Current Topic: Phoebes

Birding New Places in Monroe County

The breeders and migrants have been slowly trickling in to the Northeast. Migration seems to be somewhat late this year and, this week, is being pushed back some more with all of this bad weather. My county, Monroe, seems to be a bit under-birded and I am trying to correct that.

I found a nice spot that is not far from my house that I can monitor for migrants off of Brodhead Creek in Stroudsburg – there are a few parks with trails surrounding it. Something tells me that it is not visited much by birders, however, I was pleased to find swallow and bluebird houses spread throughout.

Tree Swallow peaking out of a house

The habitat is very nice and I can see it being a popular stop for birds, especially in the fall with all of the brush under the trees. The creek is fairly large and stocked with trout so it attracts some nice birds of prey.

Adult and juvenile Bald Eagles off of Brodhead Creek

Osprey taking off

It already has some birds in territory – Tree Swallows, Eastern Bluebirds, House Wrens, Flickers, Gnatcatchers, Brown Thrashers, Eastern Towhees, Phoebes, Chipping Sparrows, Robins and our resident birds.

One of the local House Wrens singing away

The Tree Swallows have claimed their nesting sites

I came across nice waves of Warblers that consisted mostly of Yellow-rumps – others mixed in included Palms, Pine, Black-and-white and Yellow Warblers along with Kinglets and Blue-headed Vireos.

One of many, MANY Yellow-rumped Warblers

Palm Warbler sitting pretty

Pine Warblers move slowly, but stay at the tree tops

Song and White-throated Sparrows are scattered throughout.

White-throated Sparrow posing nicely

And, unlucky for other breeders, Cowbirds are also in high numbers.

A male Brown-headed Cowbird

I visited two ponds to see what they could bring. One is Zachary’s Pond, which did not have much and was too open for birds aside from Mallards and Geese to enjoy. The other, across the woods and road, is Gregory’s Pond – this one has a much nicer habitat for water birds with plenty of cattails to hide in. This pond attracted the usual crowd – Red-winged Blackbirds, Swallows, Phoebes, Herons and possibly more. I think this one has a better chance for having bitterns, rails and marsh birds show up.

An Eastern Bluebird at Zachary’s Pond.

An Eastern Phoebe at Gregory’s Pond

Another treasure of a spot that I visited a couple of times is a more well known spot near the Delaware Water Gap NRA Headquarters – McDade Trail and Freeman Tract Road. The birds are a little more difficult to see here since the trees are so tall, but it is a great spot to bird-by-ear and, with patience, see some of them. So far, I’ve counted over 20 singing Northern Parulas. Pretty soon, other birds will join them in high numbers.

The only chance I had at getting a Northern Parula and I screwed it up!

Gnatcatchers seem to be the bird of the year for me. I don’t know if this is normal for the area or if this is an unusually high year. I see and hear them everywhere.

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers don’t stop moving!

I’ve also visited the public trails for the Tannersville Cranberry Bog. I think these will be alive with birds once migration really kicks in. I already heard two good birds there – a Barred Owl and the beautiful song of the Hermit Thrush (who I’ve only seen in other locations). I am signed up for public birding walks starting next week, so I’ll really be able to see what this gem brings.

Before the snow melted in the early spring, I also visited Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge. I’m not entirely sure of the best places to go here yet, but I hope to learn them soon. There are trails that are near a highway, which worries me that I will not be able to hear anything.

Wood Ducks with Hooded Mergansers in the background at Witmer’s Lake

I’m not sure what else to expect, but I see tons of good birds in my future within the next couple of weeks as I continue to explore my county. Keep em coming!

Eastern Phoebe gathering nesting material

The Comedic Sunning Bird

Have you ever caught a bird basking in the sun? They tend to let loose like no one is watching. Feathers spread, bills wide open, wings and tails stretched out… Today’s post will be a short, comical one showing some birds who I caught looking their silliest.

Many birds find my feeder polls to be a nice spot to get some sun.

Blue Jay

Downy Woodpecker

Common Grackle

Others are really attracted to my shed, especially the roof.

Eastern Phoebe

Dark-eyed Junco – notice the wing shadow

The branches on my feeders are also out in the open and a perfect spot to get some rays.

American Goldfinch

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

My local creek residents find places to sun bath after taking a dip in the water.

Gray Catbird

Belted Kingfisher

Last December, I bird-sat my friend’s Kookaburra. I put him near the front window on a very sunny day and even he enjoyed the sun for some time.

Laughing Kookaburra

He eventually closed eye lid

Around the Neighborhood in Early Spring

It took a while, but spring is finally here — though it still seems to be fighting with winter. I knew that the nice weekend we had in early March was just a folly, but I did not think that it would be this tough! After some nice weather the birds started to move, only to be stopped by more bad weather. Migration is slow, but the birds are slowly trickling in. Earlier this week, I wrote about my birding trips that involved migrating birds and fallout. Today I want to share some of my local year-round residents and new arrivals.

Sparrows

The Song Sparrows are filling the air with the variety of their tunes!

Song Sparrow

Juncos have been hanging around in full force. I get over 20 at a time under my feeders. I am glad they they do not eat from the feeders otherwise they would clean me out! I had multiple incidents where over 30 Juncos would fly from one single area. They are everywhere!

Dark-eyed Juncos

I enjoyed the songs of Fox Sparrows for the first time. They hung around for over two weeks and I had up to six at a time near my creek when they flew right at.

One of many Fox Sparrows who passed through

Finches

I still have some Pine Siskins hanging around at the feeders with the Goldfinches (who, by the way are starting to look very gold!).

Pine Siskin

The lingering Redpolls wish they moved on sooner. I suppose they learned the hard way that staying south did not mean sunshine and warm weather.

Common Redpoll in a rain storm

My newest feeder-bird arrival is the Purple Finch. I started with just one for about a week and yesterday I had three pairs.

Purple Finch

Waterfowl

Every walk at the creek produces at least one Common Merganser. I was able to get pretty close to them at times just by staying still near the edge of the woods.

Male Common Merganser

Female Common Merganser

For the first time, I had Geese across the street from me. I think the creek was too high and rough for them so they wandered a little bit in search for food.

Canada Geese across the street

Woodpeckers

The Pileated Woodpeckers seem to be a bit less shy then usual when they are looking for insects.

Pileated Woodpecker

Since I had no tripod I layed down on the ground across from him and used a stump and my knees to keep the camera steady so that I could shoot this video

I’m pretty sure that I found the nesting cavity for my local Red-bellied Woodpeckers. They are hanging around this tree and especially this cavity an awful lot!

Red-bellied Woodpecker at possible Nest

Other local birds

The air is also full of the loud songs of my Carolina Wrens.

Singing Carolina Wren

Brown Creepers are everywhere.

Brown Creeper

And last week marked the return of my favorite flycatcher, the Phoebe.

Eastern Phoebe

This past weekend I also had a long-awaited yard bird: while standing in my driveway talking to a friend an adult Bald Eagle flew low following along the creek. This happened not ten minutes after my friend and I were talking about having Eagles as yard birds. Talking about being at the right place at the right time!