Elk Viewing in Western PA - Sept 23 - 28, 2015

Sharon and Al at Elk Country Visitor Center

           Sharon and I have always wanted to visit Elk County to watch the Elk do their thing during the autumn rut. Well this was the year. We also have a plan to visit all the state parks in Pennsylvania. On the way to Elk County we stopped at six new state parks, mostly in Centre Co. During our visits we managed to do a little birding. Some of our favorites were Wild Turkey and Ruffed Grouse.

Ruffed Grouse in Poe Paddy State Park

Penn-Roosevelt State Park provided a flock of Wild Turkey

      After visiting the parks and having lunch we stopped at the Creamery on the Penn State campus for some delicious ice cream. At Black Moshannon St Pk we added a Barred Owl calling about two hours before dusk. The visits to the parks took more time then we figured so we had to spend the night in Clearfield Co. 

      From all of our research we knew that the elk were best viewed a little before dusk. Since we were only about an hour away we had to find other things to do until dusk. SO we started driving the dirt roads throughout the county. We came across Shagger's Inn Lake early in the morning and there was still a mist hanging over the lake. It made for a great photo opp.

Shagger's Inn Lake

Shagger's Inn Lake in Clearfield County

        The birds in the area were hard to see but we could hear a lot and see a few. We found Kingfisher, Blue-headed Vireo, three species of woodpecker, Brown Creeper, Black-throated Green and Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-throated Sparrows.

           After traveling the back roads we explored the town of Ridgway and St Mary's in Elk County.  About 4PM we arrived at the Elk Country Visitor Center. Sharon went in and watched the fifteen minute movie while I walked around the center searching for bird life. It was quite active here. I found loads of Killdeer, four woodpeckers including Pileated, Pewee and Phoebe, Black-capped Chickadee, Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, Blackpolls, Pine, Black-throated Green and Yellow-rumped Warblers.

            We then walked about a quarter of a mile and tried to pick a good area to view the elk. Around 5:30PM we could hear the bull elks bugling in the woods

 across the field. Pretty soon the females started exiting the woods and started feeding in the fields. A bull elk finally showed itself and started collecting a harem. But apparently it wasn't his harem. An older, more dominant bull decided it was his harem and starting walking over to the other bull elk. We thought there was going to be an encounter but the first bull just walked away very quickly after the old bull trotted over.

          

The dominant bull elk bugling

       

  After watching for about two hours we finally saw a battle between a couple of elk. Once again the old bull was defending his harem against another want-to-be dominant bull. We also got to see why the old bull wanted to guard his harem, if you get my drift. 

Yearling Spike Male Elk

Saying good night to the elk

         We stayed until dark and then drove to St Mary's where we spent the evening. For the next four days we did a loop around Pennsylvania adding about twenty more state parks and also spent one day in southern New York where we visited the Roger Tory Peterson Institute and the Lucy and Desi Museum in Jamestown. It was a fun filled week and something that I would recommend to others. 

          Below are some misc photos of trip.

       

Set of the "I Love Lucy" Show

Sharon doing a commercial for Vitameatavegamin

Roger Tory Peterson Institute

Peterson's Paintings

Lighthouse at Presque Isle

Kinzua Dam

Eclipse of moon while we were in Franklin County

Pitcher Plant in Pennsylvania bog

Monarch

Sharon standing atop Waggoner's Gap in Cumberland Co

Hudsonian Godwits at JohnHeinz Refuge

Hudsonian Godwits

             I was birding in Bucks County at Pine Run Reservoir when I received a text message from Denise Hardtmann that there were Hudsonian Godwits at John Heinz Refuge in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, I couldn't race down there to see them since earlier in the day I had driven Sharon to a friend's house nearby and I had to wait to take her home. So it was around 2:30PM that I finally arrived at Tinicum and as I was walking from the parking lot I met up with Denise and she told me that the godwits were still present. She also saw the Anhinga soaring around about half an hour before. I headed down the trail to the platform and on the way met up with Todd Fellenbaum who pointed out the birds standing in the marsh. There were actually 4 Hudsonians and they were foraging quite closely so I was able to get some decent photos of the birds. I stayed for several hours waiting for the birds to take off and possibly fly into Delaware County but no luck. I left just before nightfall and it appeared that the birds were going to spend the night at the refuge so they might still be there tomorrow morning (Tuesday). It was a great find by Denise and they were nice to see again in Philadelphia Co. The last one that I saw there was in September 1986. 

