Wednesday, May 20, 2015

The First Ever Philadelphia Bird Race

From May 9th to 17th in 2015, BirdPhilly hosted the first ever Philadelphia Bird Race and it was a marvelous success. The goal of the Philadelphia Bird Race (PBR) is to get area residents outside and engaged in nature while raising funds for regional conservation and outreach initiatives. During the course of the PBR this year close to 200 people participated in the event.

The Big Green Hour group at Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed led by Audubon Pennsylvania's Keith Russell.



















The most popular way to participate was through the "Big Green Hour". A game practiced by young birders and adult birders for years, the concept was given its name by Bill Stewart, the founder of the Delaware Bird-a-thon. The idea is to get a group of people together (2 or 20 people) and try to see as many bird species as possible within one hour. The key is you have to remain on foot, so no gas-powered vehicles can be used. During the PBR this year dozens of kids in school groups, and several dozen adults also submitted Big Green Hours. The highest total came during the very last BirdPhilly-led  Big Green Hour at Bartram's Garden just an hour before the Finish Line when that group tallied 51 species during a loop around the historic grounds.

The Big Green Hour group at Bartram's Garden on May 17th tallied 51 species in one hour.

Bartram's Garden was an excellent and fitting host for the PBR Finish Line. Rich in history, the site inspired the work of the father of American Ornithology, Alexander Wilson. With gorgeous grounds, and providing a wonderful view of the city, Bartram's was the perfect setting to recognize PBR participants.

Awards and kudos were given out, and renowned author and world birder Richard Crossley of the Race for Birds Foundation was on hand to present awards to kids that won in the youth categories. With categories for elementary school-aged kids, middle school and high school, Richard and the R4B Foundation provided signed copies of his ID Guide books to the winning kids. Other winners were posted to the BirdPhilly Facebook page.
Richard Crossley (left) presents signed copies of his book
to a couple of R4B PBR winners, as their birding mentor
Brian Quindlen (right) looks on.


Thanks are due to Richard Moncrief at Zeiss Sports Optics for providing a gorgeous set of Terra binoculars for the winner of the photo contest, won by Scott Fraser for his image of a Spotted Sandpiper. Also a huge thanks to Anita and Paul Guris of See Life Paulagics and Cathy Norrbom of Tobin's Feed & Seed for supporting this event. And finally thanks to Zach Webber and Joel Fry at Bartram's Garden for hosting us at the Finish Line. Thanks a million!

And a special thanks to all of you who participated and donated. Come back in 2016, bring your friends, and let's do it again and make the Philadelphia Bird Race even bigger and better.

If you want to support the PBR, BirdPhilly and the DVOC, donations are accepted through the end of the month (click here), until June 1st.

- George Armistead
On behalf of Tony Croasdale, Holly Merker, Brian Quindlen and Ann Reeves.

Bartram's Garden curator Joel Fry shares with bird racers some of Bartram's historical treasures.
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were fixtures at just about every outing during the PBR.
Lucky birders found gorgeous birds like this Blue-winged Warbler.
Birders along the Schuylkill River are captivated
by a Green Heron. (Photo © Brian Quindlen)
Robin captures a bird image through his binoculars with his phone
as Tykee looks on. (Photo © Brian Quindlen)
Some folks tallied sightings of Greater Yellowlegs
at the Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.



Wild West Philly teammates celebrate with Richard Crossley.
(Photo © Brian Quindlen)
Wood Ducks were seen widely throughout the 5-county area during the PBR.
PBR participants at Bartram's Garden pose in front of the Bartram's most famous discovery, the Franklinia.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Roxborough Raven

by Scott McConnell

On the afternoon of April 18, 2015 I found a Common Raven perched and calling on one of the radio towers in Roxborough, just east of the Domino Lane/Fowler Street intersection. After about 20 minutes of perching and occasionally calling, it flew southwest across Domino Lane and behind Penn Distributors. I walked through the fields and came across presumably the same bird at the old incinerator just south of Penn Distributors, being harassed by a crow. I believe the raven may have been perched on the roof of the incinerator, and flew when I approached. The raven, with the crow in pursuit, flew off towards Umbria Street. It seems plausible that the ravens could attempt to nest on one of the towers in the area (they nested on top of a crane at State College), so it’s something for area birders to be aware of and keep an eye on. I took some distant, so-so photos, and made several recordings of the calls. 


Saturday, February 21, 2015

The Raven: Nesting in Philadelphia for the First Time?

Few birds are more intriguing than the Common Raven. Big, broad, and wholly black, the wedge-tailed raven is impressive, at times imposing, and always fascinating.
Common Raven in Nome, Alaska June 21st, 2010
(Photo by G. Armistead)

With gurgles, croaks, and screams, they have an incredible repertoire of sounds, and they are superb aerialists. Often seen soaring like an eagle, other times they roll while on the wing, somersault, or slip sideways straight down out of the air. It is the largest songbird (passerine) in the world, and one of the most intelligent animals in existence, plainly smarter than any Dallas Cowboys fan, for instance. (Though admittedly, that is not saying much).

