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PA Big Day Details |
| Date | Sep 04, 2006 | ||||||
| Number | 109 | ||||||
| # Seen by All | 105 | ||||||
| Area | State | ||||||
| Time | 0330 to 1915 | ||||||
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| 185 Miles by car, 4 miles by foot. Visiting: Hell Hollow Road, Pocono Environmental Education Center, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Tobyhanna SP, Green Pond, John Heinz NWR, Philadelphia International Airport. Species of note: Black-crowned Night-Heron (R,S), Caspian Tern (no code submitted), Black Tern (no code submitted), Whip-poor-will (no code submitted), Olive-sided Flycatcher (no code submitted), Cape May Warbler (no code submitted). On September 4 (Labor Day) Billy Weber and I set out on our annual attempt to find more than 100 species in Pennsylvania in September. Originally we had planned for September 2, but Ernesto’s visit prompted us to reschedule for Labor Day. The tropical storm may have brought a lot of rarities to our region, but the additional rain and wind did not support our goals. It was in many ways a typical big day, emotions-wise.We jumped off to a nice start with a good number of birds quickly in a locally diverse area, steadily gained on our goal as we visited more sites throughout the morning (Delaware Water Gap), but then fell into a discouraging mid-afternoon lull where we despaired of ever attaining our goal (Tobyhanna and Green Pond); ultimately we hit a spectacular bounty of birds at our final hotspot, exceeding all our expectations. Yup, just another typical Big Day. Low on sleep but full of caffeine and excitement, we arrived at our rendezvous spot along Route 78 at 0330 on Labor Day, hoping to get a couple of owls before dawn.After picking up a cooperative screech-owl at our first stop, we made our way to Hell Hollow Road in Carbon County. No Barred Owls responded, but we did hear Great Horned Owls and a surprising Whip-poor-will, a nice early bonus bird for the day. Veery and Wood Thrush were heard as the sky began to lighten. We arrived at the Delaware Water Gap well after dawn, but it was a cool and cloudy morning so we probably didn’t miss too much activity. Highlights at the Pocono Environmental Education Center were both nuthatches, three vireos, six warblers, Red-shouldered Hawk, Baltimore Oriole, and several other migrants. The national park headquarters, as usual, supplied some great birds: the resident Red-headed Woodpeckers, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird, a “troublesome” species we are always glad to get out of the way early. We decided to take a gamble on Tobyhanna SP, for the most part just to satisfy our curiosity as to whether it could uphold its summer productivity for Pocono specialties. Upon arrival, we watched the clock tick ominously on as we worked hard for just a handful of new birds: Hermit Thrush, Swamp Sparrow, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Blue, and Black-throated Green warblers, along with one excellent find, a Cape May Warbler. So while we indeed satisfied our curiosity about Tobyhanna, we did not satisfy too many of the empty checkboxes on our day’s list. We had also pinned some hopes on the Bethlehem area ponds, since they would be our best opportunity of the day for shorebirds. But Ernesto’s wind and water had turned the shorebird universe upside down, and we could only scavenge five species of shorebirds. Green Pond itself provided a small number of once-on-the-day birds; Indigo Bunting, House Wren, and Eastern Kingbird, in addition to the continuing Lehigh-Valley rare immature Black-crowned Night-Heron. We pulled into the Whitehall McDonald’s for breakfast/lunch/dinner and tallied up 87 birds. Reaching one hundred was still probable at Tinicum, but nothing is ever certain on a Big Day. However, from the minute we pulled into the parking lot until the time we walked out the gate at 1830, it was obvious our luck had turned. A lot of terrific birds showed up, one after another as if on cue: three species of terns, three species of gulls, Osprey, two ducks we hadn’t seen earlier, a couple of warblers, a couple of herons, Marsh Wrens (3), Common Nighthawks (a dozen or so), and a last minute Red-winged Blackbird (whew!). Finally, literally as we headed out the gate, a kingfisher called from Darby Creek and some House Finches flew past. It was truly a grand finale, and would have been an exciting way to wrap up. We made an effort to add another species or two behind the airport. But in forty-five minutes there, we tallied exactly zero new birds. Our final total was 109 species. Woodpeckers and flycatchers bolstered our total twelve warblers was a little disappointing, but not really an unusual number for a September Big Day, I suppose. Generally, though, we were pleased with our result in spite of missing at least a dozen September birds likely to be found at sites we visited. | |||||||