Anhinga at Tinicum

          

Anhinga Soaring over John Heinz Refuge

          In case you have been living in a world without the internet you should know that an Anhinga has settled in and is earning a living at John Heinz in the Delaware County section of the refuge. The Anhinga was first seen on August 24 and has probably been present since then. However, it has been more conspicuous for the last a week and appears to be roosting at the tank farms across the Darby Creek from the refuge HQ. It can usually be seen between 9AM and 11AM when for some reason it seems to appear above the treeline and circles around for about 10-20 minutes and than glides back down out of sight. I recently visited the refuge and spent about three hours on the main boardwalk in search of the Anhinga with Dirk Robinson and Armus Hill who were both looking for the bird. At 11AM I told them that I was giving up the search and was walking back to the car. On the way back I stopped at the boat launch to see if I could get a view of the area where we think the Anhinga is roosting, but no luck. I turned back towards the parking lot and some guy was jogging by and asked if I saw anything unusual today and I told him nothing but the usual herons and egrets. As soon as he walked away I looked up and there was the Anhinga circling directly over my head. I watched for about five minutes and got one decent photo with my little camera which appears above. I called Dirk to tell those guys about the sighting but they were already watching the bird from the boardwalk. So it wasn't a waste of time in my opinion and I got to see the bird in both Philadelphia and Delaware Counties. Pretty cool bird for Pennsylvania.

         

Butterflies and Birding

 

Regal Fritillary

            Sharon and I decided to go to Fort Indiantown Gap (a National Guard training center) on July 3rd to participate in the annual search for the Regal Fritillary butterfly. It is only found in a very limited habitat of disturbed land. Since the land there is used for live ammo practice (grenades) and maneuver practice (tanks) the land is definitely disturbed by the tanks and also by fire caused by the explosives. The successive regrowth of the grasses and forbs make for the habitat that the Regal Butterfly requires. 

            We left the house at 7:30AM and stopped at Memorial Lake State Park just outside the base to search for a few new county birds. We didn't have too much time so we didn't see much. We got to the base and had a 10 minute orientation about the base and than we caravanned to the area where the butterflies live. We were expecting about 15-20 people at this event but there were at least 150.

 

Just some of the participants

           Once we arrived at the site, the Regal Fritillaries were everywhere. They differ from other fritillaries by having a dark, almost black hindwing. 

Regal Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary for comparison

          We were also treated to other sights besides butterflies. We were shown Spotted and Wood Turtles like the one below.

Wood Turtle - They file a notch in the shell to track the turtle

          Of course a day in the field is not complete without a snake or two.

Ring-necked Snake

          The habitat was also good for field birds and I was told that Chats and Prairie Warblers would be seen. Well, that didn't happen but I did find a male and female Blue Grosbeak.

Male Blue Grosbeak

           The total walk around the fields was about 1.7 miles and lasted about 2 hours. Halfway through the walk we were provided with water. The trip was very well organized and I highly recommend that if you have the chance, sign up. Two more trips are scheduled for July 10th and 11th.

Sharon enjoying the trail

Eastern Tailed-Blue on preferred habitat - a Sneaker

            After the trip we enjoyed a picnic lunch on base and than headed over to Swatara State Park to do some birding. It was only about 10 miles away but the GPS put us on this dirt road in the middle of nowhere.  We at least expected to find a park office to get a map.  We assumed we were not in the correct place and left but not before getting a Redstart and Hooded Warbler. We headed back towards the base and did a little sightseeing of the equipment on display around the base.  

         Just outside the base we found the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. A very impressive cemetery which reminded us of the ones we saw in Europe for the American soldiers killed during WWII.

          Since we were out this far west we decided to keep going to the Susquehanna River area. While there, we found more state parks to add to our goal of visiting all the state parks in PA. They were Jim Ibberson Conservation Area and Boyd Big Tree Conservation Area where I added five new birds to my Dauphin County list, including E. Meadowlark, Scarlet Tanager and Cooper's Hawk.

          From there we went to Fort Hunter on the Susquehanna River and did a little sightseeing around the mansion, mill areas and covered bridge. It was now getting late in the afternoon so I started heading home, but Sharon said she didn't want to take the Turnpike from Harrisburg so we started to head back in the direction of Indiantown Gap. We made another pass around Memorial Lake and walked across the dam but no new birds were spotted.

