American Birding Expo 2017

On Saturday, September 30, Dave and I went to the 3rd Annual American Birding Expo at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oak, Pennsylvania.

The American Birding Expo was founded by Bill Thompson III, the editor and publisher of Bird Watcher’s Digest. The event’s slogan is “the world of birding in one place!”. I originally heard about the Expo while listening to the podcast This Birding Life, which is hosted by Bill Thompson III (if you haven’t listened to This Birding Life you should check it out!). Dave and I live less than an hour from the expo center, so we thought it would be a great event to check out.

This 3-day event features field trips, guest speakers, travel companies, merchandise, and much more. The first section of the hall was filled with travel companies from all over the world. According to the Expo website, in 2016, over 41 countries and 42 states were represented. Some of the countries present this year were Panama, Taiwan, Chile, Ecuador, Australia, Uganda, Portugal, Mexico, and New Zealand. There were also booths for optics companies, such as Zeiss, Swarovski, Celestron, and Opticron. Organizations such as the Cape May Bird Observatory, Bird Life International, and Bird Watcher’s Digest could also be found in the first hall. We also had the chance to meet Conrad, a blue jay who lives at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove.

The second hall featured artists, publishers, and shops. Julie Zickefoose, bird artist and author had a booth. She was also the Friday night featured presenter. Dave and I are a fan of bird-related art, and we ended up buying some watercolors from Ohio-based artist Jim Turanchik. Turanchik’s goal in his art is to capture the essence of birds, which I feel he does very well. The birds in his watercolors seem like they are moving. He does this by portraying them at different angles. He also has a “Birds in Flight” collection, which feature larger birds such as Anhingas, Great Blue Herons, Wood Storks, and Glossy Ibis to name a few. We purchased two watercolors, a Magnolia Warbler and a Blackburnian Warbler. You can check out his website at jturanchik.com.

(We hung the watercolors up in our dining area, which is near a small chandelier. I took this pictures on an angle because no matter what lighting I try to use you can see reflections, so sorry for the bad angles).

Magnolia Warbler watercolor by Jim Turanchik

Blackburnian Warbler watercolor by Jim Turanchik

At the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing booth, author Stephen Shunk was signing copies of the his book, Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America. As longtime blog readers know, I already own this book (and happily used it to write last fall’s Woodpecker Wednesday feature), so I got my copy signed! I found out that Stephen Shunk’s favorite woodpecker is the Lewis’s Woodpecker and we talked about Pileateds and Red-headed Woodpeckers. It was really cool to meet an author and get my book signed. He wished me “Happy Woodpecker Watching!”, which I will definitely do.

Signed by Stephen Shunk 

One event that I wanted to see but didn’t was Scott Weidensaul’s presentation on Project SNOWstorm. I’m a fan of Weidensaul’s nature books, but the presentation was from 6-8, which was a little late for us since we were there in the morning. There were also morning bird hikes each day of the expo from 7-10 am. There were 5 birding locations around Philadelphia were birders could meet to take guided tours. We didn’t end up going to any of them, but we did explore one of the locations on our own after the expo.

After lunch, we drove over to the Militia Hill section of Fort Washington State Park, one of the Expo birding hotspots. The Militia Hill section features a Hawk Watch platform and is near the Wissahickon Creek. We spent some time sitting on the platform and them briefly walked around the area. Some birds we saw included an American Redstart, an Osprey, Turkey Vultures, Blue Jays, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, and House Finches. It was a lovely place that I’d like to explore more one day.

View from the Militia Hill Hawk Watch Platform (Image by BirdNation)

Wissahickon Creek (Image by BirdNation)

It was still early in the day and we weren’t done with birds yet! After Militia Hill, we drove back to New Jersey and hiked around Palmyra Cove. Highlights included 2 Bald Eagles, a Green Heron, a Red-bellied Woodpecker cleaning out its hole, Wild Turkeys, and Eastern Phoebes.

September 30th was a fantastic day. We not only had a fun time at the American Birding Expo, but spent the day outside with the birds. I couldn’t have asked for a better birding day.

Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve

On Sunday Dave and I took a day trip to Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pennsylvania. We visited Bowman’s Hill in fall of 2015 with Dave’s parents, but this is the first time we went to go birding.

Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve is a botanical garden and sanctuary for Pennsylvania’s native plants. In 1934, the Washington Crossing State Commission set aside 100 acres of land near Bowman’s Tower as a memorial to the famous crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolution (you can read more about this and our trip to the NJ Washington Crossing trip here). This land later became the Wildflower Preserve (which is now 134 acres).

A View from a Bridge (Image by BirdNation)

The Preserve has a variety of habitats including a meadow, a pond, woodlands, and Pidcock Creek. There’s a lot to see: lots of flowers (of course!), log cabins, and a three-arched stone bridge from the Great Depression. It’s also a birding hotspot; around 110 bird species can be found throughout the year, including up to 31 warblers during peak migration. One of the highlights is the Platt Collection located in the Visitor’s Center. In 1972, ornithologist Charles Platt donated a collection of over 200 nests, 600 eggs, and nearly 100 taxidermy birds. It’s quite an exhibit!

Dave and I ended up walking through most of the Preserve. We started at the feeders near the Visitor’s Center, where we saw Tufted Titmice, chickadees (not sure if they were Carolina or Black-capped), Downy Woodpeckers, and American Goldfinches. Once on the trails we saw Hairy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Eastern Phoebes, Turkey Vultures, Wood Ducks, a Belted Kingfisher, and a Brown Creeper (to name a few).

Brown Creeper (Image by BirdNation) (Sorry it’s a little blurry!)

The highlight of our trip though was seeing our first warblers of the 2017 spring season: Palm Warblers! We were near the Medicinal Trail when we saw a flash of yellow fly into one of the trees. It was a lone Palm Warbler pumping it’s tail and swiftly moving from branch to branch. It was the first Palm Warbler we’ve seen since our first ones at Palmyra Cove in 2015! I was overjoyed to finally see one again! We saw a few more along the Evergreen Trail. It’s always an exciting moment to see your first warbler of the spring :-).

Palm Warbler (Image by BirdNation)

Palm Warbler (Image by BirdNation)

We had a wonderful afternoon visiting Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve. There weren’t a ton of flower out yet, but we did see some pretty ones along the trails. I’d be interested in returning to the Preserve closer to the summer to see more flowers and warblers.

If you are ever in Buck Country, Pennsylvania, I highly recommend spending some time at Bowman’s Hill. It’s a great place to hike any time of the year. If you’d like to learn more information about the Preserve, check out the link below.

Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve website

John Heinz NWR

Before I tell you about my recent trip to John Heinz Nation Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia I have some exciting news! President Barack Obama created the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Nation Monument and is located 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Monument will cover 4,913 square miles and protects underwater mountains (seamounts) and canyons that are just as deep as the Grand Canyon in Arizona. In July I wrote about this and shared a petition from Audubon in my post called Protect the Puffins. This Monument will help protect the Puffins and other marine wildlife. What a great victory!

Saturday was my birthday, so naturally I wanted to celebrate by going birding. I chose John Heinz NWR in Philadelphia as our destination. The 1000-acre refuge is located in Tinicum Township and is right next to Philadelphia International Airport. In 1972 John Heinz, formerly known as Tinicum Wildlife Preserve, became America’s first urban refuge. Despite being in a major city next to the airport, over 300 species of birds have been accounted for, and 85 species nest there. John Heinz consists of tidal marshes, impoundments, and woodlands that supports all kinds of wildlife.

We spent about 2 1/2 hours walking the impoundment trail that loops around the marshes and takes you through the woodlands. We counted over 32 species. Here’s some the highlights:

• Egrets everywhere! As we crossed the first bridge over the marsh we saw numerous egrets. There were at least 15 Great Egrets and 8 Snowy Egrets. Snowy Egrets are one of my favorites (which is why they are the mascot for BirdNation), so I really enjoyed watching them hunt. We continued to see egrets throughout the walk.

