The Stroud Preserve, 17 February 2013

Today’s walk was crispy as winter as reappeared. Despite the temperature drop, the Red-winged Blackbirds were dispersed and sing as they were on my last visit. Some folks have asked me if this seemed early and might be a sign of global warming. My answer to this is I don’t think so. My impression is that this behavior is right on time as it is usually brought about by the photoperiod and not by temperature.

Many people might not be aware of just how sensitive birds in the temperate regions are to photoperiod. Laboratory experiments have shown that you can induce molt by changing the length of a birds day by as little as fifteen minutes. I also find it interesting that the photoreceptor for birds is in an unexpected place. Unlike mammals, where the photoreceptor can be found where you might expect it, in our eyes, in birds the photoreceptor is buried in their brain near the top of their head. Apparently, enough light penetrates through the feathers, through the skull (which is translucent) and through the brain tissue.

Like so many of my walks on crispy days, it was fairly birdless. I was quite surprised when I sat down to tally the day’s list that I had 35 species, as I would have bet that I had less than thirty. I took an extra walk along Creek Road to see if I could get a few extra species like Great Blue Heron and Savannah Sparrow, which I did. I also got the bird of the day on this last ditch effort which was a female/juv Northern Harrier working the “no hang gliding” hillside. I am still surprised as to just how uncommon this species is in our area. To me it seems like a perfect area for harriers. But then again, what do I know? I’m just a mammal with photoreceptors looking right at you.

Start time: 8:05

End time: 11:00

Temp: 27-28°

Wind: brisk from the north

Skies: clear

Species Total: 35

• Great Blue Heron – 1
• Black Vulture – approximately 10
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 25
• Canada Goose – approximately 200
• American Black Duck – 3
• Mallard – 8
• Northern Harrier – 1, Bird of the day!
• Red-tailed Hawk – 8, 6 adults and 2 juv
• Great Horned Owl – 1, the usual owl in the usual place
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 6
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 12
• Northern Flicker – 1, heard only
• Blue Jay – approximately 10
• American Crow – approximately 100
• Fish Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 10
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 10
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 6
• Carolina Wren – approximately 10, heard only
• Golden-crowned Kinglet – 2
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 30
• American Robin – 1
• Northern Mockingbird – 3
• European Starling – approximately 25
• Eastern Towhee – 2
• Savannah Sparrow – 3
• Song Sparrow – approximately 50
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 25
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 10
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 15
• Red-winged Blackbird – approximately 40
• Common Grackle – approximately 10
• House Finch – 14
• American Goldfinch – 2

The Stroud Preserve, 14 February 2013

The Stroud Preserve, from the parking area looking north at 8:55 AM.

The Stroud Preserve, from the parking area looking north at 11:25 AM. 

As you can see from the photos above, my day started wintery and ended springy. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the bird activity was highest in the first 45 minutes of my walk when it was cold and snowy and quickly trailed off to pretty darn slow with small intervals of birds here and there by the end.

The bird of the day was an immature White-crowned Sparrow (#63 for 2013) that was seen near the Great Horned Owl’s nest. It was in the same field of view as the day’s only Fox Sparrow. The two Chipping Sparrows were seen at the western entrance to the preserve on Lucky Hill Road. Swamp Sparrow was a difficult to find today for some reason. I saw only one in the wet area west of the bridge over Brandywine. I checked all the regular spots for Tree and Savannah Sparrow but none were to be found.

Start time: 8:50

End time: 11:30

Temp: 38-42°

Wind: none

Skies: mostly clear

Species Total: 38

• Great Blue Heron – 1
• Black Vulture – 5, all on the ground in the field along Creek Road.
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 20
• Canada Goose – approximately 200
• American Black Duck – 4
• Mallard – approximately 50
• Red-tailed Hawk – 4, 3 adults, 1 immature
• Mourning Dove – 2
• Great Horned Owl – 1
• Belted Kingfisher – 1
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 10
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 6
• Hairy Woodpecker – 2
• Northern Flicker – 1
• Blue Jay – approximately 12
• American Crow – approximately 200
• Fish Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 10
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 15
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 10
• Carolina Wren – approximately 10
• Golden-crowned Kinglet – 4
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 25
• American Robin – 3
• Northern Mockingbird – 3
• European Starling – approximately 100
• Chipping Sparrow – 2
• Fox Sparrow – 1
• Song Sparrow – approximately 50
• Swamp Sparrow – 1
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 75
• White-crowned Sparrow – 1 immature, Bird of the day!
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 25
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 20
• Red-winged Blackbird – approximately 50
• Common Grackle – 1
• House Finch – 4
• American Goldfinch – 3

The Stroud Preserve, 13 February 2013

It is always good to start off the day with a new bird for the preserve. Within a few minutes of heading out this morning a line of duck flew over with long pointy tails! Pintails! Actually it was a good day for waterfowl with 6 species in all. Not bad for an area that doesn’t have a lot of waterfowl habitat. This brings the preserve list up to 166 and my list up to 150. Not bad for my little chunk of Chester County. 

A sign of spring appeared today in that Red-winged Blackbirds have suddenly changed their behavior. In 2013, I have made 20 visits to the Stroud Preserve. I have seen Red-winged Blackbirds on only 7 of those visit, and always in pretty low numbers. I’m sure they were bunched together in a flock somewhere else. Today, however, they were everywhere. It seemed as if every high perch had a male Red-winged Blackbird on it singing (as blackbirds do). The males seemed to be pretty evenly spaced across the landscape at about 50 meters apart. Besides the blackbirds many birds seemed to be quite vociferous today.

