Big Birding Day!

I accomplished most of my weekend goals except for going to the native plant sale at Rhonymeade. Kat was having her TAs over on Saturday for a big grading party, and so I had to make guacamole and stuff for them. It's been so cold that I couldn't plant anything anyway, so I'll just go get my veggies and stuff from this Amish greenhouse near the Marsh House.

Still--what a great weekend! The weather was great, with only some clouds here and there and a few showers at night. But the days were really great, and I got a lot done. The freshly mowed lawn:

It wasn't too bad--the sun was in and out of the clouds and a cool breeze was blowing the whole day, and I didn't get attacked by any snakes or bears or tigers lurking in the tall weeds and nigh-impenetrable dandelions. The lawn was a little damp, but I got it done and I got some good exercise.

The greatest part of the weekend, however, was the birding. My pal Gretchen and I got up at the crack of dawn (5:40am) on Sunday and made it out to my new favorite birding place, the Coburn Rail Tunnel/Trail. We arrived a little after 6am under heavy cloud cover, and we were immediately treated to a demonstration by two cerulean warblers flitting around a treetop and then flying off in close formation. No pics of these guys, as the entire thing lasted only just long enough to get the binocs on them and ID. Still--what a great little bird!

The non-stop chorus of bird songs when we first got there made it difficult to concentrate on just one species at a time, but I did my best. I think the key to birding this place is to get there super super early; we may try to get there by 5:30 next time, because even at 6am, the sun was already up.

We then crossed the bridge over the creek and were innundated by a group of about eight Baltimore and orchard orioles, all calling and flying around and having early-morning fun. All these birds were lifers for Gretchen, and there were so many of them that we were a little overwhelmed. It's been such a long time since last spring, and I've really missed seeing the spring birds!

Gretchen's quite the avid beginning birder, spotting and IDing a pair of blue-gray gnatcatchers with the Stokes field guide. She spotted and IDd a black-and-white warbler too. I was so proud of her; she's got as much birding zeal as I do, so we had a great time seeing all kinds of species. It's so much fun to go birding with her; every bird is new to her, and she just never gets tired of seeing and hearing them.

Here's a list of the birds we saw and heard during the three hours we were there:
Baltimore Oriole
Orchard Oriole
Northern Parula
Cerulean Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Osprey
Ovenbird
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Cardinal
Canada Goose
Mallard
European Starling
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
American Crow

And as promised, I remembered to get pictures!
Just one of the many Baltimore orioles we saw:

A blue-gray gnatcatcher--Gretchen's first ID using a field guide:
Another pic of the gnatcatcher:There were two of them, and they stayed in the tree looking for insects and food for at least five minutes--enough time for us to thoroughly fall in love with them and their cuteness. Gretchen digs the tiny little fat birds; she says she wants to grab them and put them in her pocket. I don't know how the gnatcatcher would feel about this, though.

A blurry pic of the black-and-white warbler, which we watched for about five minutes; he was down at eye level in a small tree near the bank of the creek:

I only wish my photos of the American redstart would've come out; he was beautiful! But all I got was a blur surrounded by tack-sharp-focus tree branches. Sigh.

After a bit of time on the rail trail getting warbler-neck, we decided to climb the hill into which the rail tunnel is dug; it's probably about a 250-foot climb, maybe more. Pretty steep, but it was fun--and we saw some really neat things along the way. This tree has obviously been the victim of hungry (and pecky) birds:

This tree looked to us almost like it was trying to push itself up out of the ground using its above-ground "arms" to free itself:
There were several trees like this, with roots all exposed like there just wasn't enough dirt to cover them up:
Maybe it was erosion from the rains?

There was a nice walking trail a little way up the hill:
But we decided to climb to the top and there we found another path along the crest of the hill. We saw a beautiful gray-green landscape of new growth:
The air was cool, and this gray-green color was soooo soothing so we stood there for a while and drunk it all in. Those crazy orioles were all around us the whole time.

Gretchen is way gutsier than I am, climbing this rocky outcrop at the top of the hill:
See her up there in the gray sweatshirt?

We also found some neat flowers on the hillside; perhaps some of you field botanists can help us out with IDs.


And here's a weird plant:
The way down:
Oy vey, my poor ankles! But it was fun, and a couple of Advil later I felt good as new.

We also found some cool bugs, including this millipede:
And just what is this shockingly green bug?

