We landed in Philadelphia on time. That's when the day turned into one of my worst travel day experiences. For some reason, they couldn't get the motorized jetway lined up with the plane. It took about 15-20 minutes until they finally opened the door to let us out. We had to get to Terminal 'F' for our commuter 'prop' flight to Wilkes Barre/Scranton, which was now leaving in about 20 minutes. It was either a 15-minute walk or a shuttle bus ride over to it. We got right onto the bus, but the driver waited until the entire bus filled up until we left. Then, he very slowly worked his way over to 'F' terminal, stopping for everything along the way. We ran off the bus and down to the gate, only to find that the boarding door had closed TWO MINUTES earlier. So, we headed over to the customer service desk. They told us the next flight to Scranton wouldn't be until after 5:00 PM. She told us that she could get us to Scranton around 2:00 if we took an American flight to Newark, New Jersey and then a United flight to Scranton. We agreed. Little did we know that it would be the wrong choice.
We got to Newark on time but found out that, in order to get from the American terminal to the United terminal, we had to exit and then go back through security! Luckily, the lines weren't that long. It was off with the shoes and belt and empty the pockets. After redressing, we got to the gate only to notice that the plane was delayed about two hours due to bad weather where the plane was coming from. That was understandable. So after the delay, it was boarding time. Since they don't have enough gates for all the commuter flights, you board a bus that takes you out to the plane. We got on the bus, rode out to the plane, and then got on the plane. The engines started and, soon after, shut down. The pilot told us that there was a problem with the GPS navigation system and they were going to try switching out the panel. After a while, a mechanic came on the plane with the panel, switched it out, and found that it didn't solve the problem. So, they put us back on the bus and took us back to the terminal. We were stuck there a long time while they tried to fix the problem or get us another plane. We watched several people with walkie-talkies calling back and forth, but it seemed like no one knew what the heck was going on. Eventually, they restarted the boarding process and we took the bus back out to a plane. But after sitting on the bus for some time, we saw the pilots and the stewardess walk off the plane and leave in a van! After the compassionate bus driver tried her best to find out what was going on, she was told that the flight crew had run out of hours and another crew had to be found to fly us to Scranton! We sat on the bus for at least another half-hour. Many of the passengers on the bus were getting irritated. A small group of us continued to make jokes to keep some kind of civility. The bus returned to the terminal once again. While we were walking up the ramp into the terminal, what we later found out to be our new flight crew was walking DOWN the same ramp. Soon after, we went through the boarding process for the THIRD time, got on the bus for the THIRD time, and got on the plane. There was a huge cheer when we finally lifted off the runway FIVE HOURS later! The stewardess announced that United approved a free cocktail for everyone on the plane. That was another joke for me since I don't drink but was thinking about starting at that point. The stewardess tried her best to get everyone what they wanted during a pretty turbulent flight, but she couldn't get to everyone before it was time to land. We finally landed in Scranton at 7:30 PM! It ended up taking over 11 hours to get from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which would've only taken about 2-1/2 hours by car! It's a good thing FedEx Express isn't run like United Express or no one would ever get their packages.
Back to the birds, a total of 126 species were seen. Of these, three were life birds for me.
All photos from the trip can be found in my Arizona Photo Album.
Arizona ~ June 7-11, 2016
1) Green-winged Teal
2) Blue-winged Teal
3) Cinnamon Teal
4) Northern Shoveler
5) Ruddy Duck
6) Great Blue Heron
7) Turkey Vulture
8) Cooper's Hawk
9) Harris's Hawk
10) Gray Hawk
11) Swainson's Hawk
12) Zone-tailed Hawk
13) Red-tailed Hawk
14) American Kestrel
15) Wild Turkey
16) Montezuma Quail (heard only)
17) Killdeer
18) Black-necked Stilt
19) American Avocet
20) Long-billed Curlew
21) Marbled Godwit
22) Least Sandpiper
23) Bonaparte's Gull
24) Rock Dove
25) Band-tailed Pigeon
26) White-winged Dove
27) Mourning Dove
28) Eurasian Collared-Dove
29) Yellow-billed Cuckoo
30) Greater Roadrunner
31) Western Screech-Owl
32) Whiskered Screech-Owl
33) Great Horned Owl
34) Northern Pygmy-Owl (Mountain Pygmy-Owl)
35) Elf Owl
36) Lesser Nighthawk
37) Common Poorwill
38) Whip-poor-will
39) White-throated Swift
40) Broad-billed Hummingbird
41) Blue-throated Hummingbird
42) Magnificent Hummingbird
43) Lucifer Hummingbird
44) Black-chinned Hummingbird
45) Anna's Hummingbird
46) Broad-tailed Hummingbird
47) Elegant Trogon
48) Red-headed Woodpecker
49) Acorn Woodpecker
50) Gila Woodpecker
51) Ladder-backed Woodpecker
52) Hairy Woodpecker
53) Arizona Woodpecker
54) Northern Flicker
55) Greater Pewee
56) Western Wood-Pewee
57) Tufted Flycatcher***
58) Pine Flycatcher***
59) Cordilleran Flycatcher
60) Black Phoebe
61) Say's Phoebe
62) Vermilion Flycatcher
63) Dusky-capped Flycatcher
64) Ash-throated Flycatcher
65) Brown-crested Flycatcher
66) Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
67) Cassin's Kingbird
68) Western Kingbird
69) Horned Lark
70) Violet-green Swallow
71) Northern Rough-winged Swallow
72) Cliff Swallow
73) Barn Swallow
74) Steller's Jay
75) Western Scrub-Jay
76) Mexican Jay
77) Chihuahuan Raven
78) Common Raven
79) Bridled Titmouse
80) Verdin
81) Bushtit
82) Red-breasted Nuthatch
83) White-breasted Nuthatch
84) Brown Creeper
85) Canyon Wren
86) Bewick's Wren
87) House Wren
88) Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
89) Hermit Thrush
90) American Robin
91) Northern Mockingbird
92) Curve-billed Thrasher
93) Phainopepla
94) Loggerhead Shrike
95) Bell's Vireo
96) Plumbeous Vireo
97) Hutton's Vireo
98) Lucy's Warbler
99) Black-throated Gray Warbler
100) Grace's Warbler
101) Red-faced Warbler
102) Painted Restart
103) Slate-throated Redstart***
104) Hepatic Tanager
105) Summer Tanager
106) Western Tanager
107) Northern Cardinal
108) Black-headed Grosbeak
109) Blue Grosbeak
110) Varied Bunting
111) Spotted Towhee
112) Canyon Towhee
113) Rufous-winged Sparrow
114) Rufous-crowned Sparrow
115) Lark Sparrow
116) Black-throated Sparrow
117) Yellow-eyed Junco
118) Eastern Meadowlark
119) Great-tailed Grackle
120) Bronzed Cowbird
121) Brown-headed Cowbird
122) Hooded Oriole
123) Bullock's Oriole
124) Scott's Oriole
125) House Finch
126) Pine Siskin
127) Lesser Goldfinch
128) House Sparrow
*** denotes life bird.
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