Varied Thrush in Northampton County ~ March 3, 2019

Back on February 19th, Billy Weber pulled into a parking space where he works, looked at the top of a crabapple tree, and saw an adult male Varied Thrush! The bird's location was not released to the public because the location was in a private business complex. It was seen fairly regular, but generally only very early in the morning. When it left the spot, it almost always was seen flying to the east.

Saturday, it was found along one of the public streets to the east of there, which allowed it to finally be posted to the public. The location was in some crabapple trees at a business called "Newly Weds Foods", located along South Commerce Way, right at the eastern border of Hanover Township. The bird was found there again on Sunday morning. It was seen by several birders for about 15 minutes and then flew off a long way to the northeast. Most of the happy birders headed for New Jersey to see the Boreal Chickadee that's been there since February 23rd. I decided to drive around the area to see if I could find where it went.

As I drove down Brodhead Road, I noticed a large number of Robins on both sides of the road. Some were feeding in two good-sized crabapple trees in front of the Service Master building at the corner of Brodhead Road and South Rabold Circle. This spot is just inside Bethlehem Township. Since it was Sunday and the parking lot was empty, I pulled in there and checked out the area. Within about five minutes, I refound the thrush. I was able to use the building and the sign as a blind and get a lot of pretty good photos of the bird.

It also flew across Brodhead Road and landed on the ground under the pines.

As you can see, this is one cool-looking bird. Even the undertail coverts have an intricate pattern.

I also had a Hermit Thrush check out the one crabapple.

Just across the street, in the pines on the north side of Brodhead Road, I had several Purple Finches, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, and a Brown Creeper. And yes, this photo has the correct orientation. The bird was completely upside-down when I took this.

I passed this additional location on to some of my friends and left there after watching it for well over an hour. To make it real easy to get to this second location, paste the following coordinates into Google Maps:
40.677744, -75.370455
I was told that it was again seen there later in the day, so these two spots seem to be the best bet to find it.

One VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Brodhead Road is a very busy road with lots a tractor-trailer traffic and employees heading to and from the businesses. DO NOT park along Brodhead Road! I saw a Bethlehem Township police car while there and explained to them why they might be seeing birders with binoculars and cameras walking the area. The cul-de-sac on South Rabold Circle has signs stating "No Stopping or Standing". I told the cops that parking might be a problem during the weekdays, especially with the signs posted everywhere. These two guys were nice and told me that they would be tolerable about parking on the side streets, but that might depend on who's in the car at the time, so do that at your own risk.

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March 6th Update:

I was able to get some more photos of the bird on Wednesday.

The bird was well camouflaged when it was under the pines.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was also at the spot.

Additional photos of the bird can be found in my 2019 Local Notables Album.

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Boreal Chickadee in nearby New Jersey ~ February 26, 2019

On Saturday, while helping my daughter and son-in-law move into their new home, I got a call from Arlene Koch and, soon after, another from Jason Horn about a Boreal Chickadee that had been found at Merrill Creek Reservoir's visitor center. Fortunately, the bird stuck around and I finally got the chance to try for it on Tuesday morning. As I walked over towards the birders in front of the building, the bird showed up! Over the next couple hours, I got nice looks and some fairly good photos of the Boreal Chickadee, a bird that had not been seen in our area since the early 1980's.

Additional photos of the bird can be found in my New Jersey Adventures Album.

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Varied Thrush in Northampton County ~ February 20, 2019

On Tuesday, my sleep was interrupted by a phone call from Billy Weber. He told me that he had just seen a Varied Thrush from his workplace parking lot in Hanover Township! After saying some choice words in respect to my surprise, I thanked him for the call and quickly got my butt into gear. I arrived at the spot and found several birders, including Jason, already there. He told me that a Merlin had flown in and the thrush flew off along with a flock of Robins. I spent the next several hours waiting for the bird to return, but it never did. I went into work and, at first break, found out from Jason that the bird had returned very late in the day. I told him that I planned to be there at first light and hope for a better outcome.

Wednesday morning under overcast skies and with a snowstorm approaching, I was in position near the main crabapple tree that the bird had been seen in. Thankfully around 7:00 AM, the first bird to fly into the tree was the Varied Thrush! I had nice looks at this striking adult male as it fed on the crabapples. Lighting was definitely an issue, but I was happy to get some fairly nice photos of the bird.

I left there much happier than the day before and work didn't seem as tedious that night. Additional photos of the bird can be found in my 2019 Local Notables Album.