"Grip" the Raven. Owned by Charles Dickens, he inspired Poe's poem.
Ravens can eat almost anything, and so it's not surprising that it is one of the most widespread birds in the world. Common across much of Eurasia and North America, this is one of the few birds that can withstand winter in the high arctic, remaining there even during the darkest, coldest parts of the year. Found from the arctic circle south into Central America, it is common throughout most of Canada, and in the Lower 48 is throughout most of the American West, but is absent the Mid-West, and in the East it was historically confined to the Appalachians. But Ravens have been on the uptick of late, expanding their range and increasing, with more and more sightings and nests away from the Appalachians, and in the piedmont and the coastal plain.

Here in Philadelphia, the history of the raven is mostly related to the famous poem by Edgar Allen Poe. The Free Library of Philadelphia has a mounted raven specimen that is purported to be the very same one owned by Charles Dickens that inspired Poe to write the poem The Raven. Otherwise, the wild Common Raven's history here is one of absence.
Two Common Ravens discovered on Feb. 1st on north Delaware Ave.
(Photo by Holly Merker)

The eBird database shows zero records before 2000 (though there surely were a few), but a number of reports since 2005. Most sightings have come from South Philly (Heinz NWR or nearby) or in Northeast Philly. On February 1st, 2015 Holly Merker and Devich Farbotnik visited the Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant, well known for its isolated population of over-wintering Northern Rough-winged Swallows. They discovered not one, but two ravens, exhibiting behavior that could be interpreted as pair bonding, and suggested these birds might stick around to nest. On February 21st, these birds are still present. Keith Russell of Audubon Pennsylvania, the authority on the history of Philadelphia's birds, notes that the species has never before been recorded nesting within the city limits. And according to Russell, Philadelphia has not added a new species of breeding bird here since the Black Vulture was found nesting in 2006.

The site where these ravens are hanging around is right along the Delaware river, and no nest has been located yet. It's possible they are not nesting or have a nest just across the river in New Jersey. But their behavior seems to indicate that they will nest, and most of their activity seems centered on the Philadelphia side of the Delaware. Ravens begin nesting relatively early, often in February, and usually have eggs in March. As we get into April and early May, we will have to keep an eye out to see if we can observe these 2 birds carrying food. Eventually we may see fledglings! Time will tell, but for now it is awful nice to have such a fascinating bird frequenting the area. 
Common Raven over Delaware Avenue on Feb. 21, 2015. Compared to the abundant crows present, note the raven's long wedge-shaped tail, large size, long pointed wings, and heavy bill. (Photo by G. Armistead)

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Tinicum’s Most Famous Bird, 35 years Later (Homage to Johnny Miller, 1939-2009)

by Gregg Gorton January 27, 2015
http://www.dvoc.org/Personnel/GortonG.htm


When Johnny Miller left his house the morning of October 19, 1979 to conduct his weekly shorebird census at “Tinicum,” a birdy patch of freshwater tidal marsh just a stone’s throw from his door, which he knew better than anyone had before (and, likely, since), he had no inkling that he was about to discover a feathered traveler from across the world.  He drove over to the main entrance of the roughly 700-acre preserve that in 1972 had been designated the Tinicum National Environmental Center (TNEC), the first such entity in the U.S., and, since 1991—as the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge--the most urban among all U.S. wildlife refuges.  Per his routine, he made his way out along the gravel surface of the dike surrounding the main water impoundment, ticking off species and numbers of migrating sandpipers and plovers.  Then he came to a vantage point from which he could scan northward in a nearly 180-degree arc across mudflats where the tide-driven water from the Darby Creek was rapidly rising.  His 9x35 bins (he did not carry a scope) revealed a group of yellowlegs that looked to him to be the Greater species (Tringa melanoleuca).   But among them was a slightly different shorebird that he figured to be a Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica).  He had seen that species in past years at Tinicum in the early-to-mid-Fall, and—though a very “good bird”—it’s presence was not too surprising.  But this bird didn’t look quite right:  some of the field marks didn’t jibe with his mental image of Hudsonian Godwit.  As he watched it forage in the marsh by probing—dowitcher-like--he jotted down key features such as the “rufous-buff color on its neck” and “the bill longer and straighter than a Hudsonian’s would be.”  Then, suddenly,  the odd bird took flight—as he had no doubt hoped it would, eventually—and as it flapped away he was able to glimpse its “white and gray underwings, with broad white wing stripes,”  as he wrote later in the report he prepared for his bird club’s journal, Cassinia (the journal of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, or DVOC).  That was it! --Suddenly he flashed back to the hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa), or “blackwits,” he had seen in Australia during a birding trip there five years previously.  That had to be the answer to the question that had formed minutes before in his mind:  what the heck is this thing? 