At about 9am, we left Coburn and drove down Long Road, which connects Penns Creek Rd to Millheim, hoping to see some brown thrashers as I have before. We didn't see any of them, but we did see a yellow warbler, more orioles, a Northern flicker, tree and barn swallows, a bluebird, and this hungry TuVu -- this one's for you, Lynne!
He was far away in a cow pasture, so the quality's not great but you can kinda see whatever it is he's eating. Neato. This was the first time I'd ever seen a TuVu eating.

We also discovered our mutual love for cows (photos by Gretchen):

We even stumbled upon the filming of a new musical, The Sound of Moosic, featuring this young actress as Maria, the role Julie Andrews made famous:

Perhaps I'll wait until it comes out on video. I'm really not a big fan of that big old nun singing "Climb Every Mountain."

In Millheim, we found this mallard family (great photos again by Gretchen):

Look at that intelligent little brown eye, scoping us out.

Tomorrow, I'll upload the photos from my Sunday evening marsh trip--during which I FINALLY saw green herons and an American bittern!

Goals for the weekend

Delia's to-do list:
1. mow lawn (may need machete)
2. groceries
3. change kitty litties
4. get new front tires on car (before I run over a marshmallow and have a blowout)
5. go birding and take photos!

Apologies for my sparse posting of late; it's been busy at work and I'm still shaking off this cough/touch of tuberculosis, so I haven't gotten outside as much as I've wanted to.

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. I also might try to go to a native plant sale at a local farm called Rhoneymeade, which is a big farm/arboretum place down the road from me. It just depends on how long it takes to get the car tires.

What's on your agenda for this weekend?

For Lynne

For our bloggy Flock pal Lynne, who's suffered some very hard losses lately. Many people don't know much about poet John Donne, whose verse is often quoted. He was always a man of faith, having been educated by Jesuits as a child. He wrote secular poetry for the first part of his career, but he later entered the ministry and spent the rest of life writing religious works.

This is one of his best, and I dedicate it--especially the last two lines--to you, Lynne.

"Death Be Not Proud" by John Donne (1572-1631)

Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,

For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,

Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,

And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;

One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

The new birding place pays off!

I told you about the rail tunnel/trail area last week, and how I thought it might yield some good birding, right? So I woke up early and went there yesterday morning with a novice birder named Gretchen, and we had a great time exploring the place -- such a great time that I took exactly ZERO photos. So this post will be pure narrative; sorry!

I admit we got there a little late (8am); we should've been there by 6:30 but we had some trouble getting going, what with my allergies/cold thing that is hanging on. Still--the first bird we saw was a lifer for us both: a Hooded Warbler, flitting among the bushes at ground level, so from the elevated path it was a great view--no warbler neck! I was so busy pointing it out to Gretchen, explaining the field marks and handing the binocs back and forth that I just didn't even think to get the camera. This would be the trend for the entire trip.

There were birds everywhere, and the pines around the rail tunnel were filled with Ruby-Crowned Kinglets and Northern Parulas! One RC Kinglet was flashing his little red crown so openly that it was obvious he was out for some serious mating. What a stud.

Here's a list from this area:
Hooded Warbler (Lifer/FOY)
Northern Parula (FOY)
Wood Thrush (FOY)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker (FOY)
Northern Flicker (FOY)
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Ovenbird (FOY)
Brown Thrasher
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Grackle
Am Crow
Northern Cardinal
Canada Goose
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
Am Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Mourning Dove

After Gretchen and I left the tunnel trail, we took this road that was deceptively named the Sieglerville-Milheim Pike. Some "pike" -- after about a 100 yards, the pavement ended and it was all winding cinder road for 16 miles! Off-roading in a 2001 Honda Civic is not exactly big fun, but we made it through and had breakfast at the locally (and supposedly world-) famous Honey Creek Inn, which serves some amazingly good French toast. Yum!

En route along the "pike," we caught a Broad-winged Hawk finishing off a small bird (possibly Tufted Titmouse, judging from the feathers) right next to the road. We had time to observe field marks both on the ground and in flight, as he was not eager to leave his kill. I wished Susan could've been there to appreciate the wild hawk action.

Later, we drove to a small woodlot on Indian Road to see whether the Red-headed Woodpecker was still there. Sure enough, he made an appearance within ten minutes of our stopping there, making it three straight years I've seen him there. It was like seeing an old friend.

The day turned a little chilly, but we spent it all outside either birding or just hanging out on the Adirondack chairs and watching the marsh. No doubt about it: spring is really here!

Oooh--this morning, one of the State College Bird Club bigwigs emailed me to ask if I would lead a field trip to this spot on Mother's Day weekend--wow! I don't know what all that entails, other than pointing out the spots where I saw birds last time and just generally being helpful. I hope it's not much more than that, as you know I'm a little shy.

