Lock Haven CBC and other bird.....stuff.

Yesterday, December 19, 2010, I headed to Loganton to assist with the Lock Haven Christmas Bird Count. This was my first Christmas Bird Count, so I was pretty excited. We ended up seeing 22 species and highlights of the morning were a Rough-legged Hawk and Brown Creeper. Last year the total count for the area was only 15 species, so I thought 22 was a fairly good number. Below are a list of species we could find for our section of the count:

1. Canada Goose
2. Ruffed Grouse
3. Red-tailed Hawk
4. Rough-legged Hawk
5. Rock Pigeon
6. Downy Woodpecker
7. Blue Jay
8. American Crow
9. Black-capped Chickadee
10. Tufted Titmouse
11. White-breasted Nuthatch
12. Brown Creeper
13. Carolina Wren
14. Golden-crowned Kinglet
15. European Starling
16. Cedar Waxwing
17. American Tree Sparrow
18. White-throated Sparrow
19. Dark-eyed Junco
20. Northern Cardinal
21. American Goldfinch
22. House Sparrow

Brown Creeper (12/19/2010)

Rough-legged Hawk (12/19/2010)

We did miss some fairly common species such as Mourning Dove, Pileated Woodpecker, House Finch, and American Kestrel.

Later that day, I checked S.B. Elliot for winter finches and came up empty. Common Redpolls seem to be showing up in Pennsylvania as 2 were seen on a CBC in Warren County yesterday as well as a flock of 5 were seen today in Northampton County. Hopefully, they show up near S.B. Elliot SP or State College, PA.

Today, I birded the reclaimed strip mines in Clearfield County again to see if I could relocate the Northern Shrike I found on the 16th of this month. I ended up finding it again and getting a few photos from about the same distance as the last time. I could not find either of the Rough-legged Hawks that were located on the 16th.

Northern Shrike (12/20/2010)

To end the day today, I accepted a job offer to work in Southwestern U.S. as a Willow Flycatcher surveyor technician. I am pretty pumped about working there next summer, as I have never been further west than Nebraska. Hopefully, I will be seeing a lot of new birds and visiting a ton of new places.