Winter Bird Count 2017 (14-Jan)

The Winter Bird Count is an annual event held by Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center. Around the same time every year, Environmental Educator Rick Wiltraut, collects data on the birds species found within a five mile radius of the education center. He and volunteers collect this data over a weeks time and on one of the days the public is invited along to join in the count. I and several others have participated in this event since its start and every year it ends up being a great day of birding! At the end of this post I have included a link to Jacobsburg's upcoming events if you too want to join Jacobsburg's staff in getting out and having some fun learning. 

At one of our first stops, within Jacobsburg State Park, this Pileated Woodpecker gave us a fairly close flyby. Pileated Woodpeckers are our largest species of Woodpecker in the United States. 

Stopping at Nazareth Park, we got a close look at this male Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. If you look closely at the tree trunk you can see the holes that the Sapsucker has drilled into the tree. They generally make a vertical line of these holes and then several lines at different levels of the tree. As you watch them they will move from line to line, hole to hole lapping up the sap that is draining from them.

A Northern Mocking Bird in Nazareth. This is a very common bird in Eastern PA. Its name comes from its ability to mimic other bird calls. I have heard some do a pretty impressive Red-Tailed Hawk call. 

This is a Chickadee species. I cannot definitively say weather this is a Black-Capped or Carolina Chickadee because they look nearly identical. In the past only Black-Capped Chickadees would have been found in this area and the Carolina's were found further south. It is hypothesized that the Carolina Chickadee range is moving further north due to global climate change. Collecting data from counts like this can help researchers in showing range movements like that of the Carolina Chickadee and other species which ranges are expanding or getting smaller.

At the same stop as the Chickadee, this White-Breasted Nuthatch struck an awesome pose for me to snap a shot. Many times you will find different bird species flocking together. This is called a mixed species flock. Often each species has a different niche or different method of feeding. So although the different species are flocking together they are not competing over the same food source. You can see examples of this at your own backyard feeders. Some birds like Juncos will tend to stick to the ground, where other birds like Downy Woodpeckers will prefer hanging suet feeders. Both occupying the same area at the same time, but feeding off of different sources. The thought is that these mixed species flocks offer these species safety in numbers, more eyes to look out for predators.

Back at Jacobsburg we got to see more than one Purple Finch feeding on red berries. Purple Finch's can be confused with an introduced species the House Finch. The above is definitely a Purple Finch. 

As we continued on to our other count stops snow started to fall. The group that was along was ready and willing to bird in the snow and cold!

At this particular stop some of use stayed close to the van while others trekked down a trail to try to add a Catbird that had been hanging out in the area for awhile. Those who made the walk were able to see it. 

Only feet from the van someone spotted two Brown Creepers working their way up a tree. This is one of them, you may have to stare at the photo a minute before you see it. For all of the photos if you would like to see them enlarged you can click on them. 

The group pressed on through the storm and headed to the Waste Management's Grand Central Sanitary Landfill in Pen Argyl. We were met by a representative from Waste Management who walked us out to the active part of the landfill. With it being a weekend there was no new trash coming in but there were definitely birds!

Gulls are a common sight at landfills, most of the time it is just Ring-Billed and Blackback Gulls. That is all that we found and Rick was really hopeful for an Iceland Gull.

This is a Fish Crow. Like the Chickadees I mentioned earlier, Fish and American Crows are nearly identical to one another. There is an easy give away between these two species though. The calls of these species a very different and both like to vocalize. We did see and hear both Fish and American Crows at the landfill, this one was a Fish. 

There was a large flock of starlings picking through the trash. This one was taking a rest on something sticking up. Starlings are an introduced species here in the US. Originally from Europe they have established large populations here. I personally find them a nuisance. 

As the rest of the group started our way back to the van, our valiant guide kept scanning for an Iceland Gull. There is often one mixed in with the thousand or so other gulls. To his credit, Rick did go back and did spot the Iceland Gull a couple days later to add to the list. 

Here Andrew Curtis (scope) and Tyler Sacks (binoculars) are scanning a flock of Horned Larks to see if they can spot any other species mixed in. This stop at a dairy farm was one of the last of the day. Horned Larks are often found in fields around dairy farms because the manure from the cows is spread over the field. You may have guessed it, the larks forage through the manure to find food. 

If it hadn't snowed we probably would only have seen a few of these larks. Their coloration allows them to blend into a field quite well. I have never seen so many in one place before and this photo is only a portion of the whole flock. It was estimated that there were about five hundred in this one field. 

This photo is cropped down and the birds are a bit fuzzy. If you look closely towards the center though you can see why I cropped it. One of the birds in flight is different from the rest. It is a Snow Bunting! The first one I have ever photographed. I still can't say I've ever seen one, but I managed to snap a shot!

The snow made us stop the count short of a full day. The road conditions were beginning to deteriorate and I don't think any of us participating minded calling it a day. 

I tried to at least pick up something at every stop. Some of the participants joined in as well and added to my pack full of trash. By the end this is what I had. I didn't sort it out like I normally do for the photo. I had a long ride home and conditions weren't getting any better, so I was in a hurry. 

Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, located in Northampton County, provides educational public programs year round. Most are free! You can find there current list of events here: Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center Programs This list is updated throughout the year.

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