The female Great Horned Owl was on her nest as expected. If I had any concerns that the presence of humans would negatively affect the nest I think I need not worry so much about that now. When I arrived at the nest site today I saw that she was being mobbed by about 100 American Crows. They were making and incredible amount of noise. A few of the crows came within a few feet of her. She just sat there looking around as if she were saying “Really? Why do I have to put up with this?”

I had to cut my walk short today as my own brood had a half day of school and were coming home early. But despite my hurried pace and limited amount of time, I tallied 44 species, the most thus far in 2013!

Start time: 8:55

End time: 10:30

Temp: 32-38°

Wind: slight from the north

Skies: overcast

Species Total: 44

• Great Blue Heron – 2
• Black Vulture – 5
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 20
• Snow Goose – 33
• Canada Goose – approximately 150
• American Black Duck – 5
• Mallard – approximately 50
• Northern Pintail – 27, Bird of the day!
• Common Merganser – 2
• Red-tailed Hawk – 4, 2 adults, 2 immature
• Killdeer – 1, heard only
• Ring-billed Gull – 2
• Herring Gull – 1
• Rock Dove – approximately 12
• Mourning Dove – 2
• Great Horned Owl – 1
• Belted Kingfisher – 1
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 5
• Downy Woodpecker – 2
• Hairy Woodpecker – 1
• Northern Flicker – 1
• Pileated Woodpecker – 1
• Blue Jay – approximately 10
• American Crow – approximately 150
• Fish Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 5
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 5
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 5
• Carolina Wren – approximately 10
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 20
• American Robin – 3
• Northern Mockingbird – 2
• European Starling – approximately 60
• Eastern Towhee – 2, heard only
• American Tree Sparrow – 3
• Song Sparrow – approximately 30
• Swamp Sparrow – 1
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 15
• Dark-eyed Junco – 2
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 10
• Red-winged Blackbird – approximately 100
• Common Grackle – 3
• House Finch – 6
• American Goldfinch – approximately 10

The Stroud Preserve, 12 February 2013

The down side to a sunny warm (in relative terms) day following a cold snap is really muddy shoes. It was much more difficult to walk around today with slippery mud than in the ice and snow. The photo above is prime habitat for Bluebirds on days like today. They were everywhere. 

The most exciting bird today was Killdeer, a choice that probably leave many folks scratching their heads. Here is why. In all of my visits to the preserve, I have never seen a Killdeer. I have heard them only 5 times prior to today. A few minutes after starting my walk I heard a Killdeer calling. Great! A good day bird. About an hour later, I saw a small bird flying just ahead of a flock of Canada Geese. Much to my surprise it was Killdeer! Still I’ve never seen a Killdeer on the ground in the preserve. Then as I was just getting to my car to leave, I heard Killdeer again. I look up and three are flying overhead. They look as though they are going to fly off and away, then they turn back and land in a wet puddle across Creek Road. Finally, I can now say that I have seen Killdeer in the preserve!

Start time: 9:05

End time: 12:00

Temp: 38-44°

Wind: Gusty from the north

Skies: Clear!

Species Total: 37

• Black Vulture – approximately 25
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 45
• Canada Goose – approximately 150
• Mallard – approximately 85
• Common Merganser – 7
• Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1 adult
• Red-tailed Hawk – approximately 10! 2 immature, 8 adults (5 seen at one time)
• Killdeer – 5! Bird of the day!
• Ring-billed Gull – 3
• Great Horned Owl – 1, on the nest.
• Belted Kingfisher – 1
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 5
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1
• Downy Woodpecker – 3
• Northern Flicker – approximately 5
• Blue Jay – approximately 10
• American Crow – approximately 300
• Fish Crow – approximately 15!
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 10
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately10
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 10
• Carolina Wren – approximately 8
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 50! Out in force today
• American Robin – 3
• Northern Mockingbird – 3
• European Starling – approximately 50
• American Pipit – approximately 40
• Eastern Towhee – 5, heard only
• Song Sparrow – approximately 10
• Swamp Sparrow – 1
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 30
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 10
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 10
• Red-winged Blackbird – 5
• Common Grackle – 3
• House Finch – 8
• American Goldfinch – 2

Vitamins

Some folks have asked how my vitamin levels are doing. I have been on my massive doses of vitamin D and B-12 for about 4 weeks now. As you can see from the photo above my hands and feet are no longer so cold that they hurt all the time. In fact, when I stepped out in the snow barefooted today it felt really refreshing because they were so terribly hot! A month ago I could barely get out of bed without socks on. It's nice to have things back to normal! So, yes, my vitamin treatments are having a positive effect! 

I'm a Jerk!

When I went to Italy in 1984 I was exposed to many new things. Among my favorites was San Pellegrino. It is a naturally carbonated water that is just delicious. I couldn't get enough of it. The problem was it was kind of expensive. A liter cost about 1800 to 2000 Lire. At the time the exchange rate was about one dollar to 2000 Lire. So a bottle of water was about a buck. Not bad you might think. However, we could go down to the corner wine shop and get a two liter bottle of wine (you had to supply the bottle) for about 800 Lire. Now, we were art students and not especially good at math, but we figured we could get 4 liters of wine for the price of one liter of bubbly water. We would save the water for those specially occasions.

