I got a chance to steal a little time to bird today and chose to do two things: try (again) for the Beach Haven White-eyed Vireo— no dice, and take a walk thru the Glen Lyon Grasslands— which I guess is also called Wannamie Grasslands and the Mountain Bike trail is Penobscot Trail. I really enjoy high contrast areas. One second I was looking at Grasshopper and Field Sparrows, and within a 1/4 mile I was looking at Dark-eyed Juncoes, Blue-headed Vireos, and Black-throated Green Warblers. Also up that way were plenty of Prairie Warblers and Indigo Buntings.

The Grasshoppers were very cooperative and I got to get pretty close. I was on the trail, but they probably had nests not far from it since they seemed to keep a close eye on me.

I meant to post this last week, but a severe storm knocked down the branch with the nesting cavity of a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches in my front yard. The adults were no where to be found and I have not seen them since. The branch was left on the ground with the hole facing earth and when I picked it up two eggs rolled out and crashed to the ground. I’m going to fix up the branch, install a camera, and rig it back up in hopes some other birds will take over the cavity next year.

But I am monitoring a Willow Flycatcher nest in Wyoming. Currently the female is on eggs. Once they hatch I’m going to try to get video through my scope of the parents feeding the hatchlings.

Other than that, I’m pretty much on birding hiatus until later in July when the shorebirds start coming back through. There’s a potential for returning shorebirds as early as the first week of July, but I probably won’t start my obsessive monitoring until the fourth week.

I made a last minute decision to play hooky from work yesterday and hit Brig for a little birding.

This American Avocet was the highlight of the trip. I wound up getting lost trying to take a route that went around Phlly instead of thru it and got to Brig about an 1 1/2 later than I should have. Once there someone said, “The Avocet and a Black-necked Stilt were out by the tower about 2 hours ago.” I was devastated when I didn’t see either bird on my first pass. It wasn’t until my third pass, during high tide, that I found the Avocet. Wouldn’t you know that literally one minute after I found the bird the skies opened up with a severe thunderstorm. With lightning hitting around my car I wound up turning around and going the wrong way back up to the parking lot. I waited out the storm (about a half hour) and went back out to find the Avocet even closer to the drive.

Finding a White-rumped Sandpiper amidst all those thousands of Semipalmated Sandpipers can be like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s hard to miss once you do come across because of the size and wing-structure differences. Plus the different streaking.

Of course Clapper Rails were going crazy the whole time I was there. I did enjoy watching a male and female in the marsh together for about 20 minutes.

If only I could get a Blue Grosbeak for my Pennsylvania list.

Location: EB Forsythe NWR — Wildlife Drive
Observation date: 6/2/09
Number of species: 53

Snow Goose 2
Brant 2
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan 3
Mallard X
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Northern Bobwhite 4
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret X
Snowy Egret X
Black-crowned Night-Heron 4
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey X
Peregrine Falcon 1
Clapper Rail X
Black-bellied Plover 4
Semipalmated Plover 12
American Oystercatcher 6
American Avocet 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Willet 30
Ruddy Turnstone 50
Semipalmated Sandpiper 750
White-rumped Sandpiper 2
Dunlin 5
Laughing Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Gull-billed Tern X
Caspian Tern 2
Forster’s Tern X
Black Skimmer X
Mourning Dove 3
Eastern Kingbird 2
Purple Martin X
Tree Swallow 2
Tufted Titmouse X
House Wren 1
Marsh Wren X
Eastern Bluebird 1
Brown Thrasher 2
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat X
Grasshopper Sparrow 1
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 3
Seaside Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 3
Blue Grosbeak 2
Red-winged Blackbird X
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
Orchard Oriole 1
American Goldfinch X

This Yellow-breasted Chat was at the Harding Powerline Cut.