State College Birding: September 1-3

Taking a break from hawk watching for a few days this week, I headed up to State College to do some birding with Alex. No, I didn’t go to the game! I couldn’t even tell you who won…
We’ve been birding at Scotia Barrens, a local state game lands unit almost every morning. September first brought 15 species of warblers! In the previous days, Alex and his friends have had similar numbers, and on one day Drew Weber documented 17 species! This is by far one of the best places to see warblers in the state right now. Some of the warbler species from the first included Magnolia, Blackburnian, Black-throated Green, American Redstart, Tennessee, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided, and Common Yellowthroat. We also found lots of Red-eyed Vireos mixed in with the flocks. For a few moments, a flock that included all of these birds stayed out in the open on this small dead branch. Seven warbler species were present at once, and I managed a photo with 7 warblers in it of 5 species!

Magnolia Warbler: Red, Chestnut-sided Warbler: Blue, American Redstart: Yellow, Tennessee Warbler: Purple, Black and White Warbler: Green, Tufted Titmouse: White

Blackburnian Warbler: light red, Black-throated Green Warbler: dark red, Chestnut-sided Warbler: blue, Tennessee Warbler: purple, Northern Parula: pink, Black-capped Chickadee: white

Red-eyed Vireo

American Redstart, Tufted Titmouse, and 3 Magnolia Warblers

Chestnut-sided Warbler and Blackburnian Warbler

On the second at the barrens, we picked up a Black-throated Blue Warbler and Ovenbirds, in addition to most of what we had seen the previous day. Alex showed me a few local birding hot spots around the area, where we found this Red-tailed Hawk, and also an early Blue-winged Teal on a campus pond (in addition to a few Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers). Later in the day, we headed to Julien Wetlands with Tim Shrekengost, where we found a few more Solitary and Spotted sandpipers, and also a Common Nighthawk.

Ovenbird at Scotia Barrens

Bufflehead in State College, PA

Red-tailed Hawk at PSU campus

Solitary Sandpiper at Julien Wetlands

On September third, we joined Tim Shrekengost and Nate Fronk, who are helping out a grad student at Penn State with a banding project in a local park. An amazing variety of birds were captured, including a number of catbirds, a Magnolia Warbler, a Blackpoll Warbler, a Yellow-breasted Chat, a Worm-eating Warbler, a House Wren, a Carolina Wren, Black-capped Chickadees, a Willow Flycatcher, and two Ovenbirds. It was great to see the warblers up close after only having caught quick glimpses of them over the last few days!

Black-capped Chickadee

Northern Cardinal

House Wren

Ovenbird

Magnolia Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat

Worm-eating Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Northern Mockingbird

Carolina Wren

Willow Flycatcher

Later in the day, we went to Coyler Lake, where we had a few Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, who were quite anxious with the approaching front and high winds. There were also a number of Killdeer, Solitary, Spotted, and Least Sandpipers, in addition to a Baird’s Sandpiper that we were surprised to find!

Greater Yellowlegs

California to Pennsylvania, and 2010 Hawk Watching in PA

Alex and I wrapped up work on the cuckoo project,  around August 15th and headed home. We wanted to get home quick, so we didn't make many stops for birds. In Texas, though, we kept spotting Mississippi Kites, and stopped a few times to check them out. In a farm field near a kite, we also spotted an Upland Sandpiper, which is a good mid-western year bird that would be hard to get otherwise. We also found a lot of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. Here are some photos of a cooperative Mississippi Kite we found along the way.

Mississippi Kite in Texas Panhandle

Back at home, Alex headed to State College and I headed to Somerset County, where I will be doing some hawk watching through December, and also some Northern Saw-whet Owl banding on the side!  I'll also be doing some water quality sampling in the area. Hawk watching is always a challenge so many people love it because you really have no idea what to expect. Different weather conditions and wind directions can bring in just about any raptor from just about anywhere up north. Right now, Broad-winged Hawk season is kicking into gear, and as could be expected, this species is making up the majority of my observations. Bald Eagles, Osprey, and American Kestrel are also migrating right now. The unique ridges that make up the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania are very important for migrating raptors, and documentation of this fall (and spring) migration is vital for protecting important migration corridors throughout the state.