Back in the states San Pellegrino was always available but it was still no cheaper so it was never something we drank on a regular basis. Then about 10 years ago or so, Costco started selling it. We could get a case of them for something around a dollar or so. So, Mary and I have been enjoying them ever since. However, as you know, I've been unemployed for the last year and our budget is pretty tight. Even the cheaper brands of seltzer water are a little pricey for us. 

Again, not being math wizards we thought about how much we were spending on bottled fizzy water and realized that we could buy a counter top fizzy water maker for less than we were paying for the cheap stuff, not to mention the San Pellegrino. So, back in December we bough a SodaStream carbonated water maker (about $75) and went to town. In short - we love it!

What has this got to do with being a jerk? Well, if you've got all this carbonated water sitting around you might as well make your own sodas. So, I've become a jerk. A soda jerk that is! 

I've been enjoying making my own syrups for our homemade sodas, including a homemade cola! They are really easy and almost fool proof to make. The basic is two cups of fluid, 2 cups of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (you can get the citric acid from any health food or vitamin store). Put it in a small pot and simmer it for about 20 minutes. Strain it through a cheese cloth and let it cool. 

Most of the recipes that I have found on line (there are a million of them) are heavy in the sugar and light on the flavor. For instance, an orange soda recipe would call for 1 cup water, 1 cup orange juice, the zest from two oranges, 2 cups sugar and the citric acid. To me this came out pretty weak. So I use all orange juice instead and it came put great. Once you have made the syrup, just add it to your soda in the quantities you like and drink away. 

I've made many combinations of flavored syrups, orange, lemon, mixed berry (blueberry, strawberry, and blackberry), strawberry and melon, and so on. If you stick to the 2 cup liquid, 2 cup sugar and 1/2 citric acid proportions, you just can loose.

Some have been more involved than others. The lemon and orange the major effort is squeezing the juice. With the sauces that have berries and fleshy fruit you have to work a little harder in the straining part of the process because your cheese cloth gets clogged up pretty fast. 

The cola recipe was very interesting because it has many ingredients that I would have never thought to use in a drink. Lavender, star anise, vanilla and nutmeg just aren't your every day run of the mill flavors you throw together. Yet, it came out tasting pretty much like a cola! Again as with all the other soda recipes I've tried, I doubled the flavor ingredients to make the flavor stronger. In general, I like two table spoons of syrup per 12 ounce glass of carbonated water. 

All of these drinks will be pale colored compared to the commercially available soft drinks, mainly because the drinks you make don't contain artificial colors in them. Actually, there is nothing artificial about the syrups I make, and that is what I really like about it! So, yes, I am a jerk! 

See photos of my soda making here.

The Stroud Preserve, 7 February 2013

It was an average day on the preserve. The bird of the day was a Brown Creeper that I got to watch at pretty close range. It worked the side of a walnut tree probing the cracks and crevices for little bugs. I was close enough to see fairly clearly that it was good at what it does! I saw it turn its head and take a close look at the barks surface, then probe it’s bill into a crack and pull out an insect. A nice skill to have with the temperature is a few degrees below freezing when no insects would be active. 

Brown Creepers have always been a favorite bird of mine and sadly it is not a bird I see around here very often. Back in Washington State it was a common resident on many of my study sites. While it was never one of the species that I studied specifically, I would occasionally catch one in my mist nest. If you have never seen one of these little guys up close you are missing something! Check out photos of one that I caught back in 2003 here.

Start time: 9:30

End time: 12:30

Temp: 27-32°

Wind: none to slight from the east

Skies: overcast

Species Total: 36

• Great Blue Heron – 1
• Black Vulture – approximately 10
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 25
• Canada Goose – approximately 40
• Mallard – 13
• Common Merganser – 3
• Bald Eagle – 3, 2 adults, 1 unknown (brief look in silhouette)
• Sharp-shinned Hawk – 2
• Red-tailed Hawk – 7, 5 adults, 2 immatures
• Great Horned Owl – 1, on the nest as usual
• Belted Kingfisher – 1
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 8
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 10
• Hairy Woodpecker – 2
• Northern Flicker – 1, heard only
• Blue Jay – approximately 10
• American Crow – approximately 50
• Fish Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 15
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 10
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 10
• Brown Creeper – 1, Bird of the day!
• Carolina Wren – approximately 10
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 15
• Northern Mockingbird – 3
• European Starling – approximately 25
• Eastern Towhee – 2
• Fox Sparrow – 2
• Song Sparrow – approximately 20
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 140
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 20
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 15
• Common Grackle – 2
• House Finch – 1, heard only
• American Goldfinch – 1, heard only

Recent Shenanigans

This is a quick post to bring folks up to date on our whereabouts. The good news is that we don't have any bad news. The kids would have something different to say about that as they haven't had any snow days off from school. As a result, our days and evenings are spent going and coming to school and doing home work. One thing that we did to make the winter easier for the kids was hook up our really nice LCD TV that we had in Sequim along with the PlayStation 3. This made them forget about snow days. 

William made yet another paper monument. This time he made the US Capitol Building. The last one, the Westminster Palace, was rated a 10 on a 1 to 10 scale of difficulty. This one was only an 8 because it didn't have as much detail on it. However, as William is happy to point out, the windows on the this model were much smaller that any other the others. We all think he did a great job. He decided to give this model to our friend and neighbor's Dot and Amberlee. William has been walking Amberlee in the afternoons for Dot. See photos of the new project here. 

