Swallows

Three species of swallow were present at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge while I was there. The most common were Tree Swallows followed by Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Barn Swallows. The Barn Swallows were the most cooperative to photograph, perching on the boardwalk and not taking flight until I was about 10 feet away.

Barn Swallow

Tree Swallows were a little trickier to digiscope because they usually perched on their boxes or in trees, staying further away from me. The seemed much flightier than the Barn Swallow.

Tree Swallow

Northern Rough-winged Swallows really seem to enjoy perching on smaller vegetation on the lake, but I digiscoped this one in a tree. Rough-winged Swallows are perhaps not as strikingly colored as other swallows but they are still beautiful in a very earthy way.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Middle Creek

A couple of weeks ago I went to Middle Creek during the height of the Snow Goose influx. I snapped a couple of flight shots that I thought were neat.

Snow Geese

Canada Geese

Northern Harrier

Northern Harrier

Search for the Western Tanager

Sunday afternoon a post showed up on the PA Birds listserv stating that a Western Tanager had been found at John Heinz NWR. Not much detail at first but as people descended on the refuge to look for it they posted that it was a female and that it was being seen near the observation deck.

Luckily for me, Monday is my day off and so I decided to try my luck at finding the tanager as well as see what else was at the refuge. Both Little Blue and Tri-colored Heron had been reported in the last week.

I arrived a little after dawn and began walking down the path towards the observation tower. I was a little surprised at how quiet it was, none of the trilling songs of Palm, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers I had just heard at Middle Creek WMA. The sound of chattering Tree Swallows and the loud buzzy calls of Red-winged Blackbirds were about the only songs breaking the silence. Blue-winged Teal dabbled lazily in the water as several Great Egrets foraged in the distance.

Blue-winged Teal- female and male

I continued on, scanning the trees by the path for any movement. Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Song Sparrows were common as well as several Rusty Blackbirds. By this time I had past the observation tower and was quite a bit beyond where the Western Tanager had been reported. Here the sounds of Palm Warblers finally found me and I spotted several, happily wagging their tails.

On the walk back towards the observation tower I met up with some other birders. We stopped for a moment as 9 Glossy Ibis took flight and settled down, hidden again by vegetation. Nine Glossy Ibis are a pretty big flock for Pennsylvania. An American Coot swam around on the near side of the island and paused its feeding to look at us.

American Coot

Moving on, I began walking ahead of the other birders, slowly scann ing the trees. A bird popped up; sitting on the other side of the tree and partially obscured by vegetation. I got my binoculars on the bird and saw it was yellow and as it turned its head I could see it was the female Western Tanager I was searching for.

Excitedly I turned and beckoned the birders to come. Big mistake! I turned back to look at the tanager again and could not find it. It had flown off. That brief look was all I managed all day, despite several more hours of searching for it. But I was lucky enough to see it at all, number 272 for my Pennsylvania list.

And more bizarre news...

Pelagic boundaries change, now include inland lakes

From the DVOC mailing-

"Rule change - Beginning today, any bird seen on or over "any body of water" within 50 miles of the political boundary of a state can be counted for that state. The term "any body of water" includes offshore waters, inshore waters, lakes, ponds, rivers, etc.

Comments by the committees

- The committees are aware that the ramifications of this change will be monumental. While this will certainly change offshore pelagic listing, it will have a greater effect on general birding. For instance, a bird seen on or over Lilly Lake (Cape May County, NJ) could previously only be counted on a birder's New Jersey list. But now, since Lilly Lake is "body of water" and is less than 50 miles from Delaware, a bird seen on or over Lilly Lake can now be counted on a birder's Delaware list. In the same way a bird sighted on or over Lake Nockamixon (Buck County, PA) can now be counted on a birder's New Jersey list. An extreme example of this rule change is that the impoundments at John Heinz NWR at Tinicum (Delaware County and Philadelphia County, PA) are in Pennsylvania and are within 50 miles of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Thus a bird seen on or over those impoundments is now countable in four states.

- The committees urge birders restrain themselves and only count a single sighting on one state's list, but there is nothing in the new rules preventing a single sighting from being counted on multiple states lists if a birder wishes. It is up to the individual birder to determine what state or states he or she wants to use to list any particular bird when it is seen in a location where multiple states overlap.

- Obviously this change will be confusing at first but after the appropriate maps are made available, the new boundaries will be clear.

- This change takes affect today - 4/1/2008"



Huh?

Manure birds

One exciting aspect about living in the country during the winter is the flocks of birds that attend to the local manure covered fields. In fact, Lancaster County can attract blackbird flocks that number in the hundreds of thousands. Usually comprised of Brown-headed Cowbirds, European Starlings, Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds, these flocks can also contain rare gems like Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Brewer's Blackbirds.

European Starlings

Gulls can also form large flocks at these fresh manure spreads and often drift from field to field in large swirling masses. As far as I can tell, Ring-billed Gulls make up the majority of these flocks with maybe a few Herring Gulls thrown in here or there. If anyone knows of other gulls that frequent these manure fields, please let me know so I can keep an eye out.

Ring-billed Gull

Manure can also attract field birds such as Horned Larks and the more elusive Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs. These are the two species that I am generally looking for when I am stopped alongside the road, scanning a seemingly barren and birdless field. I haven't seen either species in Pennsylvania yet and am eager to add them to my state list.

Feeding actually beneficial to birds

As seen on the front page of Nature.com, feeding birds during the winter is not only fun for the people feeding them. According to a British study, feeding birds in winter benefits them during the breeding season by allowing them to lay their eggs 2.5 days earlier on average than birds that did not have access to winter food. Birds that had been fed all winter also managed to raise an average of almost one more chick each year.

House Finches and American Goldfinches

The researchers looked at 500 nest boxes in N. Ireland, feeding some lucky birds more than 6 tons of peanuts and allowing the others to find their own natural food sources. The researchers think that the nutrients in the peanuts allow for better egg laying so the benefits may be different for various kinds of bird food. Another possibility is that the extra food allowed the birds to get into breeding condition more quickly.

Some birds can come to rely quite heavily on human provided food, relying almost entirely on feeder handouts. The researchers are unclear about how this affects the migrant species that arrive in the spring to search out possible nest sites. By the time they arrive, prime nesting locations may be taken by the birdfeed reliant birds and result in lower numbers of the migrant species hatching each year.

So, it's hard to say how feeding bird affects all species but for the birds that stick around for the winter, the extra food source can be a real boon. The extra chick/year could really increase certain populations which, depending on the species, could be good or bad. The article also points out how important it is to keep feeding areas clean to avoid the transmission of diseases such as trichomoniasis which can be fatal to young birds.

Link