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Florida Trip ~ February 7-8, 2019

Since way back in November, I had been reading reports about an American Flamingo that had made the Florida Panhandle its home. I had never tried to see the flamingos that are occasionally spotted in the Snake Bight area of the Everglades because of my huge dislike of mosquitoes. Now I know most people hate mosquitoes, but I hate them a lot because I get raised welts wherever I get bit by them. So when I saw that this bird wasn't at the end of the infamous Snake Bight Trail and the drive would be a few hours shorter, I was really interested. I had also been unlucky at finding the Nanday Parakeet during the few times I was in areas of southeast Florida where they were possible. Last week, I finally had the opportunity to drive down there and, hopefully, see both. I called Jason Horn and asked if he'd be interested in riding along. He had already seen both birds, so to spice up the deal a little, I told him all he'd have to pay for was his food. It would have been a long drive by myself, so I was happy when he said he would come along.

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Thursday, February 7th

A little after 9:00 AM, I picked up Jason at his house and we headed south for St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, south of Tallahassee, Florida. While driving through South Carolina, Jason was checking his phone and read that a cuckoo found at the West Delray Regional Park near Delray Beach, Florida on Wednesday had just been identified as a Dark-billed Cuckoo! The Dark-billed is a South American bird that, to my knowledge, had only been recorded once before in North America through a specimen, so this bird would represent only the 2nd North American record. Unfortunately, birders showed up at the spot on Thursday and couldn't refind the bird. We discussed whether we should take the chance and drive directly there for a Friday morning search or whether we should just stick with the original plan. Since the bird hadn't been seen all day on Thursday, we decided to head west from Jacksonville and head for St. Marks as planned.

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Friday, February 8th

At around 2:00 AM, I pulled into a rest area along I-10 where we grabbed a few hours of sleep. After a little "shut-eye", we drove two exits farther east on I-10, grabbed some breakfast, and pulled into the refuge's entrance a little after 6:00 AM. At dawn, we gathered our gear and started walking out the dikes towards Stony Bayou 2. Luckily, in the southeastern corner of the impoundment stood the American Flamingo. Even luckier was the fact that the fog lifted for about an hour and gave way to the early morning sun just long enough to get some fairly good distant photos.

On the south side of the dike, opposite from the flamingo, several wrens were calling. I got some decent photos of a cooperative Sedge Wren.

I didn't fair as well with the Marsh Wren, which always seemed to be either behind something or a little out of focus.

As we worked our way back to the car, a Brown-headed Nuthatch clung to a palm tree next to an area of pines.

Pine Warblers were also in this area. Other birds of note from the dike included Pied-billed Grebe, Anhinga, Snowy Egret, Little Blue and Tricolored Heron, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, American Wigeon, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Clapper Rail, Common Gallinule, and Forster's Tern.

Farther south along Lighthouse Drive, we found American White Pelican, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Canvasback, and Red-breasted Merganser. We continued down to the end of Lighthouse Drive where, you guessed it, the lighthouse is. The shoreline was full of Dunlin and several Brown Pelicans sat on pilings. On the way back out, we saw a pair of eagles perched in the vicinity of their nest.

An American Alligator rested along one of the channels.

At "Stop 2", the Vermilion Flycatcher that was spending the winter there allowed me to get some photos.

We left the refuge around 11:00 AM and headed for the St. Petersburg area to look for Nanday Parakeet. In the town of Perry, we decided to stop at a KFC for lunch. As soon as I parked, Jason got a message from Ross Gallardy that the Dark-billed Cuckoo had been refound! Ross and his wife just happened to be vacationing in Florida and he had just seen it. Once again, we contemplated what we should do. We did a quick calculation and figured that even if we drove straight through to the spot, we'd only have about a half hour before dark to look for the bird. So we decided to once again stick to the original plan but put ourselves in position to be at the spot at first light Saturday morning.

Along the way, we stopped at the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area. Back in October, a Double-toothed Kite was spotted there. We drove in to take a look around. Some of the birds seen there included Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, White-eyed and Blue-headed Vireo, and warblers that included Pine, Palm, Yellow-throated, Yellow-rumped, and Black-and-white.

We continued south and ran into rush-hour traffic as we got closer to St. Petersburg. We only had about an hour of light left and were still about 20 minutes away from one of the favored parakeet sites, Largo Central Park Reserve. Luckily, while I was staring at traffic, Jason spotted a few Nanday Parakeets in a tree at the intersection of Fulton Drive and East Bay Drive in Largo. I pulled into a parking lot on the corner and got some photos of my second life bird of the trip.

I even got a photo of two Nandays trying to make more Nandays.

I reserved a motel in the town of Clewiston and then headed out of St. Petersburg, crossing the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset. From there, we headed south towards Fort Myers and then east to Clewiston for some badly-needed sleep at the Plaza Travel Inn.

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Florida Trip ~ February 9-10, 2019

Saturday, February 9th

Our alarms went off at 4:00 AM. We left the motel and headed for West Delray Regional Park. We arrived a little before first light and walked over to where the bird was found the day before. A Whip-poor-will zoomed past us as it was barely light enough to see. As the sky brightened, we heard cuckoo-like calls coming from the west side of the pond adjacent to the mountain bike trail but never saw the bird. Eventually, about 75 birders were spread out all over the area. At around 8:00 AM, the Dark-billed Cuckoo was spotted and everyone converged on the spot. The bird was perched about two feet off the ground in a spot that was a little tough to find initially, but it stayed perched in one area most of the time, which allowed everyone to eventually find it.