The boys did make a trip to Mecca in January. William and Paddy saved up $80 each from birthday and Christmas money so they could by a load of Legos. So on January 15th we loaded up the car and headed to the King of Prussia mall and fought our way through the crowds to the Lego Store. They realized once they got there that all of the kits that they wanted were in the $120 range. So, they decided, all on their own, to pool there money together and buy one big kit that they both liked, and one small kit of their own choosing. Needless to say, they were pretty happy with the way the day went. 

Back in January, Russell found a Great Horned Owl's nest with a female Great Horned Owl incubating its eggs. Yes, you read that right. Many owls begin the nesting season much earlier that other birds. In our area, Great Horned Owls lay their eggs in mid to late January. The nice thing about this nest is that it is accessible. Last weekend I took Mary and the boys as well as the Fozards to go see the owl. It was cold and windy, but the owl was there as predicted by the resident professional wildlife biologist. 

After seeing the owl we piled in the car to go have dinner at out in Amish County at our Keith and Carissa's house in New Holland. Chrissy was there as well. However, we really didn't go there to see them. We wanted to see Evan and Lilly. On the way out it began to snow which made the trip interesting!

See recent photo of the family here.

Russell

The Stroud Preserve, 6 February 2013

It was another slow and quiet day at the preserve. Despite the slowness of the dead of winter I do enjoy the quite stillness. I think of this time of year as the pause one takes between a deep breath and a long exhale. I also find the colors of the vegetation to hold an unsurpassed beauty during this pause in the seasons. It is all one subtle shade of gray after the other. As a painter I have always thought it is the grays that you should give your attention to. Without a gray, a vibrant red is just a red. Likewise, the seasons without this pause would be one long pant that would leave you dizzy and light headed.

In contrast to yesterday, total numbers of individuals and species were down. The only bird that I saw today that I didn’t see yesterday was Common Grackle. I also had the place to myself as I saw no one there other than the preserve manager, Fred, who I always enjoy stopping to talk shop with.

Start time: 9:30

End time: 12:30

Temp: 30-34°

Wind: none

Skies: overcast

Species Total: 32

• Great Blue Heron – 5, high count
• Black Vulture – 6
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 20
• Canada Goose – approximately
• American Black Duck – 5, another high count. Bird of the day! While this might be a common place species for most Pennsylvanian birders, I greatly enjoy seeing them after 20 years of their absence living in the Pacific Northwest. 
• Mallard – 37
• Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1 adult
• Red-tailed Hawk – 7, 6 adults and 1 imm
• Great Horned Owl – 1, female on the nest
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 5
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 5
• Hairy Woodpecker – approximately 10! Where did all these come from?
• Northern Flicker – 4
• Blue Jay – approximately 10
• American Crow – approximately 125
• Fish Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 10
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 10
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 8
• Carolina Wren – 7
• Golden-crowned Kinglet – 3
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 5, heard only
• Northern Mockingbird – 3
• European Starling – approximately 75
• Eastern Towhee – 2, heard only
• Fox Sparrow – 2, heard only
• Song Sparrow – approximately 20
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 60
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 30
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 15
• Common Grackle – 2
• House Finch – 2

The Stroud Preserve, 5 February 2013

I had another somewhat late start today. Nonetheless, it wasn’t quiet as birdless at it was yesterday. I did end up with a fairly high species count for this time of year with 40 total. The highlight for me today was watching an endless stream of juncos spill out of a tree and onto the ground to feed. What was particularly interesting about this feeding flock, was immediately adjacent to it (about 30 feet away) was a feeding flock of White-throated Sparrows with about the same number of individuals. The juncos feed further out in the open than the white-throats, which stayed closer to the brush. There was very little intermingling going on between the two. The ground was just alive with small critters.

With no wind at all, the preserve was very quiet. I listened hard for distant chipping of winter finches such as crossbills and redpolls, but to no avail. I’ll keep looking!

Start time: 9:45

End time: 12:30

Temp: 27-30°

Wind: none

Skies: overcast

Species Total: 40

• Great Blue Heron – 2
• Black Vulture – 7
• Turkey Vulture – 3
• Canada Goose – approximately 500
• American Black Duck – 2
• Mallard – 2
• Common Merganser – 2
• Bald Eagle – 2 adults
• Sharp-shinned Hawk – 2 immature
• Red-tailed Hawk – 4 adults
• Great Horned Owl – 1, the female on the nest still
• Belted Kingfisher – 1, heard only
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 10
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 20
• Hairy Woodpecker – 2
• Northern Flicker – 1, heard only
• Blue Jay – approximately 15
• American Crow – approximately 50
• Fish Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 20
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 20
• Red-breasted Nuthatch – 1
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 25, they seemed to be everywhere today.
• Carolina Wren – approximately 10
• Golden-crowned Kinglet – 2
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 20
• American Robin – 1
• Northern Mockingbird – 1
• European Starling – approximately 50
• Eastern Towhee – 2, heard only
• American Tree Sparrow – 1
• Savannah Sparrow – 2
• Fox Sparrow – 1
• Song Sparrow – approximately 100
• Swamp Sparrow – 2
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 300
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 300. Bird of the day! I watched about 250 spill out of one group of trees in the large field on the northwest side of the preserve. The feed on the ground until a Sharp-shinned Hawk buzzed through. The sharpie came up empty handed. You would think with that many targets it would have ended up with something!
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 20
• House Finch – 2
• American Goldfinch – 2

The Owl

A few birders have asked about the Great Horned Owl at the Stroud Preserve and if the nest site was at a location that could accommodate visitors without disturbing the owl and the nest site. 

