Lancaster County on December 13, 2009. This adult female, caught and banded by Scott Weidensaul, represents the 1st record for Pennsylvania!

The drive back home was very interesting. It took about three hours because of the freezing rain and detours around the many accidents, but getting to see a new state bird more than compensated for it.

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Black-headed Gull in Easton! ~ November 18-21, 2009

November 18th

After hearing reports and seeing photos of an adult Black-headed Gull at Merrill Creek Reservoir in nearby New Jersey, I decided to spend some late mornings and afternoons down at the 'Forks of the Delaware' in Easton. Gulls from Merrill Creek and other areas visit the local landfills in Easton and Bethlehem and then, afterwards, depending on the water level of the river, they tend to rest along the shoreline or on the rocks on a island below the dam. My hope was that the Black-headed Gull would drop in while I was there. Although it hadn't shown, I did find an Iceland Gull there on the 17th, which was the earliest that I had ever seen one in the area.

Then, at around 2:00, I noticed a small gull among the many Ring-billeds. Although I was hoping for it to happen, I was really surprised that I was looking at a first-winter Black-headed Gull! I managed to take some documentation photos of it, called Arlene Koch and asked her to post it on PABIRDS, and called a few other local birders about it. Rick Wiltraut was able to make it down there and also see the bird. Because of the excitement, what didn't click in my head until Rick mentioned it was that this was a different Black-headed since the Merrill Creek bird was an adult! Also there that afternoon were two Iceland Gulls.

Black-headed Gull at the 'Forks of the Delaware' in Easton. The orange bill with a black tip, the spot behind the eye, and the orange legs help make this a first-winter bird. I was so surprised when I found this bird that I overexposed the photo. This bird represents the 1st record for the Lehigh Valley area.

Black-headed Gull at the 'Forks of the Delaware' in Easton. Note the faint brown ulnar bar and the thin, black terminal band on the tail of this first-winter bird. This bird represents the 1st record for the Lehigh Valley area.

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November 21st

I spent most of Saturday down at the 'Forks of the Delaware' in Easton, hoping to refind the Black-headed Gull. Thankfully, it showed up between 2:00 and 2:30 and allowed me to get much better photos than what I got on the 18th.

Black-headed Gull at the 'Forks of the Delaware' in Easton. The orange bill with a black tip, the spot behind the eye, and the orange legs make this a first-winter bird. This bird represents the 1st record for the Lehigh Valley area.

Black-headed Gull at the 'Forks of the Delaware' in Easton. The orange bill with a black tip, the spot behind the eye, the brown ulnar bar, the extensive amount of white in the outer primaries, the orange legs, and the black terminal band on the tail make this a first-winter bird. This bird represents the 1st record for the Lehigh Valley area.

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Stilt Sandpiper at Green Pond ~ September 6, 2009

I stopped at the flooded fields by Green Pond and found a Stilt Sandpiper, which nicely cooperated for a few photos.

Stilt Sandpiper at the flooded field by Green Pond, Northampton County. Note the gray feathers of the winter plumage starting to come in on the back.

Stilt Sandpiper at the flooded field by Green Pond, Northampton County.

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Brown Pelican in PA! ~ August 3, 2009

Thanks to Bob Schutzky's great find, I was able to get to see and photograph a Brown Pelican in Pennsylvania! The bird was in the Susquehanna River near the Peach Bottom power plant. Peter Robinson and Jason Horn put me on the bird when I finally got down there but it was a long way off. So with nothing to lose, I started hiking upriver where I luckily met up with a cabin owner named Charlie who allowed me to use his boat dock as a vantage point. I got some nice looks at the bird as it floated downstream past me. Charlie said he's been there since 1951 and couldn't believe that he was seeing a pelican from his dock. He was almost as excited about it as I was. Soon after, Jason Horn joined us and Charlie asked if we wanted to take a ride out in his boat since he was planning to give it a run anyway. So, off we went. He very slowly idled up to the side of the bird where we were able to get some photos of it. Jason got better ones than I did since the boat vibrated a little and his lens has a stabilization feature on it. Here's one of mine.