          When we stopped at the park office at Memorial Lake, Sharon found a map for Swatara State Park and saw a few pictures from the brochure and decided we had to go back. There was a photo of a bridge that we wanted to find and looking at the map we decided it was on the very road that we were on earlier today but didn't go far enough. This bridge was part of the rail trail.

Bridge over Swatara Creek

           Now it was about 7:15 PM and we once again headed back to Indiantown Gap because that was the only place we saw during the day that had a restaurant.  We went to have dinner at Funck's Restaurant and by the time we were finished eating it was 8:30PM and getting dark. So one last suggestion was to stop at Tomstown Rd on base and wait for dark. We arrived at Tomstown Rd in the middle of the woods and a few birds were still singing in the twilight, but Eastern Wood-Pewee was one of them. I got out of the car to listen for other calling birds because I knew this spot was famous for Chuck-wills-widow. While we were standing around in the dark another call pulled up and asked if I was looking for the Chuck's and I said yes. We introduced ourselves and found out Dave Yeany came all the way from Pittsburgh to find this bird. We waited around until about 9:10PM when finally two Whip-poor-wills started calling and then after another ten minutes the Chuck-wills-widow made his appearance by calling about 100 yards down the road.

            When we started the day leaving the house at 7:30 this morning it was not our intention to stay out for 16 hours but it was such a fun day that we were glad we did.

Chuck-wills-widow (photo from Internet)

           Other butterflies seen were Mourning Cloak, Black Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Clouded Sulpher and another type Sulpher, Silvery Checkerspot, and Silver-Spotted Skipper.

Pelagic Trip on Holland America Cuise Ship

      

          I was browsing the internet one day and happened upon the "Vacations to Go" website which I occasionally look at for deals. Well, I saw a deal for a five day repositioning cruise from San Diego to Vancouver for only $299/person on Holland America's Noordam. So I appealed to Sharon's adventerous side and asked what she thought of the idea of a pelagic trip on a cruise ship. She liked the idea so we booked the cruise. Since the price was a bargain we decided to upgrade to a balcony suite in case the weather turned bad and the birding was limited.  We would still be able to observe the ocean and find some birds. Since the cruise would spend four full days at sea, May 5th to 9th, I was using the ship as my personal pelagic trip. After doing some research as to the possible birds to be found, I was hoping to get four life birds on the ocean and one in Vancouver.

         We flew into San Diego the day before the cruise and spent some time walking around the waterfront. We visited the USS Midway aircraft carrier which was docked there as a museum. We also found the Bob Hope Memorial and the statue of the famous kiss in time square of the sailor and the woman.

USS Midway

Bob Hope doing his act for the troops

          The next afternoon we boarded the ship and were having an afternoon snack before the ship set sail. I was sitting at the table and Sharon was in line getting her salad when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and it took a few seconds for me to realize it was Jim and Linda Waldie, members of BCDC, who now live in Cape May. What a surprise! They were here as part of a group of birders looking for seabirds, the same as I was doing. Jim invited me to join the group led by Paul Lehman and I didn't hesitate to take him up on the offer. 

Jim and Linda Waldie

          We then set sail around 4 PM and quickly the birders took over the front of the promenade deck and set up their scopes. We weren't even out of the harbor and there were a few Brown Boobies flying around and landing on nearby buoys. Just to clarify things ahead of time, none of these bird photos are mine. My little point and shoot camera would never get photos like these. But all species shown were seen by me.

Brown Booby

           We birded until dusk and identified the following species. Black-footed Albatross (several), Pink-footed Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters, Black-vented Shearwater, Northern Fulmars, Black Storm-Petrel, and Scripp's Murrelets.

