Tuesday, November 5, 2024

St. Luke's Anderson Campus Area ~ November 5, 2024

At home, there was a large group of American Robins, several Cedar Waxwings and European Starlings, and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker hitting the crabapple tree.
They were joined at the little pond by two Common Grackles and several Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows.

I did a late morning walk at the St. Luke's Anderson Campus grounds. There was nothing real notable there with the exception of 2 White-crowned Sparrows, one of which appeared to be a good candidate for a "Gambel's" race due to its unmarked lores and orange bill.

There was also a Brown-headed Cowbird in a transitioning plumage.

Monday, November 4, 2024

Regency Ponds and Green Pond ~ November 4, 2024

I checked out the Regency Boulevard ponds. The south pond held 3 Green-winged Teal and 4 Killdeer among the Canada Geese, but the best birds there were around 30 American Pipits. I noticed them through the scope at the back edge of the pond. I tried to get some photos, but they were very poor, long distance photos. I then saw them fly over and drop into the cove area of the north pond. I parked by the cove and found some of them a lot closer this time. I grabbed some photos of one of them through the fence.

The pipits were my 139th species seen at the Regency area. Over in the main section of the north pond, I saw 4 Buffleheads, a Pied-billed Grebe, and two more Killdeer.
Over at Green Pond, I found 6 American Black Ducks, 4 Green-winged Teal, 2 Great Blue Herons, 8 Cedar Waxwings, 2 Eastern Bluebirds, 2 Savannah Sparrows, and this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Sunday, November 3, 2024

A Big Surprise at Little Gap and the Nazareth Quarry ~ November 3, 2024

I hiked up to Little Gap. Mike and Corrine Schall showed up a little while later. The clear blue sky made it tough to find migrants, but there was a fair movement of raptors passing by. At 12:48, a bird circled up from the gap and headed towards us. It was a Short-eared Owl! It flew close by on the north side, circled up a bit, and then continued on down the ridge. We all got nice photos of this sharp-looking owl.

I counted 9 Red-shouldered Hawks, most of them nicely-colored adults.

Also noted there were 6 Bald Eagles, 14 Red-tailed Hawks, 3 Common Ravens, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 3 Eastern Bluebirds, 56 American Robins, 2 Purple Finches, and 17 birds that were either Horned Larks or American Pipits.

The other big topic of the day was the forest fire that was burning on the south side of the mountain just east of Lehigh Gap. I took this photo looking west from the hawkwatch of the smoke.
When I got to the bottom of the mountain, I stopped at a vantage point west of Danielsville and took this photo of the fire. The dark spot above the flames near the top of the mountain is a helicopter dropping water on them.
From there, I drove down to the Nazareth Quarry. Mike and Corrine joined me there. We saw a huge group of Lesser Black-backed Gulls taking up a good section of the quarry with some Herring and Ring-billed Gulls in among them. I took these four photos from left to right.

When I got home, I painstakingly counted the birds in the four photos and came up with 1,138 Lessers the first round and 1,144 the second time! I entered the smaller number of 1,138 on the checklist.

I didn't have my scope with me, but I picked out the following with binoculars: 30 Ruddy Ducks, 8 American Coots, 8 American Black Ducks, 6 Buffleheads, a Common Merganser, and a Pied-billed Grebe, all among around 3,000 Canada Geese.

Friday, October 25, 2024

Melchor Tract Park ~ October 25, 2024

I again went to Melchor Tract Park. A good number of Red-winged Blackbirds were perched, soaking up the early morning sun.

About three-quarters of the way around the perimeter of the park, a Northern Harrier came flying past while hunting the fields, allowing me to get some nice photos of it.

Later, I saw it again as it continued its hunting.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Western Kingbird and Black-crowned Night Heron Continue ~ October 24, 2024

In the late afternoon, I stopped at Green Pond to see if the Western Kingbird and the Black-crowned Night Heron were still there. I walked over to the retention pond along Farmersville Road. I searched the fence surrounding the pond and fairly quickly found the Western Kingbird. It was actively and succesfully flycatching from there and the posts along the back edge of the overgrown flooded field area. I kept at a distance from it and grabbed some photos. At one point, it actually flew towards me and landed nearby, allowing me to get my best photos of it.

Three Green-winged Teal and an American Black Duck were in the pond. Over at Green Pond, the Black-crowned Night Heron was preening in its favorite tree in the northeast corner of the pond.

In that same corner were 6 Yellow-rumped Warblers, Cedar Waxwings, and White-throated Sparrows.