Trip Report; N. Eastern USA, 7th- 21st April 2008. (1 Viewer)

[dantheman]

WARNING: This first post is long, and possibly somewhat uninteresting ( . . . zzzzz) for those not wanting to replicate the same kind of trip, or read exactly how we went about things. Although maybe it will include some helpful hints in how not to organise such a trip . . . A bit of stuff about the birds will eventually follow I guess. Ciao

Trip Report

N. Eastern USA, 7th- 21st April 2008.

First off, this wasn’t really and exclusively a birding trip. I had promised my girlfriend I’d accompany her on a trip to the US when she visited a friend from her schooldays who’d moved out there. Initially this was going to be last year to Seattle; but that fell through and so we went to the alternative location in April (due to time off having to be taken in the school hols due to work commitments). Too early for the main migration, a kind of inbetween time really. Suzi hadn’t been to the States before, so we wanted to travel about a bit and try and see some stuff, but not necessarily the ‘usual’ tourist stuff. And I managed to convince her that nature reserves (‘birdy’ places) would be cool . . . .

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(PREPARATION;- good in some respects, a bit woeful in others. It came about that we had about a month to prepare. Should have been plenty . . :eek!: )


General Preparation: Bought ‘The Rough Guide to the USA’. Borrowed various books from the library. They weren’t that useful for our trip eg a guide ‘To The National Parks of Western USA’. Looked up stuff on the web and contacted people. More details later. Watched lots of old american sitcoms and informative modern programs like the 'X-files' and 'Desperate Housewives'.

Flights: used web comparism sites and techniques, best deal was Zoom airlines, about £250 each for the round trip from Gatwick. Flew to JFK, New York as this was cheapest, and a springboard to explore slightly further north and hopefully catch some lingering winterers (and Suzi wanted to see Boston.)

Car Hire: seemed a car is almost a necessary if you want to get to places without hitching (not an option on this occasion), lots of walking, taking your time, or lugging bags etc across cities, or even not getting to places. America is designed for car users!! Booked via the internet again. Booked a hire car but had to cancel at the last minute and find another as they wouldn’t accept a ‘Debit’ card for the deposit (as opposed to a 'credit' card), despite accepting it for the actual hire. Duh! Found very few do, eventually found one in NY city which would (but it wasn’t such a good price, with the damage waiver extras came to about £370 for the 2 weeks (As opposed to the £250 we were apparently going to get initially)). Aamcar was the name, located over by Central Park, conveniently enough in some respects.

Accomodation: Struggled at first on the web, searching motels etc. Found website ‘Hotels and Discounts’ had some motels on and able to search an area and find some motels in the area. Looked at some of the chains themselves from this (eg Best Western etc), sometimes the price was actually cheaper, so booked some online through both techniques. Used ‘Freetrip’ (google it ) to find places on our route – very useful at times. Found the places, but didn’t book through free trip directly as too pricey. For the second week, based in Cape May, the CPMO website had a list of recommended accomodation on Cape May itself. Had to phone up to book these. (And got some discounts as listed on the CMBO website)

Travel: Didn’t buy a road atlas or take up the offer of GPS from the hire car company ($25 per week, pricey? But probably would have saved us getting lost a few times, hours of stress etc, possibly time saved by NOT taking the slow way between destinations, and resulted in more energy for birding and other things), did however pick up free bus and subway maps of NY city from the airport and bought McNally Rand maps of New England and New Jersey at the car hire. So we were almost covered, with Philadelphia kind of covered in the NJ one, our free NY ones covering the middle ground and a printed itinerary or two from ‘FreeTrip’ (which turned out a bit vague (ok, downright wrong) at times) for a couple of specific routes.

Money: Suzi had a small sum of dollars as a gift, but we drew money out once we were there, as I had a Nationwide account, and Nationwide are about the only UK card to give FREE currency withdrawals abroad. (Some ATM’s may charge though, as in the uk- just have to check them at the time. Most banks don’t though. Walmart one said it didn’t, but still charged $1) Paid for fuel, accommodation etc with the card (VISA), hopefully with VISA’s good exchange rate rather than money exchange bureaus bad ones. . .

Phone: found a cheap call rate to book the acomodation etc via website ‘money saving expert’ (good for lots of other stuff too). Didn’t use the phone much whilst abroad, bought a phone card once).