Brown Pelican near Peach Bottom, Lancaster County. This bird represents the 5th record for Pennsylvania.

A special thanks goes to Bob for finding the bird and getting the word out to all and to Frank & Barb Haas, Tom Garner, and Peter Robinson for their assistance in getting me to the spot.

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CO-NM-AZ Trip ~ May 1, 2009

My ‘birding mom’, Babe Webster, and I flew from Philadelphia to Albuquerque, New Mexico, rented a Ford Focus from Alamo, and took a 7-day, 2300-mile whirlwind trip to visit Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Albuquerque was picked as the airport because of its location midway between Colorado and Arizona. Target birds included Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Sinaloa Wren, Northern Pygmy-Owl, and two birds that I had seen but Babe hadn’t----Blue Mockingbird and Ruddy-Ground-Dove. We were also hoping to get to see the Flame-colored Tanager that had visited Madera Canyon for six previous years, but we had not heard any word of its return by the day we left. As it turned out, we had a pretty successful trip, given the circumstances.

After picking up Babe at around 3:15 AM, we headed to the Philadelphia airport and got on a United Airlines flight to Denver. We switched planes there and flew to Albuquerque. After getting our rental car around 1:30 PM, we hopped on I-25 and started the 340-mile trek to Gunnison, Colorado. Birds seen along the way in New Mexico included American Kestrel, Western Kingbird, the seemingly ever-present Common Raven, Horned Lark, Western Meadowlark, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Common and Great-tailed Grackle.

A stop along Highway 285 just south of the New Mexico – Colorado birder produced Sage Thrasher and some great looks at an immature Ferruginous Hawk.

Highway birds seen in Colorado included many of the same birds seen in New Mexico plus Swainson’s Hawk, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Black-billed Magpie, and Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbird. A quick examination of the Waunita Hot Springs lek at dusk revealed several winnowing Wilson’s Snipe.

We rolled into Gunnison at around 9:30 PM, stopped at a Safeway to get most of our week’s supplies and then indulged ourselves with personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut. We spent a very short night at the Gunnison Inn, setting alarm clocks for 3:30 AM.

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CO-NM-AZ Trip ~ May 2, 2009

We arrived back at the Waunita Hot Springs lek by 5:00 AM. As it began to get light, we heard and then saw our ‘life’ Gunnison Sage-Grouse as over 30 males displayed among a few females. This poor photo shows them strutting their stuff. You can barely see the air sacs and the long filoplumes on the third bird from the right. The birds were about 150 yards away, thus the poor photo in the dim, early-morning light. Luckily, the showers predicted for that morning never materialized.

By 7:30 AM, almost all of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse left the lek and flew across the road in front of our car.

This overall view of the lek shows the informational signs along the road. The birds were displaying in the lightest-colored strip of meadow above the rightmost sign.

Other birds seen or heard at the lek included Wild Turkey, Killdeer, Wilson’s Snipe, Black-billed Magpie, Cliff and Barn Swallow, and Mountain Bluebird. After the last bird left, we started the long drive back down through Colorado and New Mexico.

Highway 50 crosses the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass. The pass is 11,312 feet in elevation.

A stop at a small pond south of Poncha Pass produced Northern Shoveler, Common Merganser, Willet, and Tree Swallow.

Looking north along Highway 285, near Villa Grove, Colorado. The Rocky Mountains are in the background. A Loggerhead Shrike was seen along this section of road.

Here are three of the Pronghorn that were seen along Highway 285 near Villa Grove, Colorado.

This male Yellow-headed Blackbird was seen along Route 17 north of Alamosa, Colorado, at a cattail marsh traversed by a railroad trestle. Cinnamon Teal and Violet-green Swallow were also seen in this area.

This Swainson's Hawk was seen along Route 17 north of Alamosa, Colorado.

A Western Meadowlark was seen at the same place as the Swainson's Hawk.

One last look back across the Colorado border.

Babe Webster and our Ford Focus rental car at the New Mexico border with San Antonio Mountain in the background.


White-winged Dove was the only new trip bird seen along the New Mexico leg of the 488-mile drive to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where we spent the night at the Hot Springs Inn.

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