Summer Research Week 9

MONDAY 7/6/2015 Nescopeck State Park

The slow down continues with fewer birds vocalizing. Did the powerline easement first and that had Eastern Towhee and Field Sparrows with a single Prairie Warbler. I wouldn't be concerned with these three species in Pennsylvania despite the decreasing numbers - I think they're flexible enough in habitat to take advantage of gas and electric right-aways and I would through in Indigo Buntings as well. I hear these species all summer at my local grocery (Price Chopper) and around the mall as well. 

The fields that are managed for early successional birds had these birds as well and a few more. Goldfinches are becoming more obvious as their breeding season kicks in. Few Chestnut-sided and Yellow Warblers kicking around. Veerys... tons of them, still singing and calling from the edges. I've been seeing more hummingbirds too - maybe drawn to the flowers that are starting to bloom like the butterfly weed below. Blueberries are starting past their peek but bush honeysuckle, an invasive species, is pulling up the slack and they are heavy with fruit. 

Best bird of the day? Large female Cooper's Hawk that I almost hit in the truck 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Butterfly Weed

Wildflower mix

Bush Honeysuckle

TUESDAY 7/6/2015 Beltzville State Park, Jacob's Property

A added a site near the boat launch. Last round, when I finished my survey, the land manager informed me they just sprayed the field. Now this is two weeks later and the site had been mowed (to about 8 inches) and seeded. There were still tons of song sparrows about the scattered shrubs and bluebirds but the yellowthroats were fewer. We'll see how they make out with the next planting.

The primary field didn't have the Eastern Meadowlark that was there last year. That's a species, unlike Field Sparrows, Eastern Towhee, Indigo Buntings, and Prairie Warblers, that we need to intensively manage. So far, I have ZERO meadowlarks and not a single Golden-winged Warbler.

On the upside this site had tons of Bobolinks. 

Jacob's Property, off 115, was really slow. Best bird was a male Sharp-shinned Hawk. There was other cool stuff there. This place needs a bioblitz. 

WEDNESDAY 7/7/2015 Office 

THURSDAY SGL205 

I didn't go out the day before because of rain. That rain clung to the shoulder-tall grasses. The site consists of several fields and they appear to be managed differently - making for great science. But we only sampled a warm-season and a cool-season grassland. The cool season is full of Red-winged Blackbirds and the edges have all the typical edge species (Indigo Buntings, Eastern Towhee, Field Sparrow). Like the other sites, I had Bobolinks swing by. 

After the survey, I took a ride over to Edge of the Woods Nursery for some native plants. Picked up butterfly weed, bottle gentian, and some irises. Not cheap. While I was there a red fox was working the edge of the fence. 

FRIDAY SGL036

My favorite site and beautiful morning. I didn't get the species I was hoping (Savannah Sparrow, Henslow Sparrow) but I did get the Northern Harrier, Bobolinks flew over, and I picked up a Blue Grosbeak. 

Black-throated Blue Warbler in the woods adjacent to the fields

Good view of the vegetation and a deer waaaay out there

Grasshopper Sparrow - still singing

Northern Harrier cruising the fields

SATURDAY 7/11/2015 Lehigh Gap Nature Center and Kittatinny Ridge 

Gorgeous morning. Birds were few at LGNC as I expect but the Blue Grosbeak was still singing like crazy. After LGNC went up to Kittatinny Ridge where I have my last point on the Appalachian Trail. Life is good.These first two photographs show bare ground at LGNC where heavy metals obliterated the vegetation and soils. 

THAT'S IT FOR POINT COUNTS! 

Summer research week 8

MONDAY 6/29/2015 @ Penobscot Bike Trail, Newport Township

This site is huge and I realize now that I'm not sampling half of it. Here's an image from Google Earth (Pro).  I sample the site WSW from Wanamie and NE from the same town. The habitats are very different. Field A (the larger field on the left) is mixed grass and shrub) and Field B is just grass. 

This is an awesome place to mountain bike and an even more awesome place to see shrubland birds. Monday's trip was the second trip this year. All sites are visited twice. As last year, Indigo Buntings and Grasshopper Sparrows are becoming quiet and I found fewer this round. However, two amazing additions to the site: Blue Grosbeak and Bobolinks. Two males of each. I picked a bad day to forget the good camera and have nothing to show. So it goes. Data were collected and moving on. 

I did happen to find a coyote scat full of raspberries. Also, there is one large oak in the middle of the site. Last round it was completely denuded by gypsy moth caterpillars. This round much of the growth was back. 

Looks like early spring but this are regrown leaves

Gypsy moths completely defoliated this oak 

Apparently this is Blue Grosbeak habitat in NE PA

Coyote scat

TUESDAY 6/30/2015 @ The office and lab

Rain kept me in for the day. Submitted a grant to study Wood Thrush population dynamics from PA DCNR - the same organization funding the current project. If I do get it, I'll have dozens of cameras to get an index of deer herd size for two years. Then I can look at the interaction between deer herd size and Wood Thrush demography. 

Had the high school kids back in the lab today and they were bored but we ran a gel that didn't work. We couldn't even see the ladder. I need more knowledge. 

Supposed to rain tomorrow but if I can I'll head out to the Jacob's property. Wettest June in my memory. 

WEDNESDAY 7/1/2015  

It rained of course. 