After a while, it moved into a much more open position where I got much better photos.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to get to see this bird and even more thrilled that Jason got the bird, too, since he came along with no expectations other than hoping that something like this might show up during the trip. Later in the morning, rain showers moved into the area and we happily headed out. Other birds seen while at the park included Anhinga, White and Glossy Ibis, Wood Stork, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Merlin, Monk Parakeet, Belted Kingfisher, Pileated Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Pine, Palm, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

We started the long drive back home but made a stop at the Viera Wetlands along the way. The auto route around the impoundments allows for many photographic opportunities. We got super looks at Roseate Spoonbill, Tricolored Heron, Anhinga, Boat-tailed Grackle, and a couple Sandhill Cranes sitting on their nests.

Roseate Spoonbill

Tricolored Heron

Anhinga

Boat-tailed Grackle

A Great Egret grabbed a frog that was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Hundreds of American Robins were flying back and forth adjacent to the entrance. Other birds present included Pied-billed Grebe, Cattle Egret, White Ibis, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Red-shouldered Hawk, Crested Caracara, Common Gallinule, Forster's Tern, and Loggerhead Shrike.

We left the wetlands and continued north. American White Pelicans were seen in Georgia just before dark.

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Sunday, February 10th

I pulled into a rest area in northern Virginia and took a little snooze. We had left temperatures in the low 80's in Florida and it was now 21 degrees at dawn. Since it was very early on Sunday morning, there was thankfully very little traffic as we drove through Washington and Baltimore. At around 9:00 AM, I dropped off Jason and drove the last half hour home. We covered 2807 miles in three days, and I saw three life birds, something that will likely not happen again on the east coast.

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Bethlehem - Easton - Hellertown C.B.C. ~ December 29, 2018

Jason Horn, Stephen Kloiber, Jon Mularczyk, and I spent all Saturday morning at the Nazareth Quarry, tallying birds for the Bethlehem Christmas Count. The quarry has become one of the favorite hangouts for wintering Snow Geese. Numbers in the 20,000-30,000 range are almost expected now for the count. Normally, the birds roost there and, within an hour or so after dawn, start taking off to feed in the area's fields. When we walked up to the quarry Saturday morning, the birds were tightly packed and covering almost the entire quarry.

At that time, we figured around 80,000 birds were present. As we scanned the horizon to the east, we could see endless skeins of Snows working their way towards us from the direction of Merrill Creek Reservoir in nearby New Jersey. By around 11 AM, we estimated that the numbers had grown to well over 100,000 birds.

Every once in a while, one of the four Bald Eagles we saw would cruise over the quarry and scare up a good portion of the thousands of birds, causing what looked like a blizzard. A few videos of the eagle-caused chaos can be seen in my Local Notables - 2018 Album. Especially check out the 2:26 video, which isn't the greatest quality, but gives you a good idea of the swirling masses we saw.

One of the big surprises was when an immature Golden Eagle flew over the swarm and briefly landed in a tree on the far side of the quarry. Stephen got a video of the bird taking off from the tree and flying east out of the quarry.

A screenshot of the Golden Eagle from the video taken by Stephen Kloiber.

Among the masses, the guys picked out 2 Ross's Geese, 7 Cackling Geese, a Canvasback, and 2 Redheads. Others present included 6 Lesser Scaup, a Pied-billed Grebe, and 3 Great Blue Herons among the expected numbers of American Black Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks, Buffleheads, Common Mergansers, Ruddy Ducks, and American Coots. Two Peregrine Falcons were routinely seen among the cement mill buildings.

Walking the wooded area with the two ponds, we found an additional Great Blue Heron in addition to 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, 2 Winter Wrens, two Golden-crowned Kinglets, one Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Hermit Thrush, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, a Fox Sparrow, and 2 Red-winged Blackbirds. Another nice find was an Iceland Gull that was among a group of gulls that circled overhead.

One VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: This quarry is posted and patrolled! Birders are NOT allowed inside the property! The only place that birders can legally observe the quarry is through a chain-link fence along Franklin Street in Nazareth. You can paste the following GPS location into Google Maps to pinpoint the spot: 40.735605, -75.303230 .

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Fourth Merlin sighting from my yard! ~ November 30, 2018

On Friday afternoon, I looked out the window and found the feeders devoid of birds, so I looked up into the neighbor's snag, which occasionally holds a raptor. I was happily surprised to see a Merlin perched there. Amazingly, it was my fourth sighting of Merlin in that same tree! I slowly walked out into the backyard and got some photos of it in the drizzle. Obviously, I'm hoping she never has it cut down.

More photos of this bird and the other three Merlins can be found in my Yard Birds - Palmer Township Album.

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