The answer is yes, the nest is in an old Red-tailed's nest  high in a group of trees. To actually see the owl you must stand about 250 meters away. You can easily see the owl with you binoculars, but a scope offers some outstanding views. 

The trails around the preserve are heavily utilized by dog walkers and joggers. Or, as is often the case, dog joggers. Birders are one of the smallest user groups for the preserve. I took my family and neighbors out to see the nest this past weekend. It was not the first owl that my kids have seen. Back in Washington State, I took them to see a group of 4 Snowy Owls or "Hedwigs" (Harry Potters mail owl for those of you who have been living in a cave the past 15 years) that were out on Ediz Hook in Port Angeles WA. They were ultimately disappointed because the Snowy Owls were not carrying any mail! Some kids are just hard to impress. 

To get to the nest, park in the parking lot off Creek Road. Walk in on the road that crosses the bridge over the Brandywine River. When the road forks, go to the right towards the barn, following the "Red Trail." Go past the bed for the old farm pond and keep walking (towards the high tension power lines). as you pass the farm pond and look towards the bank of trees just beyond the power lines, you will see the nest (photo above). It stands out like a sore thumb. Walk up to where the "Yellow Trail" goes to the left. Find a good view point on the trail there. 

If you go, enjoy your walk and let me know if you see anything good!

The Stroud Preserve, 4 February 2013

Today was what I am now starting to consider midwinter average. That is to say it was cold and slow. While I my total species count was just about average at 34, the numbers of individuals was very low. It probably didn’t help that I started todays walk when I am usually finishing it up. Even then many species that have been fairly numerous recently, like crows, bluebirds, doves, were absent or nearly so.

Start time: 10:45

End time: 12:30

Temp: 27-28°

Wind: brisk from the west

Skies: partly cloudy

Species Total: 34

• Black Vulture – approximately 15
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 10
• Canada Goose – approximately 300
• Mallard – 1
• Common Merganser – 3
• Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1
• Red-tailed Hawk – 5, 4 adults, 1 immature
• Mourning Dove – 1
• Great Horned Owl – 1
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 6
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1, heard only
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 10
• Hairy Woodpecker – 1
• Northern Flicker – 1
• Blue Jay – approximately 10
• American Crow – approximately 20! Where have they all gone!
• Fish Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 10
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 10
• Red-breasted Nuthatch – 1, Bird of the Day! This bird has been a regular all winter at the patch of conifers on the south end of the preserve.
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 8
• Carolina Wren – approximately 10
• American Robin – 1
• Northern Mockingbird – 4
• European Starling – approximately 12
• Eastern Towhee – 1, heard only
• Savannah Sparrow – 2, at the entrance of the parking lot.
• Song Sparrow – approximately 25
• Swamp Sparrow – 2
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 100
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 20
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 10
• House Finch – 2
• American Goldfinch – 2

Website Overhaul!

About a year ago I got my own domain name, flyingabalone.com. I signed up for a fancy webhost, squarespace.com, I launched my new website. There were many things about the Squarespace software that were great, and a few things that I didn’t like so much. In particular, the way that they handled photographs. My issues with it wasn’t really enough to make me stop using the service or anything like that.

A few months ago Squarespace upgraded their software and greatly improved the way images were displayed. But to upgrade, you had to completely redo your website. Ugh. So I put it off. I took another look at it a few weeks ago an decided I should just jump in and make the change. So I did.

I haven’t gotten all the pages reconfigured from the last site and some things like older post on my blog will have funny and inconsistent formatting. I was going to try and get all that done before I launched the sight but then I though the heck with it. I’m not a business so it doesn’t have to be perfect. I work on it as I can and just go forward with what I’ve got.

The photo slide shows should look a lot better. Go to the menu bar above and click on “art” then click on “Russell Rogers” or “Art on North Franklin Street” and check out the galleries and see what you think. Also, try clicking the “Like” button on the bottom of my blog post. I think it has FaceBook beaten by a mile!

The photo up top of the Prima Pils case really has nothing to do with this post, but it does make the tedious task of reconstructing your website much more enjoyable.

Let me know if you have any problems or comments about the site.

Enjoy!

Russell

The Red Show

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I might be short on paying work, but I am having a fair amount of success in getting my paintings shown. I will have another of my paintings in a show called The Red Show in Stoudsburg, PA. I don't know how long the show will be up, but the opening will be on Saturday, February 9th from 4-8 PM. 

I think the painting that will be on exhibit will be the one above, called The Four Humors. It could be the one below, called The Letter. I'll find out on Saturday! If you are in the area, please stop by! 

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The Stroud Preserve, 1 February 2013

Today the Stroud Preserve was best described as pretty much an avian desert. It was cold, windy and quiet. Very little was moving about at all. My walk today functioned more as a cardio exercise for me than a bird walk. However, there were a couple of patches of sparrow feeding guilds at kept the walk from being a total bird bust. These are usually dominated by White-throated Sparrows and will have other birds mixed in, including tree birds like , bluebirds, nuthatches, chickadees, and woodpeckers. One of these mixed flocks had about 80% of all the individual birds I saw today. It also had a “herd” of cardinals, 38 to be exact. They were all feeding on the open ground with other sparrows and juncos. It was about evenly split between males and females. In my experience, I rare see that many cardinals in one group.