Border wall project still going strong

Despite the idiocy of building a border wall to try to keep out illegal immigrants, the federal government is still going full speed ahead to get the wall built. DCBirdingBlog has a great piece on the environmental impact such a wall will have on the area, and you can always visit the No Border Wall blog for more updates and information on the unconstitutional tactics the Bush Administration is using to ram the project through.

I hope there will be some attention paid to this issue during the RGV birding festival in November.

Exciting birding in new places

Yesterday I took the scenic route home with the intent of checking out a new birding place that my work pal Hillel told me about: an old rail tunnel near a little burg called Coburn, through which Penns Creek flows. There's a trail where the train tracks used to be, and Hillel thinks it might be a good place to see woodcocks. As I've never seen a woodcock, I wanted to swing through there and maybe catch some early evening peenting and displaying.

No such luck on the woodcocks, but while on the scenic route over Brush Mountain, I saw a lifebird: a ruffed grouse, the PA state bird! He was right up on the edge of the little road, looking around. If I'd had my camera out and ready, I would've gotten a great shot, as I was maybe ten feet away from him. But he moved into the brushy cover too quickly for me; I waited to see if I could spot him again, but it was impossible. He mixed in too well. Still--a lifer!

So I drove on to the old rail tunnel, parked, and started looking around. Here are some shots of the old tunnel, hewn directly into the rocks many moons ago:

The moss had grown onto the rock around the entrance to the tunnel:
Here, you can see that while they prettied up the entrance with cut stone, the actual tunnel walls themselves were left natural:

I love seeing moss growing like this; it's so soft and green and alive, with water flowing out of the rocks:

Sigh. So beautiful. While I was looking at the tunnel, I heard a bird sound--a single "chock" that resonated through the woods. I thought it might be a some sort of grouse or a turkey, but I've listened to a lot of those sounds (owls, gamebirds, etc.) and just can't find it. It was a warbly but sharp "chock" sound. Does anyone have any other guesses?

I also saw a first-of-year Eastern wood-pewee; here are my best shots of him:

I thought it might be a phoebe, but the beak and the size were wrong; I'm pretty sure it's a wood-pewee, but if you disagree, please let me know!

I also saw a northern harrier, several brown thrashers, and the usual flurry of American robins, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, and American crows.

I can't wait to go there super-early one morning, to see what migrants might pass through. I'm hoping for some good birding there as the migration gets into gear.

Flower Roll Call

Marigolds! (from two years ago!)

Started by Monkey von Monkerstein with irises.

Update!

Cap'n Dyke with Alstroemeria!

Splotchy with Daffodils!

Fran with Clematis!

Politits with Peach Blossoms!

Bubs with Scilla!

Great Kittehrary Classics

of Kittish litter-ature:

Psssst...

Want to read my review of RTP's and James Fisher's Wild America, and other great book reviews by cool people like me? Go here.

Around the backyard and inside

Some pics I took on Saturday, to show you the status of spring in Central PA.

First, a bad picture of the little daffodils!

The plants are only about five inches tall, but we already have some little blooms. That's a hopeful sign!

The state of the garden--de-weeded for the most part, and getting ready for some mulch and some seeds:

Looks pretty barren now, but just wait! Soon I'll be able to plant lettuce, spinach, cilantro, and squash! And Kat will probably plant some new flowers and stuff in that front area that isn't fenced in. I'll have to wait on the tomatoes, green beans, and green peppers--need much more warmth than we're having now.

Winter's still holding on, providing plenty of cotton-batting skies for me to admire:

But the lilac tree is budding!

That totally pumps me up. This lilac bush (about ten feet tall) perfumes the entire backyard when it's in bloom.

Remember my little mushroom? It still looks the same:

Really nothing at all like a morel. I wonder what it is.

Finally, a picture of Miss Kitty Claws, taking a nap. She always looks so sweet when she's not biting and hissing:

Sorry, but Niblet's been a little shy of late, hanging out in his Magic Bunny Dreams house, so I haven't been able to post any Friday Night Nibbles.

Happy bird-day!

I'd like to wish my adopted actor Hugo Weaving a very happy birthday.

Here he is, being a bad-ass in V for Vendetta.

Happy bird-day, Hugo!

