Sandhill Crane and Cackling Geese at Green Pond ~ November 27, 2011

I made an afternoon stop at Green Pond and found the Sandhill Crane standing among Snow Geese.

Sandhill Crane at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County.

Just as I picked out a Cackling Goose among the few thousand Canadas, it flew off to the eastern edge of the cornfield.

Cackling Goose flying over the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County. Note the obvious short neck.

Then, a tight group of six "Richardson's" Cackling Geese swam fairly close, providing some great comparisons between them and the surrounding Canadas.

Two "Richardson's" Cackling Geese bracketing a Canada Goose at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County. In comparison to the Canada Goose, note the Cacklings' much smaller overall size and their more silvery or grayish backs, shorter necks, stubbier bills, and more vertical foreheads, which make the heads look 'blocky'. Another trait that most Cackling Geese show is a white 'chinstrap' that often appears wider and more horizontal at its top edge.

Another Cackling Goose / Canada Goose comparison. In addition to the aforementioned points, note the hint of a white line between the dark neck and the gray breast shown by some birds.

I also found a male Green-winged Teal that had no vertical white bar but only had a hint of a horizontal stripe on the wing, bringing up the possibility of the dreaded American/Eurasian Teal 'hybrid'. I tried to get photos of it, but it was fairly concealed in among the corn stubble and blocked most of the time by Canada Geese.

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Rufous Hummingbirds in Northampton County ~ November 19, 2011

I finally got a chance to get to Jacobsburg State Park on Saturday afternoon and take some photos of "Rufus", the adult male Rufous Hummingbird that originally showed up on the 11th at the park office feeder maintained by Rick Wiltraut.

Rufous Hummingbird at Jacobsburg State Park.

There's a real interesting story behind this little guy. When Rick realized that the bird was already banded, he contacted Scott Weidensaul, who came and captured it on the 14th. The number on the band revealed that it had been banded as an immature male on January 9, 2011 in River Ridge, Louisiana by famed hummingbird bander Nancy Newfield. So, he is now on his second migration and will hopefully end up back in Louisiana for the winter.

In addition to its banded history, it's interesting that this bird's wings made a whistling noise in flight like that of a Broad-tailed. You often heard it coming before it got to the feeder. Since most of the birds that show up in PA are immature birds, it was a special treat to get to see this nice adult male, only the second one I've ever seen in PA.

This has been an exceptional season for Rufous Hummingbirds. A few weeks before, the same park office feeder fed a 'Selasphorus' hummingbird that was most likely a Rufous. And just a few miles away, another Rufous Hummingbird, this one an adult female, was visiting a feeder near Delabole. In addition to these three Northampton County visitors, yet another Rufous was discovered at a feeder in Allentown near Lake Muhlenberg.

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Gray-hooded Gull in New York ~ August 1, 2011

News of an amazing find of a Gray-hooded Gull at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York sent Jason Horn, Matt Sabatine, and I to the spot. This gull is normally found in South America and Africa. The only U.S. record of this bird comes from Florida back in 1998.

We left Sunday afternoon and found out that the bird flew off about 15 minutes before we got there. We stayed until dark, but the bird never returned. So, we drove back over on Monday and got there just after sunrise. We watched and waited until 1:00 and the bird never showed. After spending a total of about 11 hours there over two days, we dejectedly headed back home. Then, as we were crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, we found out that the bird had returned to the very spot we just left! We turned around, headed back, and finally got to see this interesting gull. If accepted, this bird will represent only the 2nd record for the United States.

Gray-hooded Gull at Coney Island Beach in Brooklyn, New York. Note the light gray hood, the pale eye, the red bill with a dark tip, and the red legs.

Gray-hooded Gull at Coney Island Beach in Brooklyn, New York. Note the light gray hood, the pale eye, the red bill with dark tip, the red legs, and all-white tail.

We had many other interesting sightings from Coney Island, but most of them were not bird-related and probably cannot be legally posted here.

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White Ibis AND Sandhill Crane at Green Pond ~ July 24, 2011

I got a mid-afternoon call from Arlene Koch telling me about a very interesting post on PABIRDS. Joe Greco and his son, Jeff, were at the flooded fields at Green Pond where Jeff had just found a juvenile White Ibis. I headed down there and found the bird very near the road in the same easternmost pond.

White Ibis at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County.

Dustin Welch was also there. Soon after Matt Sabatine and Arlene Koch showed up, the bird flew west over into the main flooded area and landed next to the Sandhill Crane, which was also there to the east of 'the island'. The heat and humidity were nasty, but getting a chance to look at both of these birds standing next to each other in Northampton County was most likely a 'once-in-a-lifetime' proposition. Devich Farbotnik and Billy Weber joined us as we watched the Sandhill Crane periodically harass the White Ibis as shown in these photos.

White Ibis being chased by a Sandhill Crane at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County.

