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PA Big Day Details |
| Date | Feb 10, 2007 | ||||||||
| Number | 77 | ||||||||
| # Seen by All | 77 | ||||||||
| Area | State | ||||||||
| Time | 0410 to 1815 | ||||||||
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| 207 Miles by car, 2 miles by foot. Visiting: Mill Grove Audubon, Ridley Creek SP, John Heinz NWR, FDR Park, Glen Foerd, Chambers Lake, Coatesville Res., Nottingham CP, Octoraro Res., Wakefield grasslands. Species of note: Cackling Goose (R), Killdeer (M), Short-eared Owl (M), Northern Rough-winged Swallow (L,S), Golden-crowned Kinglet (M),White-crowned Sparrow (M), Painted Bunting (M,S), Common Grackle (M). The word of the day was “cold.” The breeze, which we noted as frigid even before dawn, only strengthened during the day. It was a battle to retain warmth and enthusiasm while birding in many of the exposed non-wooded areas on Saturday (10 February). But Billy Weber, Chuck Chalfant, and I (Mark Tanis) weathered the weather, and managed what we thought was for us a pretty good Big Day result for February in southeastern PA. The cold made it tough, and the wind certainly cost us at least a couple of birds. I’m sure some of the little birds that we hoped to find in the afternoon didn’t really want to be out in that brutal gale either. We had plenty of memorable highlights that made for a great day. Our pre-dawn owling, which was really only aimed at Great Horned and Eastern Screech-owls, was so successful that we had both of them within 30 minutes of leaving my house. We spent the next hour and a half lamely trying for Barred and Northern Saw-whet locally with the expected result—nothing. After killing a little time getting coffee and snacks at Wawa, we tried for Killdeer at a local llama farm (the first of two llama farms of the day). Luck turned with a distant woodcock at Walnut Hill. From there it was on to our planned route starting at Mill Grove. Passerines were found and tallied at a nice rate, with only a few holdouts after Ridley State Park and Tinicum contributed their goodies. Shortly after visiting the Northeast Philadelphia Midge Breeding Center to see the Rough-winged Swallows, we discovered a lovely Horned Grebe in the nearby creek. It isn’t too often that you can visit a new site on a Big Day, be pleasantly surprised by what it delivers, and not be disappointed by what it costs you in time. On a prior tip from Frank Windfelder,we added Glen Foerd to our route, putting a crunch on our afternoon schedule. However, Glen Foerd contributed four new birds to our list, two of which we found only there. A puzzling peeping had me searching the sand bank of the river for shorebirds for a while, until Billy shocked us all by finding the Peregrine who was also enjoying the same river view of avian wildlife. We got lost for a little while trying to find the Pennsylvania Turnpike in order to head west to Chester and Lancaster counties. But it wasn’t a serious blunder, and we were on our way to the farms and fields by 1315. This was Chuck’s first Big Day attempt, but he more than paid for his seat in the car by getting us to and through Chester and Lancaster counties. Chuck got us to some good spots where we pulled out the late Horned Lark, Belted Kingfisher, and Great Blue Heron. It is true that we added “only” 11 new birds for the entire afternoon, but that is actually our personal afternoon record for a winter Big Day. In a backhanded way, it was something of an achievement for us. The CREP grasslands and nearby fields at sundown gave up Savannah Sparrow and a Northern Harrier, but no American Pipits, no Eastern Meadowlarks, and unfortunately no Short-eared Owls. We were a little deflated by missing the owls and completely frozen out by the wind at the grasslands, so we opted not to spend another weary hour trying to find Barred Owl at Octoraro and called it a day. | |||||||||