Start time: 9:15

End time: 11:20

Temp: 28°

Wind: brisk to strong from the northwest

Skies: overcast to start becoming clear by midday

Species Total: 28

• Black Vulture – 4
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 20
• Canada Goose – approximately 250
• Red-tailed Hawk – 1, adult
• Ring-billed Gull – 1
• Great Horned Owl – 1, the now regular female on her nest
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 5
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 10
• Northern Flicker – 2
• Blue Jay – approximately 15
• American Crow – approximately 150
• Fish Crow – 3
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 10
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 10
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 5
• Carolina Wren – approximately 10
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 25
• American Robin – 3
• Northern Mockingbird – 2
• European Starling – approximately 30
• Eastern Towhee – 5
• American Tree Sparrow – 3
• Song Sparrow – approximately 35
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 125
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 20
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 50, including 38 in one flock. Bird of the Day!
• House Finch – 4
• American Goldfinch – approximately 10

The Stroud Preserve, 30 January 2013

I had company on my walk today. I met Kelly Nunn in the parking lot. She was visiting from the Kennett Square area. Now that I think about it, this was the first time that anyone has joined me for a full stroll around the place. I had also planned to met another other birder, Larry Lewis, this morning as well. But I didn’t see his group around at the parking lot, so Kelly and I took off instead.

While it was nice to have an increase in birders around the preserve, it would have been nice if more birds showed up. With the unseasonably warm weather that we had today I had high hopes for lots of bird activity. Even though the final species count was on the high end for this time of year, the total number of birds was fairly low.

Still of interest for me is the influx of Fish Crows. Today we counted at least ten in the scattered flock of American Crows. This is strange as I went most of the year prior to this with on a few Fish Crows at all. The Great Horned Owl was still tending to her nest. I am tempted to bring my spotting scope with me on the next visit so I can get a close up and personal look at it.

I did get an email from Larry later in the day. He said that they got to the preserve a little late but did have a nice walk. Their highlight was a Brown Thrasher. They also saw two Wilson’s Snipe and 5 Swamp Sparrows, which we did not see.

Other birds of interest were 2 Mute Swans, 8 Ring-necked Ducks, and 2 Black Ducks in a farm pond on a property adjacent to the preserve along Strasburg Road. The Swans have been there for about a week but the other ducks showed up today.

Start time: 9:00

End time: 11:00

Temp: 47-55°

Wind: slight to brisk from the south

Skies: overcast with fairly low clouds

Species Total: 38

• Great Blue Heron – 2
• Black Vulture – approximately 10
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 35
• Canada Goose – approximately 500
• American Black Duck – 2
• Mallard – approximately 50
• Common Merganser – 9
• Cooper's Hawk – 1 adult
• Red-tailed Hawk – 5, 4 adults and 1 immature
• Ring-billed Gull – approximately 12
• Mourning Dove – 2
• Great Horned Owl – 1, female continues on the nest
• Belted Kingfisher – 2
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – approximately 5
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 4
• Hairy Woodpecker – 3
• Northern Flicker – 3
• Blue Jay – approximately 20
• American Crow – approximately 250
• Fish Crow – approximately 10! Bird of the day, again. These continue to increase.
• Carolina Chickadee – approximately 10
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 10
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 8
• Carolina Wren – approximately 12
• Golden-crowned Kinglet – 2
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 25
• American Robin – approximately 12
• Northern Mockingbird – 2
• European Starling – approximately 50
• Eastern Towhee – 2, heard only
• Song Sparrow – approximately 25
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 25
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 10
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 15
• Red-winged Blackbird – approximately 10
• Common Grackle – 3
• House Finch – approximately 10
• American Goldfinch – approximately 10

The Stroud Preserve, 29 January 2013

What a difference a few days makes. Today it was 43° Less than a week ago it was 12°. The birdlife was more lively as Carolina Wrens, Blue Jays and the likes were more vocal. Bluebirds were back in force. Actually, I don’t think that they ever left. I imagine if I were to check the Bluebird Boxes or other cavities around the preserve during the cold snap I imagine I would have found masses of them huddled up in a blue bunch of fluffy feathers. I do remember seeing a female Bluebird going in and out of a natural cavity in a tree a few weeks ago and wondered it that was an overnight roost for them.

I had a number of highlights on my walk today (in bold on the species list), but for me the best was having a Fish Crow and American Crow sitting near each other in profile where I could (finally) get a good look at the two. I have heard many Fish Crow calls from the preserve but being away from the area for nearly 20 years and knowing how variable crow calls can be I’ve been wondering if I am getting these calls correct. Also, I never hear of any other birders from the area mention that they see Fish Crows.

I heard what I would call a classic Fish Crow call from a small mass of crows in a tree near the Brandywine. I carefully watched until I found the crow that was making the Fish Crow call. I found it sitting just underneath a calling American Crow. The size difference was easy with the Fish Crow noticeably smaller and slimmer than the American Crow.

I’ve always been fond of Fish Crows as it was one of the few nesting birds in my old neighborhood at 5th and Cecil B. Moore in North Philly. We were some distance away form the Delaware River but they certainly liked the urban wasteland there. The only other native nesting bird that I can recall from there was American Kestrel. The photo on the left is a rotten shot using my iPhone. Both crows were in profile and facing the same direction. You can (maybe) make out that the bottom one is smaller. If not, you will have to take my word for it! I think the first thing I will do when I get gainful employment again is get a decent camera for things like this. Nonetheless, it will have to do for now.

