Jersey Birds

Time for more photos from Forsythe.  We went out to Atlantic City a few weeks ago and of course took the time to drive up to my favorite wildlife refuge, once on Saturday and again on Sunday.

Pine trees and egrets, what a mix.  You don't see the two together a whole lot, but this Great Egret was proud as a peacock up in his perch.  The flexibility in these guys' necks never fails to amaze me.

Birds were somewhat scarce (although scarce for Forsythe means there's still plenty around.)  But maybe two miles down the dikes, we found a huge group of several types of birds in what appeared to be a feeding frenzy.  This is the best shot I could get of it, and it's missing maybe half the birds that were there.

There were:  Double-crested Cormorants, Great and Snowy Egrets, plenty of Laughing and other Gulls, and about 30 Glossy Ibis.

Here's a cormorant close-up, sixteen of them in this shot alone.  It must have been a good day for birds in groups, because about three quarters of the way around the wildlife drive, we came upon this small tree covered in Great and Snowy Egrets.

This is really just about a third of the tree, there were many more birds hanging out in it.  Funny, because we've been going to this refuge for years now, in all seasons, and this is the first time I've really seen any kind of heron hanging out there.

Lastly, a Snowy Egret we found making use of a piling and giving us a very good demonstration of the leg and feet colors that are so distinctively identifiable.  Adults usually have a strong break between the yellow of the feet and the black of the legs, but this one doesn't, so I'm thinking it's a juvenile bird, hatched just this spring.

Always Time for Middle Creek

The same day we took the butterfly tour at Fort Indiantown Gap, we decided to swing through Middle Creek on the way home.  I like going there on random summer days - it's always beautiful and the crowds are gone.  Plus you just never know what you're going to see!

I love the look of the summery meadows that take over so much of the open ground at Middle Creek in the warm months.  In truth, I was hoping for more butterflies, but they were sparse.  It was a pretty hot day, so maybe that had an effect.  The birds weren't out much, either.

There was a dragonfly, posing semi-nicely on a Common Mullein stalk near Stop #3.  I say semi-nicely because he stayed put for a long time, but never turned his butt away from the camera.  The internet tells me this is probably a Halloween Pennant, which I can see, given the black and orange color scheme.

Another treat to going in summer is that there's a spur road off of the Wildlife Drive that seems to be open only at this time of year.  Back this road, we found a Grasshopper Sparrow with some grub sitting on a fence post.

The spur road ends in a cup-de-sac by a pond and wetlands. Bird activity here was stronger, and there were also two White-Tailed Deer.  They amused me by wading out into the shallows of the pond.  In the meantime, Orioles, Catbirds, Goldfinches, Robins, and more were poking around and flying from bush to reed to tree.  All in all, one of my favorite spots in the Management Area!

Irish Details - the Third Day, Part 2

Ok, we left off with the donkey braying us into Carrick-a-rede.  This is an attraction centered around a rope bridge that allowed salmon fishermen to reach a small island from the mainland.  Now it's tourists who cross the bridge.

Here's Justin, taking his chances:

I thought I might get a little weirded out by the crossing 80 feet above the sea, but it really wasn't unnerving.  On the island, I was pleased to see that several nesting seabirds were close enough for wonderful photographs.

This is a Northern Fulmar.  Fulmars and some other birds, like albatrosses, are known as "tubenoses" - look ,you can see the unique structure just above the bill on this bird.

And this the closest I got to a Razorbill. Razorbills are alcids, similar to Puffins.  Such interesting, elegant lines they have.  From this vantage point you could also see Larrybane, a cliffy bay that was apparently used as a set piece in HBO's very popular Game of Thrones series.

  

With this, we were off to Ballintoy to find dinner and some time off of our feet.

Ahhh, this'll do the trick!  Justin ordered the biggest burger in Ballintoy, if not the world, and I had a really good chicken curry.  We also learned that tobacco onions are really frizzled onions.

After this we caught a ride to Bushmills, where we crashed out, then woke to start what became our second-most grueling day of hiking!

Irish Details - the Third Day, Part 1

We were really looking forward to the third day, when we made the transition from Ballycastle to Bushmills.  Only (!) eight miles of hiking to get there.

What I did not realize was that the hike started out with 2-3 miles of uphill walking.  It was a relatively gentle slope, but still.  I needed a break!