Toll, Fuel etc: $7 dollar average price to cross a bridge in NY city, but only occasional tolls on the Garden State Parkway NJ only 15 up to a maximum of 75 cents a time!! Fuel half the price of in the uk so even though prices are going up, still felt like a bargain. Different States put different taxes on though, so New Jersey a dollar cheaper per gallon than New York City.

On the birding side of things:

Posted here on BF in the relevant info wanted sections to try and get some basic info ideas, confirm if this was indeed a good time to go. From a suggestion given contacted ‘BirdingPals’ to try and meet up with someone on Long Island NY as we were going there. As it panned out did not meet up as they suggested that LI was not necessarily the best place to be if we had other options (which we did). Regretted not contacting others, eg in New Jersey where we spent the second week. (But it wasn’t meant to be a birding holiday anyway). Bit short of time to arrange anything once we definately knew were we'd be going.

Other suggestions led to sites and reserves on the internet which were followed up (Audobon soc, birding lists, specific reserves etc) CMBO (Cape May Bird Observatory) site also useful, for birds and accomodation etc etc Might try and put a list of websites etc I found useful in an appendix . . .

Birding equipment etc: Bought a new 2GB memory card for the mobile phone for saving all the hundreds of pictures I would be taking. . . :t:

Bought a couple of field guides (Stokes Eastern US birds, Sibleys Eastern US birds) to complement the National Geographic one I already had, and a bird songs CD (Stokes again) from Amazon.com. (not co.uk) (All a lot cheaper than the UK), the bird songs I hoped to download to the mobile. Then became a bit worried as the possible range of delivery dates ranged from a few weeks time till after we would have returned from the entire trip! Fortunately they arrived with about a week to go.

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Once we were there;

Since it was the off season (and maybe the case at most times anyway) found most places were nothing like fully booked so wasn’t necessary to go to all the trouble beforehand to book places we went to. (Although in Cape May this was good as a Jazz festival was on at the same time, and places were booking up fast). Changed our plans a couple of times, not too much trouble in cancelling places we’d already booked/ paid for. Will add more things if I rememeber them later on, it mostly went ok, it's part of the fun I guess if things don't work out exactly as expected . . .

Visited and attempted to visit some of the places suggested, see below for more details . .

 

[dantheman]

THE TRIP . . .

Visited some of the reserves suggested and did general birding as we went, no early morning starts though, or that many intense single person birding trips. Total about 130 species, maybe 50 US ticks (Gadwall - wow!!), and less than half of them 'World' Lifers. Some good birds, but not much in the way of really exciting ones or landbird lifers, eg 5 Wood Warblers seen and identified, no new species, but then I knew it was a little too early for the main migration. Also not exactly the Shorebird spectacle I was hoping for. Ducks were better, although some of the species I was hoping for were (seemingly) non existent (I'm not saying the duck hunters had done away with them altogether )or a bit thin on the ground (well water then). However, did manage to find a major US rarity (subspecies that is) on the last day (bit of serendipity there – shouldn’t have even been birding as we should (!) have been on our way to get to our flight!).

A brief summary of our intentions: Spend the first couple of days around New York area, then up to Massachusettes for a few days, back down to Philadelphia for a long weekend, and then on to Cape May for most of the last week, before a final drive back up to NY again for the last night and our flight out.

Day 1 Monday 7th April. Getting to Gatwick, Bermuda and then JFK - The USA!

Up by 6am, taxi at the door by 7.05, £3.40 to Swanley Station. Some snow still on the ground. Didn’t note down any birds from the train, but 6 Skylark and 1 Carrion Crow from the plane as we took off the excitement from the uk end . . . and on to . . .

. . . Bermuda!! (World country tick)

Crow sp. (presumably American), first bird on foreign territory from the plane as we landed, then a few Starlings and 3 Whimbrel flushed by the plane. (The american hudsonicus subspecies – a world tick!) As we had an hour in transit before flying on to New York was hoping to get more goodies- found a window looking onto the ground level car park with tantalising views of blue sea beyond. House Sparrows about, and a second year Laughing Gull flew past. A mystery bird flew past the window, browny grey above, creamy yellow below. Maybe a short tail?? Would have been interesting, but, Oh well . .

Carried on 'gen'ing up with the bird books on the plane for the last leg.