Snowy Egret in flight (Image by David Horowitz)

A field of Egrets (Image by BirdNation)

Snowy Egret (Image by BirdNation)

• We saw numerous raptors, including the resident Bald Eagles. We went to John Heinz last December and saw the Bald Eagle nest, but this is the first time we’ve actually seen the eagles there. There were 2 and they were sitting on the nest preening. We also saw at least 4 Broad-winged Hawks, a few which seemed to light juveniles. Other raptor species were Red-tailed Hawk and Cooper’s Hawk.
• A Northern Waterthrush. Despite having “thrush” in their name, Waterthrushes are part of the Wood Warbler family, not the Thrush family. There are two North American Waterthrushes: the Northern and the Louisiana. They look very similar, being both small, brown streaky birds. However, Louisiana Waterthrushes have a broader and whiter eyebrow, are not as streaky on their breast, and have buffy flanks. The Northern Waterthrush has brown flanks, has a streakier breast, and a yellowish tint to its plumage. Northerns are usually found foraging on the ground and pumping their tails. You can see from the pictures we took that this bird had a yellow hue, so we determined he was a Northern Waterthrush. He was hopping around flipping leaves over to look for insects.

Northern Waterthrush (Image by David Horowitz)

Other species we observed included Wood Ducks, Great Blue Herons, Mallards, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Yellowlegs, Warbling Vireos, an Eastern Kingbird, a Semipalmated Plover and many more.

Great Blue Heron wades through the mud (Image by BirdNation)

If you ever happen to be in the Philadelphia area and looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city I recommend checking out John Heinz NWR. This refuge offers a nice escape from our over-developed world.

Be on the lookout for our new weekly bird profile series: Woodpecker Wednesday!

A Dream Fulfilled…Part 2

Today’s post is Part 2 of our Ithaca, New York birding vacation recap. You can read Part 1, which was our first day at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, here.

I have to admit, there was one thing I was worried about before we left for the trip: weather. The forecast was set to be beautiful for Thursday, but it was supposed to rain all day Friday and Saturday. I was slightly disappointed by the idea of rain because this trip was all about birding and being outdoors. I really treasured our time at the Lab on Thursday because I thought it would be the only day we would be able to walk around there.

It did rain on Friday morning. We had a plan though. We spent the morning at the  Museum of the Earth. Museum of the Earth is part of the Paleontological Research Institution, whose building is located right next door. If you ever go to Ithaca, New York I recommend visiting the museum. It details the history of Earth spanning 4.5 billion years ago to today. As you walk through the museum you can view thousands of fossils and some cool dioramas. According the the Museum’s website, they take care of 2-3 million specimens. It was a fascinating subject to learn about.

By the time we left the Sun was mostly out and it seemed to dry up. We were blessed with dry weather for the rest of the day, so we headed back to the Lab. We didn’t walk as much as Thursday but it was just as rewarding. Some of my favorite moments were:

• Watching a Great Blue Heron play with a fish it caught while another heron and Red-winged Blackbird looked on
• More chippies!
• Snakes swimming through the pond
• Observing and listening to a beautiful Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• A Baltimore Oriole who seemingly “followed” us through the forest singing

Warling Vireo (Image by BirdNation)

Chippie! (Image by David Horowitz)

Lounging the day away… (Image by David Horowitz)

The Lab from acroos the pond Image by BirdNation)

Who are you looking at? (Image by David Horowitz)

We spent more time on Friday exploring the inside of the Lab. I enjoyed seeing the new Wall of Birds Mural in the stairwell. As part of the Lab’s centennial celebration last year, artist Jane Kim and Ink Dwell Studios created “From So Simple A Beginning”. This mural highlights birds evolution and highlights species from all over the world. I was excited to view it because I watched all the live streams and seminars about it while it was being painted. There are paintings throughout the Lab of various birds and a cool hummingbird taxidermy display. We watched the Feeder Cam from above in the Adelson Library and viewed a Mourning Dove nest from an observatory that overlooks the pond. I loved visiting the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and hope to go hiking there again in the future.

After lunch Dave and I walked back to Cascadilla Gorge. This time we climbed the 400-foot incline to the Cornell University campus. It is certainly not a walk for everyone (the incline is steep) but it is definitely rewarding. While walking to the Gorge, Dave and I were discussing the Museum of the Earth and fossils. We started to look for fossils and ended up finding them all over the place! In Ithaca and the Finger Lakes region fossils are abundant. They all date from the Ordovician and Devonian periods from 450 to 360 million years ago. The ones we found were mainly clams and crinoids, also known as sea lilies. Dave found a somewhat large piece that looked like a whole small ecosystem that we took with us. It was awesome seeing all the fossils and the breathtaking waterfalls.