Local birding in the news

This editorial appeared in our local paper the Centre Daily Times on Monday, March 31. It's just beautifully written, and the sentiment is oh so close to my heart. Also--I know Dave Brandes' brother; he's my birding friend from work, Hillel, whom I've mentioned on the blog before, the one who showed me brown creepers for the first time on the walking trail at our workplace. Hillel is such a great guy, and he sent me this piece. I'll have to go there for a Hawk Watch soon and get some photos.

Our View
Eagles in flight offer a reward
A mere seven miles from the oblivious rush of downtown State College, a few hearty souls, hot chocolate in hand and binoculars pressed against anxious eyes, patiently but excitedly scan the sky.

Is there a more majestic, a more inspiring sight than an eagle, riding unseen seasonal currents on its annual journey northward in spring or south again in autumn?

Thirteen years ago, Dave Brandes, a Penn State hydrology and engineering student, was walking with his dog along the Mid-State Trail when he spied a golden eagle circling overhead.


He returned the next day and was rewarded: He saw 15 more golden eagles and —eureka!— four bald eagles, and thus, with a fortunate discovery by an observant lover of nature, began the annual spring raptor count on Tussey Mountain.


Gradually, more bird enthusiasts got involved and, in 2001, it became a full-time, February-through-April effort to tally hawks, ospreys, falcons and, yes, eagles on, as it turns out, one of the busiest raptor migration routes east of the Mississippi River.


As of a week ago Friday, 215 goldens — a record — had been observed and counted at the hawkwatch site, just a short walk from the Jo Hays Vista, named for a legendary Centre County educator, in the Rothrock State Forest south of Pine Grove Mills.


The Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, the State College Bird Club, The National Aviary and others now sponsor the watch, which Dan Ombalski coordinates.


It is one of those rare endeavors that combines the pure research of the scientist with the enthusiasm and passion of the volunteer hobbyist.


And it came about almost by accident. We say almost because the careful observation and appreciation of our natural surroundings is never accidental.


And those who do take the time and make the effort enrich not only their own lives, but ours — those of us who are too busy, too involved or too unaware to notice.


Just knowing that hundreds of eagles have silently passed by only a few miles away is inspirational.


Seeing them, of course, is even more so.


One, alone, is worth the effort.

The Case of the Mystery Egg. Status: Case closed.

blatantly and unabashedly stolen from Susan's blog

Note: I was trying to get my post up about this little "mystery" before Laura and Susan did, but Blogger was being a pain about uploading my photos. Still--here's my side of the story!

You remember the "mystery egg" I found on the marsh a couple posts ago?

Well, um... it wasn't an egg.

It was a little plastic ball.

How could I have been so incredibly wrong? you ask. I'll tell you why: Because I didn't touch it! I thought it was an egg, so I figured I'd better not touch it! I couldn't really tell, but it looked like an egg to me.

So of course Susan, aka Science Chimp Junior, just pushed aside the grass, grabbed up the "egg," and noted the -um- plastic seam on it:

"Hmmmm" indeed! "Sure," I said, "laugh it up!" But if it had been a rare egg, and I had scared its mother away with my scent... yeah, they wouldn't be laughing then!

Laura and Susan came into town for my commitment ceremony with Kat, and on Sunday morning they came out to the Marsh House and went birding with me! What a blast we had. Here are a few of the very few photos I took, as I was too busy laughing and scaring birds. We did find some more interesting "mysteries" to investigate on the marsh:

Here, Grissom and Willows work a particularly bloody crime scene:
I love the serious look on Susan's face here. She and Laura wondered whether it was a tree swallow--look at this brilliant irridescent blue feather:
They decided it was likely a mallard. (Oh, and note that Susan is wearing her Ruthie J-knitted gloves.)

There was evidence everywhere, including blood:


We also came upon some coyote poo! Susan pointed out the fur:

and the bits of bone and grassy matter:
It was so much fun being with someone else who has to pick up everything and touch everything and try to figure stuff out. I thought I was observant, but these two are far more watchful and knowledgeable about things than I am. It was a real pleasure to bird such familiar territory with new eyes.

Even if they did bust my mystery egg wide open, and what "yoke" there was, it was on me.

Revised and updated yard bird list

the view from Long Pond to my house, the second white blob from the left

Based on my conversations with Laura and Susan, I've updated my yard list: 66 species! (fireworks sounds)



Before, my list had 35 species: 35 different kinds of birds that had actually landed in my yard. But when I count the marsh and Neighbor Ed's yard (both places I can see from my yard) and the air above my yard and the marsh, then I get 66. 35 isn't bad, but 66 absolutely rocks.

What do you consider a "yard bird" when making out your list? Or do you even bother to keep count?