Pink-footed Shearwater

Northern Fulmar

Sooty Shearwater

Black-vented Shearwater

Scripp's Murrelet

           None of these species were life birds for me but it was certainly fun to see them again. We called it a day and headed to bed to get up on deck before sunrise. During the night the winds picked up to 40 knots. The next morning I walked out onto the deck and was blasted by the 40 knot wind coming right at the bow of the ship plus the cruising speed of the ship was 18 knots so the head winds amounted to 58 knots. It was quite chilly to say the least. To add to that, the ocean now had 15 foot swells. Fortunately the ship was very large and handled the sea well. We were still able to use our scopes without to much vibration. 
           Because of the rough seas, the captain of the ship closed off the promenade deck, the deck passengers use to jog or walk around the ship. So it was suggested the day before that if this happened just go out on the deck anyway and no one will bother you. So for the next two days we had the deck to ourselves and didn't have to contend with the fellow passengers. Sharon wasn't happy with the closure because she enjoys walking the deck but she entertained herself by taking culinary arts and computer classes.        
           With the rough seas and high winds Paul said that this would be a good day for Pterodroma Petrels. It turned out to be just that. I arrived on deck about 6am, before sunrise, and birds were already flying. We were seeing a lot of the same birds we saw the previous day. Around 8am people were split between the port and starboard sides of the ship. Fortunately I was on the starboard side when the call went out of a Laysan Albatross. When I searched the area I saw a light colored bird and watched it and thought to myself "This doesn't look right for an albatross". It turned out to be an intermediate phase Northern Fulmer but fortunately the Laysan flew right into my field of view and I was able to see the massive size difference and the stark brown and white appearance of the albatross. I was hoping that this would be the first lifer of the trip as this was my 700th ABA area life bird.

Laysan Albatross

Lifer # 700 for the ABA Area

           As the morning proceeded the birds came at a quick pace. After watching all the Sooty Shearwaters someone yelled "Murphy's Petrel".  

 Murphy's Petrel on rough seas.

          It took me a while to find and follow the bird because it would go in and out of the swells and would be hidden for some time. But I was finally able to see the wings that were bent at the wrist versus the straighter wings of the Sooty, plus the small silvery primary patches and the whitish chin patch which was very difficult to see. My second life bird, #701.
           Flocks of Sabine's Gulls were seen frequently and one flock had as many as 100 gulls. I love the look of these gulls and they are easy to identify at quite a distance due to the tri-colored upper wing pattern.

Sabine's Gulls

           My next life bird, #702, was a little easier to find but still a challenge to follow through the swells. The Cook's Petrel was more conspicuous then the darker shearwaters and petrels. The light gray body and wings stood out a little more against the darker background of the ocean. Although rather far away I could make out the details of the bird and later I would see more Cook's, in closer to  the ship. 

Cook's Petrel - light color with gray hood

       The cook's was an overall light gray on the upper parts and white underparts and a black eye patch. The black outline on the underwings was very thin versus the Hawaiian Petrel pictured below.

Hawaiian Petrel

 
           Later in the day, I was treated to a bird that I didn't really expect to see on this trip, a Hawaiian Petrel. This appeared to be a larger bird than the Cook's Petrel and the outstanding feature to me was the snow white underparts that just made this bird stand out among the crowd. The white underparts contrasted drastically with the dark brown upperparts. The bird also displayed long thin wings and a long tapered tail. This was my final life bird, #703, on this cruise but I achieved 100% success with the lifers that I predicted that I could find. 
         Other birds seen on the cruise were Leach's Storm-Petrel, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, Red-necked Phalaropes, Arctic Terns, Common Murres and Rhinoceros Auklet. Interesting sightings that I really didn't expect to see were a flock of 44 Green-winged Teals passing the ship some 35 miles off the coast of Washington and two large flocks of Whimbrel also far off the coast.
        One final note. We spent the next week in and around Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia. While on Vancouver Island we made a special effort to get to the Victoria airport in search of Sky Lark. I was surprised at how easy we were able to find the bird. We arrived at dusk and planned to stay overnight at the Best Western. So we quickly shot over to the airport to scope out the situation. We could hear the Sky Lark performing their flight songs but couldn't find them due to the low light. The next morning we arrived early and heard the birds calling and were fortunate to see a few land right on the runway and offered excellent viewing. Lifer #704. 
             I would highly recommend this cruise to anyone. How often can you do a pelagic birding trip with three meals a day plus other snacks, have your own room, plus entertainment and a casino after dark. Repositioning cruises along this west coast usually occur the last week of April and the first two weeks of May. So if you are the type who want to see pelagic birds but tend to get seasick this might be an option to ponder.
             Some miscellaneous photos follow:

Lyn Canyon Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver

Olympic Torch in Vancouver

Common Murre in Washington Waters

Red-breasted Sapsucker near Whistler

Glaucous Gull on beach at Ocean Shores, Washington