My first week of hawk watching was actually quite productive for early hawk watching. My second week brought a few days of thick fog and rain showers, which had migrants taking refuge on the high ridge, waiting, as I was, impatiently for the fog to pass. This was, not surprisingly, followed by an excellent push of migrants (mostly Broad-wings!) that had been backed up with the front, giving me my most productive two days yet. Week three brought very hot and sunny days with almost no wind from varying directions. Migrants trickled through and didn’t seem to want to “go” anywhere. A good front is currently moving through, but with warmer temperatures expected this week, I don’t have high hopes for a big count. After this week though, Broad-wings should really be moving through, and a good weather day could bring in hundreds of them!  Here are a fwe highlights from the first few weeks.

Broad-winged Hawk soaring overhead

Broad-winged Hawk in a stoop

adult male Northern Harrier hunting nearby

juvenile Red-tailed Hawk passing through

American Kestrel with snake

two Adult Blad Eagles with juvenile Bald Eagle

Broad-winged hawk perched nearby

In my free time, I’ve been doing a lot of birding. As usual, any hawk watching site this time of year is an excellent place to find migrants, and I’ve been counting Hummingbirds and Chimney Swifts in decent numbers, in addition to Cedar Waxwings and a few American Redstarts. One morning brought a migrating Wilson’s Snipe and six Common Nighthawks! In the hillside near the hawk watch, Red-eyed Vireos have been calling almost every morning, and warblers have been moving through in decent numbers. I’ve only spotted Common Yellowthroats and Tennessee Warblers there so far, but will make more time this week to find the other migrants I know are in there!

adult Cedar Waxwing

juvenile Cedar Waxwing

Least Flycatcher

Cedar Waxwings

   Common Yellowthroat

Viceroy butterfly

Ruffed Grouse near hawk watch

End of Cuckoo Season in California and Arizona!

Our last few days on the cuckoo project were surprisingly busy!  We did another round of surveys near Yuma, AZ and found no cuckoos.  Back in Blythe on one of our last mornings of work, Alex and I went out to track a cuckoo we put a transmitter on later in the season.  Everyone took their turn tracking the cuckoo, but the cuckoo did not appear to have a nest.  We checked on this cuckoo, and he wasn't doing anything of note, so we went to investigate a few roost sites from previous days that could have been nests.  As we were about to step back into the cottonwoods, out over a  farm field, we spotted a cuckoo carrying a huge bug!  He flew into the woods with it, and we went in after it.  There was no sign of the cuckoo, but a cuckoo carrying food is a sure sign that there is a nest or fledglings around!   Oddly enough our transmittered bird appeared to have nothing to do with this bird.  After searching awhile, we stepped back out onto the road in hopes to see another food carry.  Within a few minutes, we did!  This time we had a more specific location that the cuckoo went into.  We headed for it, and heard a contact call, which meant some kind of exchange was happening, possibly a nest exchange!  I went into to search, while Alex stayed on the road to tell me when the cuckoo was coming back.  The cuckoo flew in three more times to the exact same spot that we heard the contact call!  While I was in the cottonwoods in this area, Alex radioed to me, "He's coming back with food!" so I froze, and hoped I was near where the cuckoo was headed for.  About 10 feet in front of me, I heard some leaves rustle followed by some low "kowlps."  At this point I had the option to run in quickly and see what was happening, or sneak in slowly.  I chose to sneak, but gave the cuckoo too much time to sneak back into the tree tops, hiding whatever it was he was doing.  The cuckoo was silent, and I am sure he was watching me while I searched every tree for a nest.  We never found one, but were sure there were fledglings high in the tree the cuckoo was feeding.

The next day, we returned with Shannon and Diane to attempt a capture on this mysterious bird!  We did capture it, and in the net, also captured its food item, a huge green praying mantis!  We had seen other cuckoo pairs feeding chicks praying mantis on our nest cams, so it was great to get one in the net with the cuckoo!  Obviously he was still feeding a fledgling in the area.  We banded him and let him go. 

Last new bird captured of the season, #27!

YBCU tail feathers

YBCU and prey item, praying mantis

Release!

Unfortunately we had no transmitters left.  We did follow a few contact calls and knocks throughout the morning, which were moving all over the place.  We concluded that the pair did have fledglings, that were mobile, and constantly moving around, since the cuckoo wasn't using exactly the same area as the previous day.

The next day, we managed to capture TGB, one of the first cuckoos we caught early in the season.  TGB successfully fledged chicks!  We will miss everyone that we worked with on this project.  We had a lot of fun and were able to take some great trips, and I got over 130 life birds!!!

TGB

Alex releasing TGB back into the willow stand