More Bird Festival highlights: Live Raptors from Tamarack

Sunday afternoon of the bird festival we had Sue DeArment of Tamarack Rehabilitation and Education Center present two shows on live raptors. The Sunday afternoon programs were free to children and families who filled the classrooms with standing room only. The kids were anxiously awaiting as Sue DeArment talked a little bit about Tamarack and what to expect as she brought out each raptor for viewing. She said the birds were used to being photographed and that flash from cameras was allowed so many viewers brought out cameras and cell phones for the photo opportunities. The four raptors sue brought are permanent residents of Tamarack because of injuries that prevent them from being released back into the wild.

The first bird Sue brought out was a Cooper Hawk named 'Spaz'. Sue walked up and down the aisle talking about hawks and their characteristics stopping every so often to allow listeners to photograph the birds.

Here Sue was talking about the claws and padding of the feet.

Next Sue brought out a Peregrine Falcon named 'Pierre'. The injured falcon was taken to a vetrinarian who set his wing which was broken but did not realize falcons will bite their limbs to free themselves. Pierre had bit through tendons in his wing thinking he was trapped and now he cannot fly and his injured wing droops. He was brought to Tamarack after his self inflicked injury.

I love how the birds look and respond to Sue as she talks to them.

Next up was the Barred Owl 'Sophia'. There were lots of questions about Owls as Sue explained their habits and characteristics.

As you can see by Sue's shirt Barred Owls are one of her favorites.

The last raptor to be shown was a Great Horned Owl named 'Ick-A-Bobette'. This owl was not to happy when Sue first brought him out. The tufts of feathers on his head laid back as he tried to search his surroundings, but as Sue talked to him, he calmed down and raised the feather tufts to a normal position.

Sue explained what happens to birds if they should get a head injury and their eye sight is disrupted. This owl had fallen from the nest when it was young and the head injury affected his sight. He now has cataracts in his one eye.

If you are interested in learning more about Tamarack or would like Sue do a presentation for your school or club check out the details here on Tamaracks web site.

Up next Michele will be writing about our last class we had on Saturday and also about the Least Bittern. Her photos are awesome and we just might coax Michele into posting the baby great Horned Owl photos.

Festival of the Birds 2009-Keynote Dinner

Saturday evening was spent tallying birds, recounting almost unbelievable bird sightings (see photo above), and enjoying the company of friends, old and new. Dinner was a delicious success as festival participants enjoyed great food and a wonderful keynote address given by Dr. Gene Wilhelm. His topic was Birding: Past, Present and Future and served not only to entertain but to inform and educate the audience about the roots of birding and where he expects it may go in years to come. Some of the highlights for Saturday, as mentioned in the program evaluations, included the pontoon boat rides which were added this year (Many thanks to our captain, Julie, and to the DCNR for allowing us to use the pontoon boat!); naturally, the 120 birds sighted (especially Sam Stull's find-see photo above) and the wonderful camaraderie. Perhaps, the "star" birds were the pair of nesting Least Bitterns. They will get a post of their own in coming days:)

Mr. Bittern stands guard and incubates the 3-4 eggs.

Even the most experienced birders refer to their favorite field guide from time to time. Keynote Speaker, Dr. Gene Wilhelm, discusses the future of birding with festival participants.
Joao and company add to the bird tally as of Saturday.
As the Saturday festivities wound down, everyone looked forward to another wonderful day of birding on Sunday. Stay tuned for highlights of the final day of the 2009 Festival of the Birds.