This day was primarily walking on back country roads, and it wasn't long before we ran into a large group of Rooks.  These are large-ish black birds that have a very medieval look to them, to my eye.  Like they're totally prepared to go after your eyeballs if you sit still too long :)

Right about this time it also hit me that perhaps these birds are the source of the word "rookery," as we saw the birds were grouping around their nests.

Ireland is also the land of extensive and well-kept hedges.  We followed this road, until we reached a farmstead, turned in, and walked out along a fence line into a patch of woods known as Clare Wood.  Something we noticed throughout our time in Ireland is that land is held differently, at least in that many open fields could be accessed by walkers with no problem, despite it being technically private land.

Clare Wood had an entirely different feel than any other habitat we were in this trip.  Deeply quiet, green above and below, just very Druidy feeling, lol.  This was obviously a pine plantation, though, as the trees were in rows.  We heard an interesting bird song as we entered.  At first I thought it was some kind of owl, but eventually realized it was a Eurasian Collared-Dove singing.  We also heard a Cuckoo.  American cuckoos have really wild songs, but this one sounded like the namesake clock.  Finally, it all makes sense :)

This shot shows the view over the countryside, across the Moyle Sea, and to the western end of Rathlin Island - where we were Puffin gazing just yesterday!

Some sights along the way down to Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge:

An interesting butterfly that remains unidentified.  (Sorry, I only had the energy to figure out birds!)

A bin of what I assume are seed potatoes, waiting to be planted in the nearby field.

And a guard donkey, busily letting everyone know we're close by.  What was our destination today, you wonder?  We were heading to Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, and then to the village of Ballintoy for dinner and to wait for our ride to Bushmills.  I think I'll save that for the next post, though!

Irish Details - the Second Day

Day 2 in Ireland involved taking a ferry out to Rathlin Island, six miles off the coast.  There are three lighthouses and large seabird colonies to explore.  This is from the ferry, looking across the South Lighthouse on Rathlin out to Fair Head on the mainland, where we walked the day before.

The first day's hike was long and over difficult terrain.  So our idea was to take it easy and rent bikes for the second day.  Little did we know how out of shape our bike-riding muscles were!

Rathlin has some interesting local building traditions.  These stone fences with cone-topped gate posts were all over.

At the western edge of the island, large seabird colonies can be found.  Here's an example.  These birds are mostly Guillemots, with some Razorbills mixed in.

The big draw here are the Atlantic Puffins.  They nest near the base of the sea cliffs.  You can see two here, near the small burrows they call home.  They are mixed in with a few Razorbills.

Black-legged Kittiwakes also nest here, using ledges on the cliffs to raise their broods.

Volunteers from the Royal Society for Protection of Birds were at the lighthouse, pointing out interesting things to the tourist observers.  They gave us a great hint - on the way back out, look for an "evil-looking" bird at the top of the cliffs, by a rock.

  

We did find the bird, as promised.  Actually, two birds:  Ireland's only nesting pair of Great Skuas.  These are heavy, gull-like birds that raid nests and eat young, earning their evil reputation :)

Here we are on the way back to the harbor, with a lovely church and a bright hillside of gorse, or whin, behind.

Lastly, we have one of the golden hares of Rathlin, partially hiding and very wary of what on earth we were doing.

  

Then, my first glimpse of the bird known as a Robin in Europe, which is nothing at all like our Robins.  Still a very sweet bird, with a wonderful little song.

Nothing left after that except a choppy ferry ride back to our home away from home in Ballycastle:

Irish Details - The First Day

While we were in Ireland, I took advantage of the camera on my phone and posted pictures every day to Facebook.  I hit a lot of the high points there, so I thought it would be fun to get into some of the details I didn't post through other forms of social media.

These are all from the first full day of hiking, east of Ballycastle.

This is a Northern Wheatear in breeding plumage.  Interestingly enough, I've seen one of these before - waaaaaaay out of range in a hotel parking lot off of Interstate 81 in PA in winter.  An Irish meadow is much more their natural habitat.

We were walking through plenty of farm fields this day.  The multiple ways and means designed to cross the fences had us smiling.  This is a simpler one, just a cross piece placed on two small posts.  I was never able to get good photographs, but these fields were full of Skylarks, small sparrow-ish birds that flutter 30-40 feet above the ground, singing for mates.  A unique and charming behavior.  

