Autumn Uncertainty

Fall has certainly set in around here. The nights are getting cooler, days shorter, and the birds are moving. I'm not sure if I will be sticking around eastern PA for the second consecutive Fall, but while I'm here I plan on doing a good bit of birding and Hawkwatching. After hearing about some of the new and exciting research being done by Lewis Grove and Mike Lanzone, I'm really going to try and focus more on night flight calls than I have in the past. Mike and Lew just returned from Cape May, where they set out several microphones (and interesing homemade combination of hi and low-tech setups) at the alpaca farm near Higbee's Beach in Cape May. One of the mics is even solar powered. With these recordings, combined with radar images from NEXRAD, and working with David LaPuma and www.woodcreeper.com, they will eventually be able to point to a dot on a radar screen and identify the bird(s) to species. For now I'll be biding my time, looking for fall fieldwork, and hopefully doing some birding.

Summer has set in

So, in attempt to become more regular with this, this will be my second post in a week. Breeding activity is at its peak here in Northeastern Pennsylvania right now, with the season's first fledglings beginning to appear. Golden-winged banding is starting to become more difficult, as the birds have begun to repond much less to playback. The last two birds I banded were caught using a screech owl mobbing recording, rather than Golden-winged Warbler song. The reason for this is purely speculative, but it seems as if now that the males have bred, they are less interested in defending their territories against rival males, and more concerned with parental duties. The birding itself has slowed down as well, since all of the migrants have passed through.

Golden-winged Warbler study in Delaware State Forest (PA)

Once again, slacking on keeping up with the blog. I'm currently working in Delaware State Forest, in eastern Pennsylvania just west of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Over the past few weeks, I have come to realize that there is a decent-sized population of Golden-wingeds in the area. I am mainly conducting point counts at areas where the state foresters have either done a clearcut, shelterwood cut or overstory removal (most of our points are within deer exclosures). I am also running around trying to band as many Golden and Blue-winged Warblers (and hybrids) as I can. This has proved quite difficult to do alone, especially when trying to set the net up in thick scrub oak/blackberry and rocky soil. So far this season, I have yet to catch a pure GWWA, but have banded two male Blue-winged Warblers and a male Brewster's Warbler, and have caught male Common Yellowthroat, male Chestnut-sided Warbler, male and female Black and White Warblers, male and female American Redstart, Wood Thrush, Veery, female Indigo Bunting, Black-capped Chickadee (always amazed at how much these little dudes' bites can be) and a male Hairy Woodpecker. The Hairy damn near took the whole net down, and I now have some net-repair to do since I had to cut him out after 10 minutes of trying to un-stick him.
The birding along the 402 corridor (where our points are located) has been excellent the past few weeks too. Pine Flats, Highline and Hobday Roads have been particularly good as of late. It is also comforting knowing that these Golden-winged Warblers are utilizing non-linear habitats (as opposed to the old Powerline standby), and the fact that I have not come across one pure Blue-winged Warbler on any of our point counts or even while birding the general area.
Besides Golden-winged Warblers (we have found upwards of 50 singing males), I have also had the following: warblers including Connecticut (one singing on Pine Flats two days ago), Bay-breasted Warbler, Cape May Warbler, several Cerulean Warblers, Prairie Warbler (many), Chestnut-sided Warbler (many, many), Black and White Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler (many), Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart (tons), Ovenbird, Mourning Warbler (several pairs staked out on multiple plots), Pine Warbler, Northern Parula, Canada Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes (NOWAs outnumber LOWAs in the area about 10:1. The exact opposite could be saud for the 209 corridor, only ~10-15 miles east of 402), Worm-eating Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, all five Vireo species (Red-eyed, Blue-headed, Yellow-throated, White-eyed and Warbling), all 5 expected Thrush species(7 if you count American Robin and Eastern Bluebird; Wood Thrush, which are dominated by Hermit Thrush in the area about 10:1, Veery-many, Grey-cheeked Thrush and Swainson's Thrush-which I suspect may be breeding in the area), Northern Goshawk, Whip-poor-will, CLAY-COLORED SPARROW (6/3), lots of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, tons and tons of Cedar Waxwings, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco and many other species.
About two weeks ago, I completed the PA Flycatcher Sweep (Least Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Acadian Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee and Eastern Phoebe). I believe I could do it again, as breeders this time, with the exception of Olive-sided. There are Yellow-bellied Flycatchers nesting in the region, but in extremely low numbers. There's some good looking habitat that I plan on checking out around Promised Land State Park, where Merlins have nested for the past three years.
Any bird
Anytime
Anywhere
Bird On, AS