After Johnny returned home to Prospect Park later in the day, he called a few fellow birders, hoping they could help confirm his identification.  One of them, Keith Richards, also a member of DVOC, managed the “phone chain,” that erstwhile system once used to alert other birders to rarities.  Two others, Frank and Barb Haas, were playing bridge with yet another avid birder, John Ginaven, and his wife, Peggy, when the phone rang.  The Haas’s were not members of DVOC because Barb was not eligible, and Frank (Superintendent of Ridley Creek State Park) had therefore refused to join until the club voted to accept female members (which it did, finally, in late 1982).  Johnny’s call got their attention fast; in fact, Barb and John suddenly realized that an odd-looking, godwit-like shorebird they had seen only the day before at the Philadelphia sewage ponds might have been the very bird Johnny was now describing!  Barb recalls that on that prior day she had said to Ginaven when they both were stumped by the unknown bird that “it has enough white in the wings to be a Willet, but in all the wrong places!”  

After having assured Johnny that they would help, the three birders in the group jumped up from the table and rushed over to the Haas’s extensive library of bird books.  Thumbing quickly through a few of them, they finally found an illustration of Black-tailed Godwit to scrutinize.  It certainly looked like the mystery bird two of them had seen!  (Today, Frank and Barb can’t recall the exact book they used to make the ID, but it may have been “some book on birds of South Asia or Australia that we had.”)  Then they called a few other members of DVOC and some birders from New Jersey, and arranged for a return trip the next day to the “scene of the crime,” as Barb calls it, which was the original place she and Ginaven had seen the bird—the sewage ponds.

October 20th was “quite sunny, and not particularly cold or windy” when they arrived at the Water Treatment Plant gate.  Surprisingly, they were able to “walk in unobserved,” rather than having to convince the security guard to let them enter yet again.  Other birders also showed up, and many had spotting scopes.  Once inside, they were able to re-locate the “suspect” bird as it flew overhead, and indeed it displayed crucial features of Limosa limosa, the Black-tailed Godwit.  This apparition had to be that suspected interloper from a far land because its bill was longer and straighter than a Hudsonian’s, its underwings were pale (neither sooty, nor with black axillaries), and it had a broad white wing stripe.  And, since its plumage was generally gray and its tail was white with a black tip—but not barred—it was certainly not a Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica), either.  Thus, this now less-mysterious bird appeared to be a winter (basic) plumage Limosa limosa, albeit with a trace of alternate-plumage color still left on its neck.  In fact, they figured this had to be the very bird Johnny had seen, and it must have been flying back and forth between the two nearby locations where it had now been spotted thrice and identified twice.  But how could they really be so sure that the birds seen at the two places were actually one and the same?  Well, it just so happened that this was the very first Pennsylvania record for this species, a fact that by then had been loudly bruited among the assembled gawkers--so the chances were pretty darned good…. --But suddenly the guard spotted the group of birders, some of whom were carrying those long devices that he told them could be “weapons or something,” and that was it!—they were all summarily kicked out.      


IMAGE:  Figure 30 from Pratt, et al. (1987):  Black-tailed Godwit (above) and Hudsonian Godwit (below),  by H. Douglas Pratt (used with permission)

This godwit even turned out to be only the fourth record of its species for all of the mainland U.S.  The very first record of Black-tailed Godwit in that region of 48 states had been a bird discovered feeding in a flooded field about a mile north of Buzzard’s Bay in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts on April 23, 1967.  First thought to be a Hudsonian, it lingered for a week and was eventually seen and photographed with wings upraised and correctly identified by James Baird of Massachusetts Audubon, who listed some of the key features differentiating the two species in the brief report about it he wrote for The Auk a year later.  However, he erroneously stated that it was the first record for the (entire) U.S. and the second for North America, not realizing that there were some obscure records of the Asian subspecies (L. l. melanuroides) from as far back as 1907 in Alaska--on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Sea and from 1961 on Amchitka Island in the Aleutian chain.  (The melanuroides subspecies is now sometimes treated as a full species, the Eastern Black-tailed Godwit, half the total population of which winters in Australia after breeding as far north as Siberia.) 
(Continued)
FOR THE FULL ARTICLE, please migrate to this link on the DVOC website, http://www.dvoc.org/Misc/2015/Black-tailedGodwitComplete.pdf

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Remembering John DuPont

Check out this article by club member Harry Armistead about John DuPont, the subject of the movie "Foxcatcher".

http://www.dvoc.org/Misc/2015/RememberingJohnDuPont.pdf