Seatbelt signs on, descent, and then we can see the coastline of Long Island below us as we come in for the final approach. Definitely in American airspace. From the plane as we come in I see some large gulls shining whitely above Jamaica Bay, presumably American Herring Gull (embarrassingly a lifer, although not really tickable at this stage). From JFK and onto the hotel a mile or so away, Feral Pigeons and Starlings hanging about the terminal. We left the UK for this??!!

Anyway, we've arrived . . .

 

[dantheman]

Day 2 Tuesday 8th April Central Park, NY and getting the Hire Car.

Suzi had a poor nights sleep, but I was up (relatively) early enough and raring to go. Couldn’t get out early though due to toilet flooding troubles. Blocked (silly little US pipe sizes!), and then the flush just wouldn’t stop! Via public transport eventually got to Central Park about noon. The plan was to walk through Central Park, birding as we went, then visit a few places nearby Suzi wanted to see before picking up the rental car before returning back to the hotel (Our flight yesterday had been just too late to do this then). Naturally with photogenic Great Egret on the edge of the first water feature, White-throated and Song Sparrows and various other goodies to see, identify, and attempt to photograph, getting through the park took a while. Literally hundreds of American Robins were quite a spectacle. ‘The Ramble’ provided 4 Woodpecker species, 3 of which we didn’t see again on the trip including Hairy Woodpecker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, an Eastern Phoebe and the male Red-tailed Hawk of the regular pair. Other birds included the only American Kestrel and Hooded Merganser of the trip (the latter a female asleep on the side of the Great Reservoir, so not that exciting . . ). Only met a few female birders (no males of the species), and 33 species for the day, but many of them new or otherwise fairly exciting. Suzi’s ‘Murder Ink’ (Speciality bookstore) had closed down, and we lacked the time to visit downtown Manhattan, being a bit knackered after all that slow walking and birding (and maybe the flight as well).

Getting the hire car (ok, rental car) was successful enough, if costing more than we thought, then onto the streets of New York in an automatic, on the wrong side of the car, and the road, and rush hour traffic. Thought we were getting a compact (ie in England something like a mini or a fiesta), but it was a Ford Focus SE, so reasonably nippy pulling away from red lights etc, which is always fun. Got back ok and in one piece, those bus maps doing the trick. Found they’d tried to dry the carpet out with limited success, and fixed the cistern by the simple expedient of turning the water supply off!

 

[dantheman]

A few more pics (there's less later on so why not . . .)
(And in the last above, I was trying to get the White-throated Sparrows in close, typical the House Sparrow played better!)

The 'before' sign tickled me, apart from the improvement in apparent water quality, I'd have said this lake was better before! Look at all that breeding habitat (reeds and trees). You can just about make out the denuded shoreline and lack of scrub to the side of the sign . . . doh!

 

[dantheman]

Day 3 (Already?!) Wednesday 9th April Jamaica Bay and driving to the north . .

Packed and out at a reasonable time, we pulled into a layby (or US equivalent), on the edge of the island holding the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. There were lots of Am. Herring Gulls, mostly immatures, American and Fish Crows side by side for comparison, Brant (Pale-bellied Brent Geese – would’ve been a lifer but for the flock seen in S Wales a few weeks previously), and various other bits and bobs, like Red-winged Blackbirds (Still gets me the size disparity between the sexes for a passerine) on the beach and a flyover Tree Swallow. Oh and the first Mockingbird for the trip.

Found the reserve, told the East Pool path was flooded, but still viewable from the trails, so together we went out around the West Pool trail. . . lots of good birds. A pair of one of many Ospreys to be seen resting on their platform. At one of the first stops a potentially photogenic Tree Swallow was having a rest, looking out over the marsh, various other birds gradually materialised, such as Glossy Ibis, Snow Geese flying in and a partially seen passerine which could only have been a Seaside Sparrow. A Warbler flitting in the shrubs eventually revealed itself as a Yellow-rumped (many seen later). Looking out at the West Pool itself was just looking at a mass of Scaup, Greater in the main, thousands of them, with almost no other waterfowl at all. A Black-crowned Night Heron flew in and started preening. I took a few pics of the massed Scaup, before finding a small group of Lesser Scaup nearby at the water’s edge. To be honest, it was still quite difficult to say why they were Lessers, but the combination of head shape and posture helped. Confirmation in the shape of 4 other birders was reassuring, but I didn’t study them well for all the features that distinguished the two species as there was too much other new stuff to be seeing. Unfortunate as I didn’t see any more Scaup on the trip (excepting a few distant ‘presumed’ Greater near Plum Island).
Two flypast ringtail Northern Harriers were nice, a distant sparrow which I tentatively id’ed as American Tree Sparrow but which a group of US birders said was too far away to look at properly (but then I did have the fantabulous ED50 pinkoscope (cunningly disguised) in my possession). It turned out to be one and the same when I got closer.