Migrating Birds Week 7

One of my favorites a Chickadee

Friday nights weather was absolutely perfect for bringing in migrating birds. The Southwest winds were a bit cool as the front came but soon turned warm as hundreds of birders descended on Presque Isle for our 2nd Annual Bird Festival.
I went prepared for a full day of activities starting with my birding class. Our first stop was the banding station and they were already in full swing catching warblers, sparrows, and more. I later found out from Tom LeBlanc they caught a Chat, wish I could have seen that one.
I knew Tom was going to be in Erie with his group from Jamestown, NY and we ran into each other near Niagara Pond where everyone was fascinated by the Least Bittern nest. It was wonderful seeing Tom again and I got to meet Patty. What a great couple. I'm looking forward to seeing them at the Nature Pilgrimage.
Our class maneuvered through several trails Saturday morning weaving through birders catching glimpses of Yellow Warblers, Magnolia Warblers, Northern Parula, Sparrows, Vireo's, and one of my favorite finds an Indigo Bunting. But the Least Bittern stole the show for the weekend as we watched both female and male taking turns on the nest, turning the egg and fixing the nest. What a thrill for all.
We did not come across one disappointed birder because our feathered friends were putting on quite a show for everyone.

Michele and I will have more about the festival including:
the Live Raptors - Up close show by Sue DeArment from Tamarak.
And a video of the Least Bittern that Michele was able to capture.

She doesn't get noticed much next to her male counterpart.
Female Red Wing Blackbird

I just love this Magnolia Warbler!

Female: Least Bittern

Male: Least Bittern

Gotta keep the egg turned!

Here is our list of birds from class:
We recorded 65 species of birds including the following:

Canada Goose--many scattered around the park
Wood Duck-- a male near the owls nest
Mallard--a few flying overhead
Wild Turkey--one heard gobbling along Pine Tree Trail
Double-crested Cormorant--one distant one flying well south of Dead Pond Trail
Least Bittern--one female on a nest at Niagara Pond
Great Egret--one over Niagara Pond and later off Sidewalk Trail
Green Heron--one along Sidewalk Trail
Turkey Vulture--four from beach 11 parking lot
Osprey--one distant bird past Niagara Pond
Bald Eagle--one immature over Niagara Pond carrying a fish
Broad-winged Hawk--one adult flying low directly over our heads at Fry's landing
Killdeer--one in Beach 11 parking lot and one over Lawrence's boat launch
Ring-billed Gull--singles overhead
Herring Gull--singles overhead
Mourning Dove--a few along Pine Tree Trail
Red-headed Woodpecker--one flying past Pine Tree Trail
Northern Flicker--one heard near Sidewalk Trail
Least Flycatcher--heard at least four, and we saw three others
Great Crested Flycatcher--mostly heard, but we did get glimpses of one at Fry's landing and Pine Tree Trail
Eastern Kingbird--one at the second parking lot and one at Lawrence's boat launch
Blue-headed Vireo--a couple at Thompson Circle
Warbling Vireo--a couple heard and one seen at Thompson Circle and a couple on Sidewalk Trail
Red-eyed Vireo--one heard and one seen at Fry's landing
Blue Jay--several overhead
American Crow--one at Thompson Circle
Tree Swallow--several overhead
Bank Swallow--one on a wire at Niagara Pond
Black-capped Chichadee--one on Pine Tree Trail
House Wren--several heard though none seen
Ruby-crowned Kinglet--singles at Pine Tree trail, Fry's landing, and Sidewalk Trail
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher--one at Fry's landing
Eastern Bluebird--two flying over beach 11 parking lot
Thrush species--one flew across the trail at Thompson Circle
American Robin--a few at various sites
Gray Catbird--many throughout
Cedar Waxwing--several overhead at Fry's landing
Nashville Warbler--a couple heard at Fry's landing
Northern Parula--one at Fry's landing
Yellow Warbler--everywhere on the park
Chestnut-sided Warbler--singles at most sites
Magnolia Warbler--singles at Fry's landing and a few along Sidewalk Trail
Black-throated Blue Warbler--at least one at Fry's landing
Yellow-rumped Warbler--several scattered throughout
Blackburnian Warbler--one at Fry's landing
Pine Warbler--one heard singing on Pine Tree Trail
Palm Warbler--several at most sites
American Redstart--one male along Sidewalk Trail
Ovenbird--a couple heard at Fry's landing
Common Yellowthroat--several heard throughout, but we did get a brief look at one on Sidewalk Trail
Eastern Towhee--several at a few sites
Chipping Sparrow--one at Niagara boat launch on the split rail fence
Song Sparrow--one in the hand at the banding station
Swamp Sparrow--several heard singing on Niagara Pond and along Sidewalk Trail and Pine Tree Trail
White-throated Sparrow--several with most seen along Sidewalk Trail
White-crowned Sparrow--almost everywhere especially along the roadways
Northern Cardinal--one along the road near Pine Tree Trail
Rose-breasted Grosbeak--one heard at Fry's landing and one seen on Sidewalk Trail
Indigo Bunting--one male on Sidewalk Trail
Red-winged Blackbird--several throughout, especially at Niagara Pond
Common Grackle--one flying past Pine Tree Trail
Brown-headed Cowbird--several at various sites
Baltimore Oriole--everywhere in the trees
Pine Siskin--at least 75 flying past the second parking lot when the leader first arrived
American Goldfinch-singles overhead at various sites

