Route 28 Corridor, Harmarville and Deer Lakes Park, Saturday, March 21, 2009

The morning dawned chilly, clear and crisp so I loaded up the camera equipment for a quick run North on Route 28. The red-tailed hawks are near the middle of their pair bonding and mating season and I usually see several along this stretch of Route 28. I also hoped to stop at a pond behind a shopping center in Harmarville and Deer Lakes park to see if the swan was still there.

Driving North on Route 28 this morning I didn’t see many good signs until I neared RIDC Park which is an industrial park that straddles both sides of the highway. When I neared the off ramp for the industrial park, I spotted a hawk perched atop a lamp pole. I nearly wrecked the truck getting to the side of the road just to take pictures of this guy.



I was only able to snap about 30 pictures of the hawk before he flew off but the morning was only starting. I tossed the tripod into the truck to make my way to Harmarville.

When I arrived at the parking area near the pond, I immediately spotted the usual Canada Geese and Mallards as they were bumbling around the parking lot. I got out the equipment and walked towards the pond. When I was within view of the water I saw several Wood Ducks and one Green Wing Teal. This was my first chance to get shots of these critters with my new scope so I quickly set up and started shooting what turned out to be some of the best pictures that I’ve ever taken. Yes, I’m convinced that the new scope was worth every penny.





I continued to shoot the woodies and teal but didn’t even pass up some shots of the mallards that were there. Again, the mallard pictures turned out great.



The morning was marching along so I packed up for the drive to Deer Lakes Park to look for the Mute Swan that I saw there in January. When this species moves into an area, they are usually there for a long time so I felt good about finding him.



I wasn’t to be disappointed about finding the swan this morning either, he was there in all of his glory. I also spotted a hellacious hybrid duck that I first saw here last year. This guy associates with one of the normal, white farm ducks that lives on the lakes here. I believe that this duck is a hybrid between a white farm duck and a Mallard.



I stayed here for close to an hour before deciding that it was time for me to make my way home to get some work done. While driving south along Route 28, I was fortunate enough to find another Red Tail Hawk perched on a different light pole at the off ramp for RIDC Park. Yes, what I initially thought was going to be a light digiscoping day turned into a pretty successful event for me.

North Park, April 26, 2008

It’s springtime now and I have a lot of responsibilities pulling me in different directions; because of that it’s been almost two weeks since my last outing. Once again this morning I was limited on time. Today I had to meet my sister so that I could do some work on her computer therefore I had about 3 hours to digiscope this morning.

I decided to hit North Park again. This time of the year is the middle of the song bird migration and the start of the mating season for those that nest in this area. Because of this activity, I figured that North Park would give me the best opportunities in the amount of time that I had.


I pulled into the parking area at Marshall Lake just after sunrise. While I was setting up the digiscope I saw that there were swallows flying all over the surface of the lake, they were catching an early morning hatch of mosquitoes. I stopped on the road side of the footbridge to the island to watch. I noticed that the swallows would buzz around the lake for a while then stop to rest of the railings of the footbridge. I decided to just wait for them to come to me.


While I was waiting for the swallows to rest on the bridge railings I was able to get a few shots of a pair of Grackles at the top of a tree on the island and also pictures of a Yellow Warbler in another tree.


The swallows finally came to rest on the bridge railings. I was able to get a multitude of pictures of these little birds. I was excited because these birds rarely stop for a rest like this.


After shooting the swallows I made my way across the bridge to the island. Halfway across the bridge I noticed that a goose was sitting on a nest on the island near the bridge landing. This could very well be the same goose on the same nest that I got pictures of last year. I got some great pictures then so I snapped another handful for this year.


I finally finished crossing the bridge to the island. On the far side of the island is a fallen tree that I like to call “The Perch”. Birds will fly from all around the lake to perch and call from this tree. I’ve gotten more pictures of more species of birds on this tree than I have anywhere else I have been and this morning was no different. When I first got to that side of the island a Red-Winged Black Bird was calling his heart out from one of the top branches of “The Perch”.


As I was watching for activity on The Perch a wood duck swam from the feeder stream at the North end of the lake to the nest boxes across the lake from me. You just know that I had to snap some pictures of this guy too.


As I saw when I first arrived this morning, the swallows were still buzzing the surface of the lake. I couldn’t see the footbridge from where I was so I can’t be sure if they were still stopping to rest there or not. They were however landing on The Perch. I was lucky enough to get good pictures of both Tree and Rough-Winged swallows as they rested on the limbs of the dead tree.


It was a good morning and it was getting close to the sister-meeting time. I decided to call it quits for the day and move on to other chores.

North Park, April 13, 2008

It has been 10 days since my last outing and I really needed a break. It’s been raining in my area just about every day for the last week. I checked the forecast the night before and saw that I’d have a 2-3 hour window to try for pictures this morning.

I arrived at Marshall Lake at North Park about 30 minutes after sunrise. I parked the truck and proceeded to get my gear ready. I looked across the lake and saw a Wood Duck drake perched atop one of the nest boxes in place there.

I made my way to the island across the foot bridge and happily saw that the woodie was still there. I started snapping pictures of him. My loyal reader already knows how I feel about Wood Ducks, I think they are the most beautiful duck to visit and reside in Pennsylvania. After about 75 pictures of the woodie I felt that it was time to search for new targets. The way that the woodie was acting I expected him to be there for quite a while yet.

The first new target that I saw was a Red-Winged Black Bird that was perched in a nearby tree. He was happily greeting the morning with his song. Yes, that picture really is a Red-Winged Black Bird. It is uneditted except for cropping to size.

A second new target was a grackle that was calling from a pine tree on the island. The light was hitting him perfectly so that his head was glowing a brilliant iridescent blue.

When I first walked onto the island this morning there was a Canada goose in the water just a few feet away from me. The goose just stayed there and watched me for most of the last hour. It seemed to me as if he was fascinated by me and my actions. So, to keep him from being insulted and needing goose counseling for my neglect of him I snapped a few pictures. Sure enough, after he saw me focus on him for a few minutes he swam away.


While I was helping the goose with his identity crisis I saw that the wood duck drake was still on the nest box. The sun had risen further into the sky by now and was casting some excellent light directly onto the woodie. I had a rare opportunity to get pictures of a woodie in the same position but under different lighting conditions in the same day. Woodies are normally just too skittish for that to happen too often.


After shooting another 50 pictures of the woodie I saw that it was time to go home; I still had a lot of work to get done there. It wasn’t my best morning of digiscoping this year but any day spent enjoying nature is a good day.