Well it was a decent day weather wise, a bit cold and dreary, but we
saw some nice birds, and met a number of other birders out in the field
today. The group I was with from the Delaware Co. Bird club (all 6 of
us) started off at Longbrake's/hardin Co. wetlands. We saw some ducks,
not as many as Rick Counts reported but species wise pretty similar
numbers, perhaps they were hiding on one of the ponds further back. The
highlights were the lovely ducks, and the family group of Tundra Swans
that were there, two adults and 3 juveniles, then Finally as were were
leaving along the drainage ditch we flushed an AMERICAN BITTERN and it
flew up right in front of us and then flew around us to one side and on
up towards the embankment of the wetlands where it landed in the
grasses opposite the water (on the other side of the embankment). We
also ran the gauntlet as some crazed deer ran right at us and then
infront of us. Still I'll take that instead of the Skunk I encountered
last time. List:

AMERICAN BITTERN - 1 - good spotting Jack Stenger!
Great Blue Heron - 1
Ring-necked Duck - 1 female
N. Pintail - 4
Ruddy Duck - 4
GW Teal - 20+
Lesser Scaup - 1
Gadwall - 40ish
Am. Black Duck - 5+
Mallards
N. Shoveler - 5+
P.B. Grebe - 1
Am. Coot - 100
Tundra Swan - 5
Killdeer - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 2
Herring Gull - 1
Bonaparte's Gull - 3
E. Meadowlark - 12
Lapland Longspur - 40+ fly-overs and then we saw a huge flock that I
thought looked like Longspurs way out there, w/ Pippits mixed
Horned Lark - 10+ flyovers
Am. Tree Sparrow - 3
Song Sparrow - 4
Swamp Sparrow - 4
Am. Kestrel - 2
N. Harrier - 4 or so
etc.

We then hit some spots around Killdeer Plains W.A.
list of rememberables follows. We did see some neat behavior from a
family of Red-Headed Woodpeckers near that pond that has the dead trees
in it, they were in the woodlot to the west and seemed to be near a
nest tree, as they were dive-bombing a Fox Squirrel that was getting
too close to it. It was a whole family group of Red-headeds, 2 adults
and a Juvenile. Doug Overacker told me his party saw a couple Snow
geese on a flooded field but we drove the road by it and found nothing
:( oh well.

Tundra Swans - 33 on pond 27, west side of dike
Trump Swams - 2
Am. Widgeon - plenty
Gadwall
GW Teal
Am. Black Ducks
Mallards
Ruddy Ducks
Hooded Mergansers - 4
Pied Billed Grebes - 14+ an uncommon large group of them on pond 3
Coot - 100+
Common Loon - 1 on upground Resevoir (no black Scoters)
Red-headed Woodpecker - 3
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Hairy Woodpecker - 1 heard? maybe
N. Flicker - 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 4
Am. Tree Sparrow - 4
White-crowned Sparrow - 1 juv.
Junco's - lots
Song Sparrows
N. Mockingbird - 1
Am. Kestrel - 5
Red-tailed - 5+
Bald Eagle - 2
GBH
Killdeer - 6
Dunlin - 10? saw a good sized flock of gray backed shore- birds fly
over pond 27
Mo. Doves
etc.
      So anywho it was a fun day. It was also nice to see other birders
out there attempting to out-number the deer hunters. It was good
meeting/seeing Jay Lehman, Doug Overacker, Kenn and Kim Kaufman, et.al.
out there, thanks for sharing some bird notes with us. Here's hoping
for a Northern Shrike tomorrow morn.
    Happy Birding everyone,
 - Ben Warner


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