Jerry McWilliams (instructor)

May One: Linda's One-A-Day Challenge

Marsh Blue Violets (Viola cucullata)

This year's roadside violets formed patches so dense that they looked like puddles of purple paint. These are growing beside Peninsula Drive near the 0.9-mile mark at the dirt road that goes past the boardwalk and viewing platform and back to Leo's Landing.

Marsh Blue Violet (Viola cucullata)

The short, thick white hairs at the base of the two side leaves are the identifying feature of this species. A magnifying glass shows that each hair is swollen at the tip.

Black Morel (Morchella elata)

Yum! This single mushroom sprang up overnight in the violet patch pictured above. Yesterday, when it was still only April, there was no sign of it. The magic of May, I hope to demonstrate, is that day after day, something materializes from nothing--webs of green tissue from pure, invisible energy; delicious gourmet treats from wet, sandy mud; and singing chips of color raining down  from overhead streams of migrants.

Festival of the Birds: Let the Festivities Begin!

Diane and Judy on the job at the registration table.

Well, the 2nd annual Festival of the Birds at Presque Isle kicked off last night with registration and an Artists' Reception at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. Wind, Sand and Song: Presque Isle's Habitat, a magnificent film about the varying habitats present at PI was shown. Film-maker Tracy Graziano and her husband Ben Konewicz were on hand to answer questions for the audience. After the showing of the film, *Quackers & Cheese and hors d'oeuvres were served and the beer, wine, and sparkling grape juice flowed. Everyone was looking forward to a wonderful weekend of birding...stay tuned for updates.

Marcy and Pat discuss birding hotspots on the park. Steve D., bartender extraordinaire, testing his wares.PIAS President-Elect, Mary Birdsong, chats with friends.Participants from around the state and east coast flocked here for the festival. *Many thanks to our wonderful sponsors: Mazza Winery and Line X Erie for the wine, The Brewerie at Union Station for the beer and Welch's for the sparkling grape juice.

Now Is the Month of Maying

Hi! Linda McWilliams here, Jerry’s other half, as Michelle described me in her posting last Saturday. She also caught me on camera, waist-deep in the cottonwood saplings on Beach 11, looking through my own camera lens. I was documenting the first appearance of silverweed on Presque Isle this year.

The year's first sprouts of silverweed.

Silverweed (Argentina anserina) is a rare plant in Pennsylvania. Presque Isle is the only place in the state that offers the sandy shore it requires for its habitat--seven miles of beach and at least seven more of bayshore. You can see for yourself how silverweed thrives and spreads if you go to Leo’s Landing at the 0.9 mile marker on the multipurpose trail and walk back the dirt road. Silverweed hugs the ground on the bay side of the road. Its runners creep across the road toward the marsh on the other side, but there’s enough car traffic to keep most of it from getting to the other side. The leaves are only an inch long now, but they will get to be as long as eight inches before summer is over. Each one is divided into many leaflets with deeply cut, sharply saw-toothed edges.