Start time: 9:00

End time: 11:45

Temp: 43-45°

Wind: None

Skies: Overcast, light fog

Species Total: 39

• Great Blue Heron – 3
• Black Vulture – 2
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 10
• Canada Goose – approximately 1000. About 750 were in the fields on the northwest side of the preserve.
• American Black Duck – 2, in the old farm pond.
• Mallard – 75, in the old farm pond.
• Bald Eagle – 1 adult
• Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1 adult
• Red-tailed Hawk – 3, 2 adults and 1 immature.
• Wilson's Snipe – 2 just past the bridge over the Brandywine.
• Ring-billed Gull – 6, low enough to provide a certain ID!
• Mourning Dove – 5
• Great Horned Owl – 1, female on the nest.
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – 3
• Downy Woodpecker – 2
• Hairy Woodpecker – 1
• Northern Flicker – 1
• Blue Jay – approximately 20
• American Crow – approximately 250
• Fish Crow – 3, Bird of the Day!
• Carolina Chickadee – 2, low number
• Tufted Titmouse – 2, low number
• White-breasted Nuthatch – 3
• Carolina Wren – approximately 12
• Winter Wren – 1
• Eastern Bluebird – approximately 25
• American Robin – 7
• Northern Mockingbird – 3
• European Starling – approximately 100
• American Tree Sparrow – 1
• Song Sparrow – approximately 20
• Swamp Sparrow – 4
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 20
• Dark-eyed Junco – 1
• Northern Cardinal – 6
• Red-winged Blackbird – 1
• Common Grackle – 1
• House Finch – 2
• American Goldfinch – approximately 12

Forensics Club, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Fancy Plants

[From Mary]

Good day all. Thought it might be time I shared in some blogging duties. 

Funny thing is once I sit behind the keyboard I got nothing to say...

Nothing...

Nada...

Didley squat...

Zip.

Well, actually, I do have a few events that may be worthy of your time. Last year, when my place of employment merged, I "inherited" the position of Forensics coach. That is really interesting mostly because I didn't have the slightest idea what it entailed, other than it actually means 'speech club, and not 'CSI Mother Teresa Regional Catholic'. I must admit I was a little less than enthusiastic. After all, this is my second year teaching all new subjects. Kids, I'm tired. 

UNTIL NOW!!!!! DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!!! The first competition for the Forensics Club was held at St. Joseph Preparatory School in West Philly (hold the terror-filled screams ya'll. The parking lot had a security gate and guard). With students and parents in tow, we made it safely to what some call "Little Lebanon" (Not because it houses lots of Lebanese but because it resembles a war zone!). And there, after months of work, two of my students made it to semi-finals in our very first competition! These beautiful and brilliant girls made it there through sheer exuberance, and I was just in awe of their energy and focus. See photos from our visit here. 

I wanted to share something else. I love this city. Here I stood in a Jesuit prep school where affluent, hard working young men are pushed to make a difference in this world. If the young men who ran the program are any indication, the prep is doing an excellent job. They were impressive, to say the least. Established in what once was a thriving bustling area in 1866, this Catholic church and school was one of many going up left and right despite the attacks from the Know-Nothing party throughout the 1850's. With Irish pouring into the city, St. John Neumann oversaw the explosion of Catholicism as well as safely steering it through violence and destruction aimed at the Catholics and Irish. 

Just next to the prep is Girard College. The history of Girard College and its founder, Stephen Girard, just simply makes me weepy. This industrious French immigrant came to our city in 1776 (oh yeah, the big year) and amassed a huge fortune. In fact, he became the wealthiest American of his time! He had his hands in everything, from organizing the infamous Bush Hill Hospital during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1793 to becoming the first private banker in the U.S. He even helped to fund the War of 1812. As he had no heirs, he invested his fortune in the future, starting the school for orphans who would have little opportunity without help. It is still running today from the foundation he laid. He chose that location as it was near the then innovative Eastern State Penitentiary (focusing on humane incarceration) and a hospital devoted to the mentally ill. Phillie was the "it" place back in the day!

Man, that's just why I love this city. I just feel its story. I can see those immigrants, the free blacks, Ben and Johnny Neumann and Mr. Girard. I can see them all making their way down Broad and Girard and Market. I can see Frank Rizzo and Nicki Scarfo and our countless "notorious" standing around and making trouble. The art and artists. The museums. The food. I just can't help myself..... I just love this town.

Before I sign off, I hope you enjoy these photos and little clip of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. My dear Emily and I joined our lovely friends, Miranda, Lucy, and Isaac, on Saturday evening for a wonderful concert at Longwood Gardens. You may remember them from Paul Simon's terrific album "Graceland". Just a note, the gorgeous, tall young man on the far left is the front man's youngest son. 

I hope we chat soon,

Mary

The Stroud Preserve, 27 January 2013

I had a pretty late start today and things seemed slow that I thought perhaps I didn’t need to bother with any field notes for the blog, however, there were a couple of interesting things to talk about. Also, as you can see from the photo above, it's just nice to see the place in a different light some times. 

To start with, a couple of birders that I ran into as my walk began flushed up a Wilson’s Snipe, which is always a good bird to see around here. I then showed them where the Great Horned Owls nest was. The female was faithfully sitting on the nest.

