Rare or Noteworthy Birds at Pennypack on the Delaware Last Week

Besides looking for warblers last week, I also took another trip to a more distant part of Philadelphia to a couple good spots for birds. So, with my kids off from school and impending thunderstorms, I got up early, picked up a birding friend of mine, and headed out to Glen Foerd on the Delaware. There were nesting Osprey and soaring Bald Eagles, but I was more interested in the Red-breasted Nuthatch and numerous singing Chipping Sparrows. I was also intrigued by these guys.

Not a bird.

and

Wild Turkey at Glen Foerd, by D. Orsetti

Warblers at Heinz National Wildlife Refuge Last Week

Some birders like hawks, some birders like owls, some birders can't get enough of Great Blue Herons. I love warblers.

I've written about them before, and I will write about them again (have to finish the warbler ranking list!), and during the winter months I will dream about them. But today is not a winter month, oh no, today is a spring migration month. And that means....warblers!

It was slow, with only a trickle of Pine and Palm Warblers coming through (even slower than normal), but soon the Yellow-rumped arrived and then, while not quite a floodgate, there has been a nice amount coming through. Hooray for warblers!

Winter Birding in Ontario

I haven't contributed to the Year of Birds lately. This is not to say I haven't been birding; I just haven't had much to say about my winter birding. It struck me, though, that there are some strategies to winter birding in a northern location, like Peterborough, Ontario that I could share. If you want to see birds knee-deep in snow in the middle of winter, where do you go and what do you do? Here are my observations of winter birding in Peterborough:

Birding The Willows in Early April, a Short Photoessay

The Willows is a smallish (47 acre) park surrounding an old mansion in Radnor Township in the north part of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It isn't right close to me, but it is a quick drive up a main road to get to, so I've been going there every now and then birding.

Just like Taylor Arboretum near me, The Willows is one of the eBird hotspots that is dominated by a single person's listing effort (with Taylor dominated by my listings), with one person birding it many times in one week (I bet it is during her lunch break or something). It is at both times an underutilized and well documented spot.

So when I saw that there were some warblers spotted in it the other day, I had to stop by and get myself my first Palm Warbler of the season. I also had to try out my new camera! (Yeah, those warbler pictures sort of suck...I'm just learning about my camera and learning how to imbed pictures from Flickr).