Turn over the leaf to find the silver.

You don’t need to wait for the flowers to bloom in order to identify silverweed. (They’ll have five bright yellow-gold petals.) For now, just turn over a leaf. If you’ve found silverweed, you’ll see silky white hairs on the underside, which reflect a pale metallic silver light, and gave the plant its name. The French, noting that this plant produces both silver AND gold, call it richette.

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May Day! For me, it’s another New Year. My celebration of the January New Year involved grim resolution: jutted chin, clenched teeth, tensed muscles, daunting effort. The New Year that comes in May is an entirely light-hearted affair. It involves warm sun that beguiles us to shed layers of clothing, it rains Vitamin D down upon our bare skin, and it reactivates our feel-good hormones.

The month is named after the Greco-Roman goddess Maia, the eldest of her seven sisters, the most beautiful, and the shyest. Maia was the goddess of springtime, warmth, increase, fertility, and beginnings. She and her sisters form the constellation Pleiades, which rises above the eastern horizon in May and can be seen just before sunrise. The chance of spotting them is sufficient motivation to set my alarm and get up at 6:00. If that doesn’t work for you, you can see the Pleiades--even on cloudy nights, even in broad daylight--on any passing Subaru. The six stars in its logo are meant to represent the constellation Pleiades, which is called Subaru in Japanese. The reason there are only six stars is that they also stand for five related Japanese industries and their parent company.

In my own personal mythology, May is the time of year when the auxiliary verb “may” changes in its predominant usage. “May” usually suggests a possibility (“We may be able to ride our bikes this weekend”), but makes no firm promise (“This may be the last snowstorm of the season”). But when April is over, “may” becomes an active--yea, even a boisterous--verb.

Look at Thomas Morley’s famous madrigal, “Now Is the Month of Maying.” In it, and in May of every year before and since, “to May” means to play, to sport, to sing “Fa la la,” to “dance upon the greeny grass,” and to enjoy all of “youth’s sweet delight.” In Oxford, even to the present day, it means racing boats during exam week. To me it means going out to Presque Isle with my bike, my kayak, my camera, my binoculars, or my field notebook.

I’ve formed a hypothesis this year: I believe that if I go out into the May, I will be able to find some new phenomenon every day for 31 days in a row. A warbler on its way to Canadian breeding grounds. A leaf where yesterday there was only a bud. A flower in bloom. A newly hatched chick or polliwog. I’ll limit my search to Presque Isle. That will give me 3,200 acres to tramp and paddle and 25 miles of trails to bike and hike.

Will this be easy to prove? Or even possible? There are more that 31 birds that return in May or pass through in migration, but they don’t arrive with one-a-day regularity. Plants, though--there are hundreds of species on the park, and most of them will be creating like crazy in May, working magic, making something out of nothing, converting invisible energy into living green tissue, building umbrellas to protect their flowers, painting stripes to attract pollinating insects...Botany will be my mainstay in this project.

Now, let us go a-Maying.

Birding Class #6: "Palm Wonderful!"

The following is a transcript from Jerry McWilliams, our birding instructor and guru of all things wing'd.
It was cool, but we had some sun, which made it comfortable birding. Another nice gathering of birders including, Bernhard & Janet, Kate, Philip, Toni, Julie, Michele, Joao, Julie Dell, Judy, Jean, and Linda.

Jerry's other half, Linda, Guru of All-Things-Greenand soon to be co-author of Presque isle, Naturally!

We started off with a beautiful pair of Baltimore Orioles at our meeting place then a stop at the banding station where they were just setting up, so we decided to stop back later and have another check. At the owls nest we found the adult bird sitting high on the nest, exposing its entire head and upper body. Apparently the young owl was nestled down and beneath the parent, since we didn't see it. The trails were quite slow this morning with only a handfull of warbler species, though we did see numerous Palm Warblers (See top photograph). We had great views of perched American kestrels and an immature Bald Eagle that circled over Pine Tree Trail.