In ‘the gardens’ I let Suzi go back to the car early, and spent my time returning slowly, picking up Carolina and Marsh Wren, Grey Catbird and Dark-eyed Juncos in the undergrowth and marshy areas. I then had a look at the West Pool, had a few new species, but nothing very exciting (Ok, go on then, this was the first place I saw Gadwall for the trip. . . ). Over 50 or so species for Jamaica Bay. We toyed with the idea of driving down to the beach area to look for the Piping Plovers, but figured there would be other good opportunities, and we had a bit of a step to drive that day.

So we left around 2pm for the drive north to the Seabrook Inn ‘Best Western’ near Newburyport, MA. En route, a few Turkey Vultures, a Peregrine gliding high up as we crossed a bridge and a Ring-necked Duck on a pool as we drove past in the dusk (the only one of the trip) were all trip ticks. (The latter doubly lucky as we were getting lost driving the wrong way trying to find a pizza eaterie establishment.)

 

[dantheman]

Day 4, Thursday 10th April, Boston, MA

Up at 6.30am!! This would actually count as the one time I did get up early! Blue Jays and House Sparrows calling outside enticed me out, so I birded around the motel grounds and a little further afield before breakfast (complimentary 'Continental' breakfast of cereal, toast, muffins and fruit ie. not continental as I knew it. More English in a non-cooked non kind of way . . not really complaining though!) A Pine Siskin was the sole one for the trip, and a Buteo sp. flew over.

Leaving for Boston we decided to take the scenic route, rewarded before too long with a pair of Blue-winged Teal on a small pool by the roadside. Another US tick!

Spent the rest of the day wandering around taking in some sites like the foodhall and looking for a drugstore. The people were really friendly and even the business people out from work at lunch and in the evening seemed relaxed! There was a Lesser Black-backed Gull (I got pretty excited about this - rarest bird of the trip so far??!!) harrying a Ring-billed Gull in one of the harbour areas, and the Common Grackles posing in the park were nice and particularly shiny. The Grey Squirrels, as in Central Park looked a lot more real than the Brit ones, although I hear even they were introduced to the eastern USA.

 

[Robert / Seattle]

Great report, Dan ..

Say, I didn't see it listed but the 3rd pic in post #4 is a Red-bellied Woodpecker. (I'm sure you got that one readily identified though).

An enjoyable read. Keep'em coming.

Cheers,

Robert / Seattle

 

[dantheman]

Cheers Robert, and put that fine toothcomb away! (But check the thumbnail name out . . . :t There's always a chance an error or two may slip in later mind . . .

The Sapsucker in the text was the one that was a lifer, and according to my new Stokes, uncommon and so 'more interesting' than ordinary ol' Red bellies (although that was the only one I managed to photograph successsfully . . . still a good bird, and like I said, the only one this time). From a UK perspective, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is interesting as one of only 2 US woodpeckers to make it across the Atlantic (to the UK, Ireland and Iceland), before my time as a birder unfortunately. (Ship assisted (?) Northern Flicker being the other.)

For completeness, the last of the four was the Downy Woodpecker, nice to see the size difference etc compared to Hairy in quick succession.

EDIT: I'm planning to put a full list in at the end.

 

[dantheman]

Day 5, Friday 11th April, Plum Island, MA

We had made plans to visit this reserve on the northernmost part of our trip as I hoped we stood a chance of some lingering wintering birds. As it turned out we were probably way too late for any chance of Snowy Owl or Harlequin Duck (if only. . .), but there were good numbers of waterfowl and seabirds of several species I hadn’t seen in the US before, like Long-tailed Duck (formerly Oldsquaw) and Gannet on the calm seas just offshore.