This is the 1st record of White Ibis for Green Pond, which brings my unofficial cumulative total for the site at 161 species. To view this list and a map of the area, go to my Eastern PA Birding website and click on the 'Site Guide to Green Pond and the Flooded Fields'.
This bird also represents only the 3rd record for Northampton County.
A good number of shorebirds were also present. They included numbers of Killdeer and Least Sandpipers with some Lesser Yellowlegs and Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers mixed in.

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Red-necked Phalarope at Green Pond ~ May 16, 2011

Even though I'm always hoping to find something good during poor migration conditions, I was happily surprised to find a Red-necked Phalarope at the flooded fields by Green Pond this afternoon. The bird spent much of its time behind 'the island'. It eventually wandered around to the left (east) side of the flooded area and got close enough to allow me to get some photos of this breeding-plumaged female despite the dreary conditions.

Red-necked Phalarope at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County.

This cooperative Spotted Sandpiper was one of several there in addition to a Lesser Yellowlegs and about a dozen Least Sandpipers.

Spotted Sandpiper at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County.

An American Black Duck and a Great Egret were also there.

To view a map of the area, go to my Eastern PA Birding website and click on the 'Site Guide to Green Pond and the Flooded Fields'.

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Around Northampton County ~ April 25, 2011

After seeing Blue-headed Vireo, several Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Palm Warbler, Black-throated Green, and several Yellow-rumped Warblers outside my house on Easter morning and waking up this morning to Rose-breasted Grosbeaks on my feeders, I decided to take advantage of my day off today and take a run around the county, which happily turned out to be more than worth the amount I spent on gas.

I started out by walking the Bethlehem Boat Club area, which held Warbling Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Wood Thrush, several Northern Parulas, Yellow-throated Warbler, and American Redstart. An Eastern Screech-Owl stuck its head out of one of the Wood Duck boxes along the old canal.

Eastern Screech-Owl along the Lehigh Canal near the Route 33 boat launch.

A stop at Green Pond yielded Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, and a Great Egret at the pond itself.

Great Egret perched along the edge of Green Pond.

At Christian Springs Road in Lower Nazareth Township, I saw a Snow Goose, Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal, and a Green Heron.

Green Heron along Christian Springs Road in Lower Nazareth Township.

My next stop was Graver's Hill, where I found a Horned Lark and a couple of singing Vesper Sparrows.

Vesper Sparrow at Graver's Hill in Moore Township. The chestnut-colored shoulder patch is really obvious in the bottom two photos.

I then headed halfway up Smith Gap. In addition to Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a few Black-and-white Warblers, I had 'fly-by's of Cooper's Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, and a Common Raven that called as it soared by.

Common Raven over Smith Gap in Moore Township.

The Albert Road ponds, near Wind Gap, produced Ring-necked and Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, and American Coot.

I did a real quick stop at Jacobsburg State Park at mid-day and came up with House Wren, Eastern Towhee, and Field Sparrow.

The day ended with an exclamation point when a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird popped into the feeder three feet away from where I typed this. Not a bad day!

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at my feeder in Williams Township.

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Iceland Gull Bonanza in Northampton County ~ March 19, 2011

I spent the afternoon (1:00 to 4:15) at the flooded fields by Green Pond and had a record day there. In addition to seeing the 1st-winter Iceland Gull and the 2nd-winter Iceland that were there earlier in the week, I also found two different adult Iceland Gulls. I had only seen one other adult in the county before; that was at the Chain Dam back in 2004. The first adult that I found had very dark markings on the primaries while the second adult had gray barring on the primaries.

Iceland Gull at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County. Note the charcoal gray markings on the pale primaries and the streaking on the head and neck. The mantle appears much darker here than it actually was because of the bird being backlit.

Iceland Gull at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County. Note the very limited charcoal gray markings on the pale primaries and the streaking on the head and neck.

Iceland Gull at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County. Note the light grayish markings on the pale primaries compared to the much darker markings on the previous adult. Also note the fairly clean neck compared to the fairly extensive streaking on the previous bird's neck.

Iceland Gull at the flooded fields by Green Pond, Northampton County. Again, note the light grayish markings on the pale primaries compared to the much darker markings on the previous adult. Also note the fairly clean white neck compared to the fairly extensive streaking on the previous bird's neck.

When I originally spotted the first adult, thoughts of Thayer's popped in my head but were quickly ruled out when noticing other points (not enough black in the primaries, wrong head and bill shape, and eventually getting to see the light eye). I admit that the Thayer's/Kumlien's complex still confuses the crap out of me.

The Icelands were among about 250 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (counts of 257 and 233 were taken at two different times), about 250-300 Ring-billed Gulls, and about 20 Herring Gulls. Around 3:30, most of the gulls lifted off thanks to a Red-tailed Hawk and headed east, but the adult Iceland Gull with the gray primaries was still there when I left with about 100 other gulls.

Other notables included the following:
27 Snow Geese (two with yellow bands marked "12CC" and "51CC")
4 Green-winged Teal
3 Northern Pintail
1 American Coot
2 Killdeer
2 Tree Swallows.

These two adult birds plus the continuing 1st-winter and 2nd-winter birds produced a site record four Iceland Gulls at one time!

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