THURSDAY 7/2/2015  SGL221-Cresco

Love this site though a rough beginning. This site was cut and left to regrow and finding my way (no trail) between point 4 (on a trail) and point 3 (on trail). The trail is horseshoe shaped with 3 and 4 on the points. Blueberries were ripe and completely covered the ground layer. Bird-wise no surprises. Two bluebird families were nice to see WITHOUT birdhouses and there were Veery all over the place. Might have heard Blue Grosbeaks off in the distance but not counting it. After the count went to Jacob's property to work on the trail from the church parking lot to the pipeline. 

Dead trees at Cresco - I wonder if they sprayed the place. Lots of woodpeckers at the site and hosts two families of Eastern Bluebird families. 

Grassy spot at Cresco. I think this is referred to as a bald. Despite the small size (10 m wide by 25 m long) there are field sparrows that use it. 

View from point 3 (a large bolder) - point 4 is down slope from this point

Common Yellowthroat

FRIDAY 7/3/21015 Trumbower Farm and fake fruit

I wear wellies - green boots that nearly reach my knee - when doing point counts. I think it saves me from ticks and chiggers and getting my feet soaked. But when the grass is waist high the boots don't do much for your legs and waist. I got soaked and it was in the low 60's that morning and I didn't get warm until I hot shower. However, it was a beautiful morning there. I'm still not sure why there aren't Grasshopper Sparrows there. Is it a dispersal issue? Some subtle habitat component that's missing? Area of the grassland? Dunno. Hopefully, the vegetation analysis that we do later will uncover something. 

The 60 cube ice trays came in and so did a cooking thermometer. Hopefully by paying more attention to detail (in this case the temperature of the fructose syrup and gelatin) we can produce more fruit like candies. I also have three pounds of bees wax coming in to coat them. This should be interesting. 

SATURDAY 7/4/2015 

Hopefully get some good writing in today. The urbanization paper deadline is 7/31.  

SUNDAY 7/5/2015 Lackawanna State Park and Campbell's Ledge

Lackawanna State Park was slow as all the sites are. There were though, Bobolinks at both sites (the kid-fishing pond and the aviation field). They're not there earlier so I'm supposing this are post breeding adults. Interesting. Very interesting. 

Usually I would have great pictures from Campbell's Ledge - the fog was incredible dense - creepily so. The garbage from fireworks was a bit depressing but not surprising.  Two Indigo Bunting were calling and not much else. Even field sparrows are slowing down. 

Female (or imm.?) Bobolink at Lackawanna State Park

One take on the flag

Having babies

The top two are Cliff Swallows on the side of the Blakeslee CVS. I think the store powerwashed them in the past so nice to see their persistence.  The bottom two are gypsy moths. If the adult population is an indication of things to come it is not going to be pretty.

Summer research week 7

Monday 6/22/2015 @ Beltzville State Park and Campbell's Ledge

Sunrise at Beltzville. No rain!  So it was a success. The field is full of Grasshopper Sparrows and Bobolinks and a smattering of Indigo Bunting and Field Sparrows along the edge. 

I only have three points there so I drove down to the boat launch and added a point. I was greeted by Cliff Swallows - a first for the point counts. They must be nesting on the bridge. I notice tire tracks going back and forth across the field. When I finished the count, a tracker pulled up and told me they just covered the field in herbicide. Awesome. The field was wet and I had blue stain on my pants. So it goes. They're planting warm season plants next week. I guess the birds that are currently in the field don't mind. 

Drove back up to Wilkes, picked up the crew (Amanda and Chrissy) and off to Campbell's Ledge. It's really an ATV trail but up we went with the van. My god, do I want a jeep.

Not a very successful afternoon but what a view. Captured Indigo Bunting and Red-eyed Vireo and did get tissue samples. Missed Scarlet Tanager, Field Sparrow, another Indigo Bunting, and a Downy Woodpecker that all flew by the nets. We'll be back.

We now have everything we need to do DNA barcoding. Let's see how that goes. 


Tuesday 6/23/2015 @  Campbell's Ledge and Lab

Nice early morning out to Campbell's Ledge just north of Pittston, PA. We took the van up the other day but this was a bad idea. So, in the dark, up I went with my backpack on and bear-strength pepper spray strapped to that. All was quiet... only two birds detected so kind of lame. Much more interesting on the way down. At least 5 singing Worm-eating Warblers and my first Pennsylvania Hooded Warbler. Turkey ran across the road and not too many deer flies... but many nonetheless. The best thing of the morning was a pair of dung beetles rolling dung. 

In the afternoon, our lab was joined by three high-schoolers and a guest student from NYU. I am genuinely excited to see the lab cranking like this. The kids are smart and the mentors (Amanda, Chrissy, Sebastian) are awesome. Once we know what we're doing, some great science is going to happen! 

WEDNESDAY 6/24/2015  Rain : ( 

THURSDAY 6/25/2015 @ Rickett's Glen State Park and WEBS 2.0

Silence of the Indigos continues. Picked up a few but nothing like what it was a few weeks ago. No surprises in this count round. Least and Alder Flycatchers near the Hayfield parking lot and Tree Swallows everywhere - family groups zipping around.

This is why they call them Tree Swallows

FRIDAY 6/26/2015

I'm ashamed. I woke up at 415, turned off the alarm, and went back to sleep. I don't even remember how I justified it. I wanted to get up to Wilkes-Barre Mountain but the back up entrance off the 81 entrance ramp now has Volkswagen-sized boulders blocking the entrance so I was going to go.. anywhere else. But here I am at 645 typing this up.