The Reserve is one where in that typical US fashion you drive. . . And stop. (Either for viewing or to take a short perambulation on a boardwalk or similar). And drive again . . . And stop . . And . . . After the first stop to look at the shore and the sea (Velvet and Black Scoter, Gannet, Common Loon (ie Great Northern Diver), Gannets and Red-necked Grebes in profusion (seemingly replacing the Great Crested ones which don’t occur this side of the Atlantic), we moved on to a stop with a nice walk through the woods and a look at the marsh. The best birds here were the two Kinglets, lifers both. Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned. Individuals of the Eastern Phoebe were scattered throughout, seemingly at least one by the roadside on each stop.

I had been hoping to go up the boardwalks so as to scan the beach for Piping Plovers, a species we’d foregone whilst in the Jamaica Bay area, but all the boardwalks leading to the beach, after the initial one, had been roped off as they had arrived and so the beaches were closed to prevent disturbance to the nesting birds. Good I suppose, but a bit frustrating!! A Northern Flicker in flight as we drove past, and a Wilson’s Snipe hunkered down in a marshy field were nice.

At a stop taking in a tiny circuit of a pine woods copse, (we dipped on Red-breasted Nuthatch) I noticed a Turkey Vulture come in to land at the far end of the field as I returned to the car. . . Then I noticed the shape of a dead deer it was approaching. Without too much ado it had a good old investigate, including jumping on top. I didn’t stay to watch for too long (Suzi didn't want to look at all), but pretty cool nonetheless!

Most of the stops didn’t exactly hold the numbers of birds you’d expect (except the seaward ones), but more new birds included Pintail and um . . not much more than already mentioned, and on to the penultimate stop where a huge reed fringed lake seemed to hold nothing but a pair of Bufflehead. Looking beyond the mouth of the river, through the waters and I espied my first US Eider, and a distant blurry group of 4 plovers which I scrutinised to try and id. I was leaning one way anyway, and helpfully they took a short flight which revealed them to be American Golden Plover by their dark wings and lack of wing bar. Another lifer. A scour around the head in the vain search for Piping Plover, and then it was back down the road we had come, without stops this time, excepting for any new birds.
A resting Greater Yellowlegs from the side of the road had me engaged for a brief while (lifer), the next three, in motion, much less so. A Killdeer was nice, but still the wader tally was a fraction of what I’d been expecting! A total of 12 individuals of 4 species in some seemingly prime habitats!

At the base of the island (It isn’t really an island), and I just had to trek out over the beach to have a quick look at the breakwater. Despite Suzi getting grizzly at this point (may have to edit that out later . . .) I could see various Gulls, and some Cormorants, and yes, 4 of them were Great Cormorants! Bizarrely a species I wanted to get on my US list quite badly. They dwarfed the nearby Double Cresteds! A couple of Ospreys over and nice views of a Double Crested Cormorant with crests (eyebrows?!) on full show as it swam in the channel. Back to the visitor centre and I realised the tide was in. A quick scan and I realised the previous expanse of mudflats held thousands of ducks, streams of LTails flying out, some Scaup which I could only really assume to be Greater, and a lot of Goldeneye. So I then had to scan through all I could make out for a chance of a Barrow’s (later looking into it I guess there weren’t any to be found. But I didn’t know that at the time).

A quick drive through Newburyport, but it looked a bit too touristy and none of the eating establishments took our fancy, so we headed back to the restaurant by the motel, which did well enough at giving us a meal. Good job.

 

[dantheman]

The Black Ducks were great (a few seen here), despite having seen a lost female paired up with a drake mallard a couple of weeks earlier in S Wales. Top bird! Just how can anyone say they aren't cracking birds??!! The fourth photo is an example of a typical birdless stop...

No 1. below shows a good exercise in saying the same thing in as many different ways as you can . . . *wails* . . . 'But I still don't understand!! . . .'

2,3, and 4, a couple of wader shots, the last merely an example of a record record shot.

 

[dantheman]

Day 6, Saturday 12th April, drive to Philadelphia the back way

We were up (as usual) in the morning, and packed at a reasonable hour. As we started to take stuff out to the car, I was surprised when a medium sized random brown mammal approached me. Boo Boo was his name, and being a lemur was his claim to fame . The motel had a petting zoo for when the holiday season kicked in, the only other inhabitants a group of seemingly relaxed deer in an outdoor pen. He decided to investiagate me properly, including climbing up on me, and the rucksack I was trying to carry to the car at the time!