Other than that most of the walk was as quite as I have ever seen it here. As I approached the Brandywine I saw a flock of 24 Common Mergansers flying south down stream. As I scanned for more birds on the wing, I noticed a flock of about 50 birds high overhead. Looked and they all appeared to be gulls. As on 18 January, when I observed other large groups of gulls streaming past, these were made up of mostly small gulls and a few larger ones. My assumption is that these are Ring-billed and Herring Gull. Today howerver, they were flying the exact opposite direction as they were a week ago and there seemed be fare fewer Herring Gulls mixed in. They kept streaming past in groups of 20 to 75 birds for the next 20 minutes or so. In all I estimate approximately 1500 gulls passed over with only about 12 or so Herring Gulls.

After it seemed that most of the gulls had flown past, I got into my car and head out of the parking lot. As I pulled up to Creek Road I saw a large raptor flying directly towards me only a few feet above the ground then right as it got the to road, it pulled up and landed on the telephone pole right in front of me! I saw a thing hanging from its feet that looked like the tail of some rodent. At last! A Peregrine Falcon!

Or not. It was without doubt a large falcon, but it was very pale, not anything like the Peregrines around here should look. I thought “is it a Gyr?” But it didn’t look right for that either. The sideburns were to distinct and it had far to slender of a build. Then I thought, perhaps the rodent tail wasn’t a tail after all but jesses instead. I looked. And indeed it was a jess. The photo on the right is poor, but you can make out the jess in it.

I looked at if for another minute or so and then it flew off across the field right to where the falconer was swinging a lure around in large circles on a tether. That was a bit of a relief because it makes my issues with identifying it a little less embarrassing. I think it was some pale race of a Peregrine or a Lanner, or some combination therein. I’ll have to wait a bit longer to get a wild Peregrine (or a Lanner) for my preserve list!

Stat time: 3:15 PM

End time: 5:30

Temp: 32°

Wind: None

Skies: Mostly clear

Species Total: 29

• Canada Goose – approximately 45
• Mallard – 13 all flyovers
• Common Merganser – 24, all flyovers
• Red-tailed Hawk – 1 immature
• Wilson's Snipe – 1
• Ring-billed Gull – approximately 1500! Bird of the day!
• Herring Gull – approximately 12
• Great Horned Owl – 1, on nest
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – 3
• Downy Woodpecker – 5
• Hairy Woodpecker – 1
• Blue Jay – 2
• American Crow – 1
• Carolina Chickadee – 1
• Tufted Titmouse – 2
• White-breasted Nuthatch – 3
• Carolina Wren – 3
• Winter Wren – 1
• Golden-crowned Kinglet – 2
• Eastern Bluebird – 5
• American Robin – approximately 10
• Northern Mockingbird – 2
• European Starling – approximately 30
• Eastern Towhee – 1, heard only
• Song Sparrow –3
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 10
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 10
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 10
• Red-winged Blackbird – 6

The Stroud Preserve, 25 January 2013

Today’s walk, like every other walk this week was cold. However, the wind was not blowing at all, so it was a pretty enjoyable walk. My first impression starting out was that it was going to be a really slow day because the landscape as such a dead silence to it. Nonetheless, it wasn’t that bad. The birds mostly occurred in bunches. I would walk for 5 or 10 minutes and not see very much at all, then all of the sudden the ground would be crawling with sparrows. Most of which were White-throated. The old pond bed was pretty active with sparrows as well.

Last spring I found a pair of Red-tailed Hawks with a nest in a large tree on the north side of the preserve near the high tension power lines. I thought  to myself when I saw “that will probably be were I’ll get a Great Horned Owl. All winter when I walk past it I have checked to see if I could see a Great Horned peeking over the side. Today when I looked up I did indeed see a pair of eyes looking back at me! My guess is that this is a female on eggs. I is kind of hard to think about incubating eggs in these temperatures!

Also was interest today were 6 American Pipits that worked their way through the grass nearly at my feet. Actually, they were about 8 feet away as they were at the edge of the near focus of my binoculars. The foraged as if I were not there.

Stat time: 8:50

End time: 11:10

Temp: 16-18

Wind: none

Skies: overcast

Species Total: 32

• Great Blue Heron – 1
• Black Vulture – 6
• Turkey Vulture – approximately 20
• Canada Goose – approximately 250
• Mallard – 10
• Common Merganser – 6
• Red-tailed Hawk – 4, 3 adults, 1 immature
• Mourning Dove – approximately 12
• Great Horned Owl – 1, Bird of the Day! A new bird for the preserve for my list!
• Red-bellied Woodpecker – 5
• Downy Woodpecker – approximately 12
• Blue Jay – approximately 15
• American Crow – approximately 100
• Carolina Chickadee – 1
• Tufted Titmouse – approximately 12
• White-breasted Nuthatch – approximately 10
• Brown Creeper – 3
• Carolina Wren – 5
• Golden-crowned Kinglet – 1
• Eastern Bluebird – 4
• Northern Mockingbird – 3
• European Starling – approximately 12
• American Pipit – 6
• Eastern Towhee – 1
• American Tree Sparrow – 5
• Song Sparrow – approximately 75
• Swamp Sparrow – 3
• White-throated Sparrow – approximately 350
• Dark-eyed Junco – approximately 20
• Northern Cardinal – approximately 20
• Common Grackle – 2
• American Goldfinch – 12