Birding the warbler migration in PA


To paraphrase one of my least favorite movies, birding the warbler migration in Pennsylvania is like a box of chocolates?you never know what you?re going to get. I?ve been pleasantly surprised by things every day.

My wife Delia and I have been here in PA, 40 miles NW of Philly, 2 miles from the town of Boyertown, for the last five days. It?s the land where I started birdwatching 38 years ago, and we?ve stayed put, not using a car at all and only birding my mom?s 8 acres and maybe 50 more acres of neighbor?s land where trespassing is appropriate. The area used to crawl with pheasants when I was a kid, and with hunting season approaching birding is often done to the tune of neighborly target shooting, even though you?d have about as much luck looking for a pheasant here now as for a Tufted Puffin.

This is mostly sight-birding. The only birds regularly singing are the Pewees, which sing softer and softer as each day goes by, the Red Eyed Vireos, and the Carolina Wrens, which don?t care what month it is since they sing all year.

Here is our list more or less by order we saw the birds:

1. Catbird
2 Blue Jay
3. Mockingbird (ok, they sing a bit)
4. Song Sparrow
5. Mourning Dove
6. Carolina Wren
7. White Breasted Nuthatch
8. Great Blue Heron, (two ponds and a creek around here)
9. Tufted Titmouse
10. Eastern Wood Pewee (just like in the 60s, really abundant)
11. Cardinal (ditto)
12. Robin (forget earthworms, they?re all eating fruit)
13. Ruby Throated Hummingbird (common)
14. Downy Woodpecker
15. Red Bellied Woodpecker
16. Yellow Shafted Flicker
17. Red Eyed Vireo
18. American Goldfinch
19. Black & White Warbler
20. American Redstart
21 Magnolia Warbler (these last three were the commonest warblers here and were fairly ubiquitous, with a Black & White at one point foraging in grass lawn for a bug)
22. Rose Breasted Grosbeak
23. Barn Swallow
24. Purple Grackle
25 Chimney Swift
26. Black Capped Chickadee
27. Green Heron
28. Turkey Vulture
29. Blackburnian Warbler
30. Indigo Bunting
31. Belted Kingfisher
32 Starling
33. Crow (didn?t see till the second day and didn?t see close in, although they are probably increasing here.)
34 Canada Geese
35. Eastern Towhee
36. Baltimore Oriole
37 Black Throated Blue Warbler
38 Parula Warbler
39. Black Throated Green Warbler
40. Chestnut Sided Warbler
41. Red Tailed Hawk (they vocalize constantly around here)
42. Tree Swallow
43 Red Winged Blackbird
44 House Finch
45. Yellowthroat
46. Rock Dove
47. Sharp Shinned Hawk
48. Hairy Woodpecker (no "sooty" look to this handsome bird around here!)
49. Great Horned Owl
50. House Wren
51. Bobwhite (right after I told a guy they were extirpated)
52. Tennessee Warbler
53. Cape May Warbler
54. Northern Harrier
55. Canada Warbler
56 Scarlet Tanager
57. Yellow Throated Vireo
58. Veery
59. Empidonax (Empidonax in my experience all take a vow of silence before entering this area).
60. Eastern Screech Owl
61. Nashville Warbler
62 Wood Thrush
63 American Kestrel
64 Field Sparrow

Well that?s it so far. I have only one morning left to try to get Ovenbird, Blackpoll, either Cuckoo or Water Thrush?or whatever the wind blows in!

Ed Newbold, tweeter by digest, Beacon Hill, Seattle newboldwildlife at netscape.net















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