Cascadilla Gorge (Image by BirdNation)

A crinoid and clam fossil found by Dave (Image by David Horowitz)

Saturday was our last day in Ithaca. On the way home we visited Buttermilk Falls State Park. This gorge was definitely “gorge-ous”, just like the slogan “Ithaca is Gorges!” tells us :-).  We took the Gorge Trail, which elevates to 450 feet. We did not hike the entire trail but what we did see was spectacular. We ended up finding some small clam and crinoid fossils that we took as souvenirs. Again, we were blessed with lovely weather which we didn’t expect. I’m glad we stopped at Buttermilk Falls on the way home, because it was a wonderful way to end the vacation.

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I had a wonderful time in Ithaca. I would love to visit the area again to enjoy all the natural beauty in the area. If you are looking to have a vacation that revolves around nature activities I highly recommend staying in Ithaca, New York.

A Dream Fulfilled…Part 1

Friends, it finally happened. Last weekend Dave and I went on vacation to Ithaca, New York to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that this is a big deal for me. I love the Lab and everything it stands for. I’ve been wanting to visit the Lab for the past few years, so we decided it was finally time.

We arrived at the Lab in the early afternoon on Thursday and were blessed with beautiful warm weather. The Lab was just as pretty as it looks from the bird cams and website. We only briefly entered the Lab because there was a seminar of sorts taking place, but we planned on spending more time inside the follow day. The Lab’s Feeder Cam is right outside the visitor’s entrance, but blocked off by pieces of wood so people don’t disturb the feeders. You can see the cam well from the inside of the building. I’ve spent many hours watching the live Feeder Cam on the internet, so it was cool to see it in person. After checking out the feeders we started our walk through Sapsucker Woods.

We made it! (Image by BirdNation)

I already had an idea of what Sapsucker Woods Bird Sanctuary looked like from watching Pond Cam on the Lab’s website. It was beautiful experiencing it in person. Sapsucker Woods is 230 acres and comprised of ponds, forests, and ferny swamps. One of the first things we noticed was tons of woodpecker holes. There were woodpecker holes of every size and many of them were made by Pileated Woodpeckers (unfortunately we did not see any Pileated Woodpeckers this trip). We recorded 30 birds on our walk and hiked almost all of the trails. Most of the birds were the usual suspects we would see at home, but seeing them in a new place was exciting. We did add a few new birds to our life list: Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-capped Chickadee (we get Carolinas here), and Wood Thrush.

Some of my favorite moments included:

• Watching a Gray Catbird grab an insect right out of the air
• Yellow-bellied Flycatcher sighting
• Chipmunks everywhere! Dave and I call them “Chippies”. They were literally everywhere. I think we spent most of the day happily exclaiming, “Look! Another chippie! They are so cute!”. They were not phased by us one bit.
• Walking through the swamp and seeing a variety of woodpeckers, holes, and sapwells
• Finding somebody’s nest with 3 eggs on a ledge
• Gray Catbirds everywhere (but I enjoy that at any location I’m at haha!)
• Red-bellied Woodpeckers chasing each other through the forest

Red-bellied Woodpecker on the go (Image by BirdNation)

Chippie! (Image by BirdNation)

Wood Thrush (Image by BirdNation)

Eastern Phoebe (Image by BirdNation)

Me being an extremely happy bird nerd 🙂 (Image by David Horowitz)

We spent most of the afternoon at the Lab before heading into the city to check into our hotel. After dinner we found Cascadilla Gorge. Ithaca is known for having around 150 waterfalls. Their slogan is “Ithaca is Gorges!” (get it? I love the play on words). Cascadilla Gorge Trail is a 400-foot climb that leads to the Cornell University campus. We didn’t hike the trail on our first night, but planned to the following day. We did watch a cute Mallard couple dabbled on the edge on the waterfall.

Cascadilla Gorge (Image by BirdNation)

The following video was taken on my iPhone so its not the best quality ever, but they were just so cute dabbling I couldn’t resist sharing. This video is posted on the BirdNation Youtube page.

Day 1 of our vacation was fabulous. I was elated that we were finally in Ithaca enjoying  all the natural beauty this town had to offer. Check back tomorrow for Part 2, where we return to the Lab and experience some other natural wonders.