Kept up the momentum and birding excitement driving down to Philadelphia by taking a wide loop around New York city, even crossing the Appalachian trail at one point, and seeing several flocks of 20 to 30 Wild Turkeys feeding in fields from the road as we drove past. (Fairly fleeting views to be honest, but then they are fairly distinctive . . notwithstanding Cranberry Sauce and All That . .)

Day 7, Sunday 13th April, met Suzi’s friend and the Mall

Birding out of our Motel window (Microtel Inns nr the airport, the cheapest we could find in the area), picked up several blackbird family members including Grackles and Brown-headed Cowbirds, and a Northern Cardinal in the scrubby patch opposite. When a Red-tailed Hawk flew by and decided to land on a lamppost I had to actually go out and get better views. Peregrine past as well.

Walked down to the Train Stop conveniently nearby, where we saw our first confirmable hawk (Sharp-shinned Hawk) whilst waiting for a train, then on to the Hard Rock Café for noon and meeting Suzi’s friend from her schooldays, Frances. We didn’t feel like taking in the culture and history to be had (Duck Tours* and the Liberty Bell, exciting as they sound), so after a bit of wandering around on our own tour, passing the various buildings and shops and a colourful protest against the 'Church of Scientology' (Not a church, or particularly scientific IMO) we (2/3rds of the party at any rate) cut to the chase and the decision was made to go back, pick up the automobile, and make our way to the ‘King of Prussia’ Mall. One of the worlds largest. Bigger than our local Bluewater even. But location of one of the chain of the ‘Cheesecake Factory’ restaurants. So not totally all bad. . .

(And miserable failures that we were, we failed to get any pictures of the cheesecakes. . . but just for the record they were (from the website); 'Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake' (Layers of Fudge Cake, Chocolate Cheesecake, Vanilla Mascarpone Mousse and Chocolate) and 'Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake' (Layers of Flourless Godiva Chocolate Cake, Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake and Chocolate Mousse) . . . :eat: :t: Lasted two days, including breakfast. (We had a fridge in this particular motel room).

*Duck Tours- Not taking in the avian aquatic and feathered delights of this particular corner of Pennsylvania, but rather a tour of the city in one of a fleet of amphibious vehicles (bus-like) which annnoyingly career past every street corner, usually full of excitable schoolchildren (or adults even) with duck whistles, a loud tour guide and blaring excerpts of some modern pop/rock music. If I want to listen to the YMCA when out in the street I'll go buy their record and find me a portable gramophone. . . (Someone getting grumpy in my old age? Who, Me?? . . :eek!: Never!!)

 

[Robert / Seattle]

Surely you made it over to central Pennsylvania for that irruption of Passenger Pigeons. Any pictures?

 

[dantheman]

Drat!! Didn't hear about them. Should we have planned our trip to arrive a little earlier??

(And is that why the other main columbid in the USA is called Mourning Dove*? In sympathy for the sad and totally unreasonable demise of its close relative??)

*First sighting by us on the trip (Suzi actually spotted them first) in Central Park on the 8th . . .

 

[dantheman]

And a pic. Do you think it'll get past the rarity commitee??

 

[dantheman]

Day 8, Monday 14th April, John Heinz Reserve, PA and then another Mall

Back to some real birding . . . o

We made our way to this great reserve for a taste of Philly birding. We’d already seen it signposted when making our way off the interstate getting to our motel, and found that it was only a short drive away. In fact the road opposite the motel almost backed onto part of it, although the railway was also in the way, and fences and ditches meant it would have made little sense to try and get in the back way. . .

A large and modern visitor centre greeted us. We checked inside, had a brief look at the displays, and made our way out and onto the birding trail. A river channel alongside the path held a terrapin sunning on a branch, and a nice post with some suitably informative signs tickled us. If only we hadn't forgotten our knives and forks! A massive pickup cruised by holding a single warden (A seemingly bizarre un–environmental trend I’ve noticed before in places like this), and we were facing the main lake. Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret stalked the shallows, and several pairs of Blue-winged Teal provided the waterfowl interest. In the undergrowth to our right the first Eastern Towhee (smart male) of the trip was raking through the leaf litter, and I got Suzi onto her first Carolina Wren. The path snaked around the lake, over which seemingly hundreds of Tree Swallows swooped, chasing small insects. I noticed one duskier brown hirundine, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, and then another. Cool! The second wood warbler species of the trip sorted itself out for us, and then the first of several Palm Warblers on this stretch, and we took the opportunity to check out a pair of Carolina Chickadees.

