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Banded Glossy Ibis

Banded Glossy Ibis

At Conejohela Flats today, a young Glossy Ibis was hanging out on Avocet Point. Ignoring the seven birders walking around the flats, it foraged non-stop in shallow water from the time I arrived at 8:30am until I left at 12:30 pm.

The most interesting thing about this bird was that it was not only banded on [...]

Birding 'The Muck'

Birding ‘The Muck’

One of the birding gems in Tioga County is the State Gamelands 313, better known to birders as “The Muck.” Formerly drained and farmed, it has now been allowed to return to its original state as a highly productive wetland. Specialties that can be found in ‘the muck’ include Marsh Wrens, American Bittern, Sora, Virginia [...]

White Ibis at the flats

White Ibis at the flats

Finally got out on the flats for the first time since late April. There had been both an immature White Ibis and a Sandhill Crane hanging out there together so I was hoping to see both these birds. Unfortunately, only the White Ibis was around while I was on the flats but it was very [...]

Peeps

Peeps

I spent an afternoon on the Conejohela Flats on the Susquehanna River yesterday. The water behind the dam was amazingly low, resulting in acres of mud. This benefited the birds by giving them more foraging habitat but made it a bit more difficult to get close looks at the birds. Least Sandpipers and Dunlin outnumbered [...]

Wood Sandpiper pictures

Wood Sandpiper pictures

Friday afternoon I posted that I was off to chase the Wood Sandpiper being seen in Delaware. I got picked up at my house around 11am and by about 1:30pm we were driving down Broadkill Road, looking for a swarm of cars. When we pulled in, people seemed to be milling around, not really looking [...]

Half a mile of powerline...

Half a mile of powerline…

A morning of birding on a short stretch of powerline cut reaps big rewards.

Orchard Oriole

Orchard Oriole

First Orchard Oriole of the year proved to be an excellent digiscoping subject.

Swallows

Three species of swallow were present at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge while I was there. The most common were Tree Swallows followed by Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Barn Swallows. The Barn Swallows were the most cooperative to photograph, perching on the boardwalk and not taking flight until I was about 10 feet away.

Barn Swallow
Tree [...]