We met these two dogs on the trail.  Yes, there's two, note the ear tip sticking out from behind the rock.  The hiding dog was definitely passive, while the one you can see was actually a wee bit aggressive.  I think he felt he was protecting his buddy, but yeeesh!

Ireland has a lot of birds that have analogues in the New World.  Here's the Grey Heron, which is obviously quite similar to our Great Blue Heron.

And this is a Blackbird, which is not related to American blackbirds at all, but is actually a type of what we would call a robin!  Striking bird, for one that is working only with black and yellow for colors.

One thing we learned very quickly was that, whatever the weather was at the moment, it was unlikely to stay that way for long.  By the end of the day, our nice sunny adventure had turned into low clouds and spitting rain.  But it did make for a moody shot of Ballycastle harbour!

Mothers Day Bird Fest

Mothers Day weekend always lines up with the Pennsylvania Annual Migration Count (PAMC).  This is nice, because I'm usually back in Fulton County, which is a place that isn't birded much in projects like these, and my Mom's into birds, too, so this makes something nice we can do together.  Here's some photos from two Saturdays ago:

Mom got up super early with me to head out before sunrise.  I have to say, late spring mornings like these, tucked up against a mountain with hundreds of birds singing their hearts out, well, there's just not a lot that can beat it.

The warm early sun streams through trees, making the fording of Licking Creek almost fairytale-like.  My plan was to bring my flip flops and wade through, but I managed to catch a four-wheeled ride a little later :)

I have a lot of pictures from this weekend of birding, but not-so-strangely, most of them are not of birds.  They just don't sit still long enough ;)  But, I did catch a few loafing around.  Above is a Baltimore Oriole.  Sometimes, it seemed like there were a pair of these in every tree.

At the family's farm, this Song Sparrow was up and singing loudly. Not one bit of shyness to this guy.  Walking from the Farm to my parent's house is always a good bird walk.  Part of the way, it gets steep enough that you can easily see into the tops of the trees just down the bank.  Great for warbler-watching, although I didn't see any!  (Did hear a Prairie Warbler.)  But, plenty of the normal denizens were out.

Here's a good example of a common bird that looks a little unusual from a particular angle.  This guy was clearly singing the "drink your tea" of an Eastern Towhee, but from the front and high up in a tree, I had to double check his identity.  Usually you see these guys scratching around in low brush.

As I walked down the hill to my parents', I had to do a double take.  There was a Turkey Vulture perched in a dead tree behind their house, sunning its wings.  Some trick of perspective made the vulture look HUGE.

Later that day, we went to the Rosebud Area of Buchanan State Forest, also known as the Kerper Tract.  It's funny how some patches of woods have their own distinctive mix of birds - here you are guaranteed to be awash in American Redstarts, find Wood Thrushes under every bush, and see or hear Acadian Flycatchers, Ovenbirds, Eastern Phoebes, and a bunch of woodpeckers.  Here's a Wood Thrush, singing.  One of my all-time fave singers :)

River Walking, Part Two

After we did the Enola Low Grade Line, we decided to do another part of the trail the next day.  Monday evening, actually.  I had heard that a pair of Bald Eagles were nesting close to the trail.  And yeah, they were CLOSE!

I think the sun had actually set at this point, so the photo is a little wonky.  But you get the gist.  

This walk is along the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail.  What's interesting about this trail is that it's not complete.  Different sections of it have come on line over the last decade, and even more will be completed soon.  By the end of this year, we should be able to walk down the street to the River, then go over 10 miles north.  Soon to be even further.  The very long term goal is to connect the trail south to the Enola Low Grade line, of last post's fame.  

Anyway, the rail trail has finally connected up to Shocks Mill Bridge.  This is a rail bridge and is difficult to see from any road.  So the trail really has opened this view up to the public.  The central portion looks different because it was damaged in an ice jam and had to be rebuilt.

We also found the other Eagle, out on a bar in the River.  Very far away, but you can't really mistake one for anything else, at least not in these parts :)

The last thing that was really neat was getting to check out an art project I'd heard about.  Turns out an artist, in conjunction with a local elementary school, has designed a tile mosaic for the long retaining wall at Donegal River Park.  

It's not complete yet, you can see where tiles still need to be placed.  But it's so neat!  The design seems to be the River, connecting various scenes from the countryside.  This is the big arches of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, close to home and lovely.  I'm not sure if the sun is a play on the Rising Sun Hotel building here in town, or whether that's a happy coincidence :)