We sat down on a bench for a sarnie, and noticed a few more warblers, then a pair of Downy Woodpeckers sifting through the branches performing unselfconsciously just in front of us were a real treat . I was just watching a female Pine Warbler when a small group of birders walking up the trail behind us greeted us. Turns out a Western Tanager had been hanging out just up the path for the last day or so, and a guy who had already seen it had gathered a small band to have a look. We tagged along too, but there was no sight nor sound to be had in the swampy bare tree area we were scanning. Since this wasn’t a rarity hunting exercise anyway (Western’s a regular rare on the east side of the country), and hoping I’d already seen one whilst on a previous visit, we gave it a while and then drifted off up the trail and around the main circuit.

We decided not to take the long path to the end of the trail (being told it was about 10 miles or so), so we carried on around, being treated to some Rusty Blackbirds foraging in a swampy area, more Great Egrets and a lone Greater Yellowlegs. Coming around one bend a pair of Wood Duck flushed up from beside the trail and flew to cover. I could still just about see them behind the vegetation, but we pressed on.

It was a long way around, and time was moving quickly on, so the last stretch, through larger woods and grassy meadows didn’t really get the full attention it deserved. Swathes of Yellow-rumped Warblers were cool though. We didn't see a great number of species, but views were good and at the right time I'm sure more could be seen.

Back to the motel and then . . . another mall. This time we didn’t nearly get locked in though . . . First though we went to one of a chain of pseudo-genuine Japanese restaurants (called Kabachi?) where they cook the food on the table in front of you, setting fire to it at one point as part of the entertainment, flick a shrimp at you and then (in my case at any rate), forget to cook the main part of the meal you had ordered. :eek!:

The mall was . . . a mall. We had ice cream though.

 

[dantheman]

Day 9, Tuesday 15th April, Philadelphia again.

For some reason we decided to go back into Philadelphia again for the last morning here. We were entertained by a rather rotund herbivore (Muskrat??) at the station, then it was into the city and Hours of walking (Why oh why hadn’t we brought the car?). Suzi found another attraction (The House of Edgar Allan Poe, classic murder mystery writer) closed up, (for Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in this case), and we were tired. Back into the city centre, and sitting in McDonalds to get our energy back and refresh ourselves with a shake and thing (we were that far gone), we found entertainment in a pair of Peregrine riding the city air currents and the slightly incongruous sight of an Eastern Phoebe flycatching from a solitary tree on the busy sidewalk. Earlier we had seen a couple of Barn Swallows and 2 more NRW Swallows by one the rivers, and another interesting sight being that of whole buildings painted with giant murals. (Painted or papered? Didn’t get close enough to check out. Photorealistic and fairly impressive nonetheless!). We also came across a random place where some guy had decided to build an impressive mortar construction with bottles, bits of glass and other random junk pressed into it over a 25 year period (an example of 'Outsider Art' I guess.) When the owner of the 'vacant' lot turned up it got bought by the city and wellwishers for posterity. Might try that sometime . . .

Back on the train, an Osprey from the motel window (a motel tick), back to the car, and we attempted a straightforward escape (limited success . . . but we made it eventually) from Philadelphia and onto the next stage, Cape May. A large roost of Egrets (several hundred mixed Great and probable Snowy Egrets . . (presumably not Cattle?) the highlight of the drive. We arrived at the Montreal Inn after 9, and then found a food place open for a pizza. Working out healthy, this America trip? Plenty of walking at any rate . .

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

FYI, the rotund rodent is a groundhog, not a muskrat. Groundhogs are fat, slow, and have stubby tails. Muskrats look like a large aquatic brown rat, complete with pointy snout and hairless tail.

And on the obscure information front, the town of King of Prussia (where the mall is) was named after an old pub from the 1700's. Several of the small towns in the Philadelphia area are.

 

[henerz1]

Great report Dan. Managed to get a good amount of birding in considering it being not a completely birding holz.
Cheers. Henerz.

 

[stephennj]

Great report Dan and congrats on all of your new birds. From a local birder's point of view your best birds were easily Rusty Blackbird and Marsh Wren but there are many other excellent sightings here!
good birding

 

[dantheman]

Cheers Stephen

The very bad thing is I'd forgotten all about this and the fact that I haven't completed the write up... :eek!:

I'll have to have a look at my notes again, see if they make any sense... for completeness sake ...

Doh!