Very distant shot of the kestrel. This immature bald eagle circled over Pine Tree Trail quite a few times.

At beach 11 we saw a distant flock of Common Terns and what looked like a Peregrine Falcon that put up all of the gulls. There were still some ducks hanging around off beach 11, but mostly scaup and Bufflehead. Even the banding station was slow with their best bird being a Grasshopper Sparrow. We did get some up close and personal looks at a House Wren and a Gray Catbird.

We recorded 55 species of birds today:

Canada Goose--several throughout

Mallard--a few at various sites

Redhead--one in Thompson Bay

Greater Scaup--three or four in Thompson Bay

Lesser Scaup--about a dozen in Thompson Bay

Bufflehead--about 20 off beach 11

Red-breasted Merganser--a couple along beach 11

Wild Turkey--a male on the sand mound at Beach 10 parking lot

Common Loon--one bird calling in Presque Isle Bay off the banding station

Double-crested Cormorant--four seen from Pine Tree Trail

Great Blue Heron--at least three flying over Thompson Bay

Great Egret--one over Pine Tree Trail

Bald Eagle--one first year bird over Pine Tree Trail

Sharp-shinned Hawk--one flew in front of the car near beach 11

American Kestrel--two or three along Pine Tree Trail

Peregrine Falcon--one possible bird over Gull Point

American Coot--several off beach 11

Killdeer-- a few heard and seen

Ring-billed Gull--a few at Gull Point

Herring Gull--several scattered around the park

Caspian Tern--a few flying over Gull Point

Common Tern--30 flying well off Gull Point

Mourning Dove--two or three along Pine Tree Trail

Great Horned Owl--one on the nest

Downy Woodpecker--territorial rapping at several sites

Northern Flicker--one along Pine Tree Trail

Blue Jay--several flying over Beach 11 and a few at Niagara Pond

American Crow--several scattered throughout

Tree Swallow--several overhead

Barn Swallow--several overhead

Black-capped Chickadee--at least a couple along Pine Tree Trail

White-breasted Nuthatch--one heard on Pine Tree Trail

House Wren--one heard on Pine Tree Trail and one at Fry's landing

Ruby-crowned Kinglet--a few along the trails

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher--single birds on each trail

Hermit Thrush--one on Pine Tree Trail

American Robin--several at various sites

Gray Catbird--two or three along the trails

Brown Thrasher--one on Dead Pond Trail

European Starling--several on the ground at various places

Nashville Warbler--one at Fry's landing

Yellow Warbler--fairly common everywhere, but most heard only

Black-thoated Blue Warbler--one at Fry's landing

Yellow-rumped Warbler--a few along the trails

Palm Warbler--fairly common everywhere and the most frequently seen warbler

Common Yellowthroat--one singing on Pine Tree Trail

Eastern Towhee--three or four heard singing along the trails

Song Sparrow--a couple on Dead Pond Trail

Swamp Sparrow--one or two along Niagara Pond

White-throated Sparrow--one heard along Pine Tree Trail

Red-winged Blackbird--several scattered throughout the park

Brown-headed Cowbird--several around the park

Baltimore Oriole--singles and pairs at several locations

Purple Finch--one immature male singing on Pine Tree Trail

American Goldfinch--one over beach 11 parking lot

The Black-Throated Blue: our obsession with this bird cost us a view of the Nashville Warbler. C'est la vie!

Toni and I have been extremely busy getting ready for the Festival of the Birds! It promises to be a very exciting event and last year was "Sold Out". I'm not sure how many tickets remain, but if anyone is interested in attending click here for details and registration information. Toni and I will be presenting a workshop on Nature Blogging. Also, some of our works, along with those of other local artists, will be on display during the festival and for the next six weeks. If you can't make it to the festival but want to see the largest variety of migrating birds around, you must visit Presque Isle State Park within the next three weeks!! Things are a hoppin'! If you do plan a trip and need a some directions or advice for hot spots, drop Toni and I an e-mail.