Fox Sparrow, Red subspecies group; my 183rd species in Centre County, PA; from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Passerella_iliaca-001.jpg
My Centre County listing obsession began on October 30th 2009. On that cloudy, chilly day I went to Colyer Lake off of US 322 southeast of State College. Among other species, I happened to see a Double-crested Cormorant perched on a log far out in the lake and pished up a Fox Sparrow in a small brushy ditch behind the parking lot. That evening after entering my sightings into eBird, I noticed that my Centre County list had gone up by two. I hadn’t known that those two birds were new for me for the county and it had been a while since I saw a new species in the county. The total stood at 183, and I figured that the artificial milestone of 200 should be within reach before I left Pennsylvania. That night, I took a look at the local checklist from the State College Bird Club and marked the species I thought would be possible to see in the next eight or nine months. They were:
- Mute Swan
- Greater Scaup (always reported in low numbers during the fall and spring duck migrations, but are very hard to distinguish from the more common Lesser Scaup)
- Wild Turkey (couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen one yet)
- American Bittern (annual at Toftrees)
- Golden Eagle (just a matter of finally getting up to the Tussey Mountain Hawkwatch a few times in mid-March and waiting)
- Peregrine Falcon
- Sora (intermittently reported from Julian Marsh in the spring, mostly heard. I’d jut have to go there often in the spring)
- Wilson’s Snipe (reported every spring from Millbrook Marsh but I’d never seen one. This was going to be the year!)
- Herring Gull
- Northern Saw-whet Owl
- Alder Flycatcher (Surely at Bear Meadows)
- White-eyed Vireo (Joe assured me that White-eyed Vireos were regular at Toftrees on the way to the pond)
- Bank Swallow
- American Pipit
- Worm-eating Warbler (I’d seen all the other common warblers in the county, why not this one?)
- Vesper Sparrow
- Savannah Sparrow
- Snow Bunting
If I saw all of those, I’d be up to 201. Easy, right? Well, some of those were more certain than others. In the end, I found 11 of these 18, so I was ok at predicting my future sightings. Some of these I missed but other spectacular birds for the county made up for it and I surpassed my goal of 200.
Nice blog. I signed up for site updates so I can follow your adventures in the SW. I am shooting for 200 birds in the county this year. I am only at 172 now. Not sure if I will make it. If i pick up a few migrants and we have a good winter for ducks, I might have a shot. We’ll see…. I saw on eBird that you are moving up the Bernalillo County list as well. Good luck birding. Looking forward to reading future posts.
Thanks, Joe! Good luck to you–I hope the fall migration is a good one.