Walking through the ‘burbs in the dark can be exciting.  About an 45 minutes before sunrise, I walked to the base area of Fox park and found these 15 birds.  While I didn’t see them, I could certainly hear them!

-Jess

Well.  There comes a time when one remembering the right things at the right time equates to a high-stakes venture in academia.

Below is a gallery of photos taken today, comprised almost entirely out of bark, leaves, and twigs.  This is my study guide for the upcoming natural history final exam.  It is not near complete; but for a walk through the woods and a significant number of hours behind a camera, computer, and coffee cup, I think it will do for now.  Frogs, tracks, and birds are not covered here.

-Jess

Without further ado:

This morning, I went birding across the campus starting at sunrise.  Below is the species list, and two ID shots- Ruby-crowned kinglet and Yellow warbler.

2 Canada Goose
2 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Eastern Phoebe
2 Blue Jay
2 American Crow
1 Common Raven
3 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Tufted Titmouse
1 House Wren
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 American Robin
1 Northern Mockingbird
1 Ovenbird
1 Black-and-white Warbler
1 Yellow Warbler
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
1 Chipping Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Common Grackle
1 House Finch
1 American Goldfinch
2 House Sparrow

*1 Black-throated Green Warbler, *Yellow-rumped Warbler found later.

Number of Taxa: 26 + 2

Above is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Note the crown is not ruby colored.

Above is a deeply-hued Yellow Warbler.  A pure sounding, “Sweet-sweet-sweet, so-so Sweet!”- heard all over the forest an parking lots alike.

-Jess

This morning at 7am, very few birds were singing.  Behind the Rugby  field in a solid rain, a small group of people stood with their noses to the sky.  This is PSU’s very own Len R.  -led class on vertebrate zoology.  Now, please note I do not take this class, but I know a thing or two about Len.   Len is a bird master; this means vertebrate zoology in the springtime may just equate to an excellent excuse to find and learn about birds and warblers on the premise of a college class.  Thank goodness warblers have backbones.

The following list was compiled mostly by Len and another student (who also is not taking the course…).

The louisiana waterthrush, black and white warbler, and a glowing male redstart (all of which are warblers, despite the different naming conventions) really hit this walk out of the park for me.

-Jess

Today- after an extremely productive 7am trip with the vertebrate zoology class mind you- I nipped over to Langdon Woods in the rain to learn about the the little plants growing around the forest floor at a rapid, hydrated rate.  The ones I can remember off the top of my head include:

Bunchberry:  a ground covering plant with red berries clustered in a bunch.  Edible!

Partridge berry: a tiny plant with a leaf or two red berry on top.  not dangerous to eat!

Goldenthread: A little plant with three fan-shaped leaves. the deep orange root has numbing and diuretic properties.  Useful! Probably not good nutrition though!

Purple trillium:  a flower with an exotic crimson color.  It is also called “stinking benjamin” because it has an undesirable odor when in bloom.   Nice to look at!

Starflower:  A distinctive, flat white flower with 7 blades.  the leaves all grow from the same spot in a circle- a phenomenon known also in pine trees as a “whorl”.  Pretty!

Indian cucumber:  a plant that also grows leaves in a whorl shape, with a varying number of leaves.  A prime  root tastes and feels like a sweet carrot.  Some think they can tell how developed the cucumber is by how many leaves are on the plant, though I do not know this to be true.  Very tasty!

Wintergreen:  a small thick-leafed plant.  The leaves are round and a bit waxy looking, but the point is it is a great consumable.  Makes great tea!

Sensitive fern:  This is a fairly nondescript fern with one key feature: it leaves its fertile fronds attached to the plant for a while, making them easy to spot.  Just look for brown “beaded” fronds sticking straight up – this is a clear indication of sensitive fern.  Fun to ID!

Ostrich fern:  A big fern with large fiddleheads.   Great sauteed!

There are more plants we covered, but these are the ones I can remember the best.

-Jess

…This is a brilliant depiction.  Best of luck rearing the kiddos.  I will add:

hop-hornbeam was in there, with yellowish/crackly bark.  Lots of silver maples in the puddly areas, and a sugar maple.  Lots of black cherry trees.  A few aspens with “sunscreen” bark.

2 river otters, a small crayfish, 2 pre-flight dragonflies.

The 10 most notable birds:

1. Coopers hawk – Looked like a broadwing hawk or even a merlin (falcon) at first sight, but had a longer, more triangle shaped tail with more horizontal bars then the broadwing, and had straighter wings and a slower soaring flight pattern than a merlin.
2. Common loon pair – sits low to the water (them solid bones) with a giant, fish-gobbling head.
3. horned grebe – tiny diving bird with a fuzzy head.  They often are seen (in my personal experience) where loons are floating.
4. Belted kingfisher – KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA…
5. goldfinches – ‘potatochip”
6. song sparrows
7. downy woodpecker  (NEIGH!)
8. flicker  (HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA…)
9. red-bellied woodpecker (bwbwuuraack!)
10. GHB – in flight, looks like pterodactyl but isn’t, trust me…

-Jess

At around 9:35 yesterday morning, the natural history class gathered in Fox Park under an amazing clear sky and a light wind.   Instead of going into the level of detail as I did over the winter (there were quite frankly less details to be had over the winter) I will try to summarize the two most significant findings .

• Porcupines are everywhere.  It turns out these giant walking pinecones are leaving traces of themselves all over the place (though the chances of seeing one are still quite slim).  In the winter, they climb up hemlock trees and nibble.  Everything.   They sort of just sit up there and eat the tree, trying to move as little as possible and thus will everything within reach.  These foliage holes in hemlock trees  are a dead giveaway of this activity, and will often have dangling branches with rodent-esque chop marks.  I have seen a stands of hemlocks with large amounts of debris underneath at Fox Park, which is extremely indicative of a porcupine’s munching habits.
• The magnolia warblers have arrived.  These are magnificent little birds.   Famous for their “necklace with pendants”,  these warblers have officially arrived, and in full getup.  A pair of them were calling to each other (which I did not get right away- they have a few calls) then chasing each other through the forest.  What fun!

-Jess

Again, Just getting through the small backlog of sit spots.  All by ear, many with a visual confirmation at some point.

Species Count:

1. Mourning Dove 1
2. Eastern Phoebe 2
3. Blue Jay 4
4. American Crow 3
5. Black-capped Chickadee 3
6. Tufted Titmouse 4
7. White-breasted Nuthatch 1
8. Carolina Wren 1
9. American Robin 5
10. Northern Mockingbird 1
11. Chipping Sparrow 7
12. Dark-eyed Junco 3
13. Song Sparrow 3
14. Northern Cardinal 2
15. Common Grackle 18
16. American Goldfinch 2
17. House Sparrow 4

Again, I am just recounting the notes I took with eBird.  Other living things and systems are to come!  Hurrah!

-Jess

Just a quick sit spot walk through.  Every bird was found be ear first, or only by ear.  They are singing!  Wah hoo!

1. Phoebe
2. Crow
3. Blue jay
4. Carolina wren
5. Chickadee
6. House finch
7. tufted titmouse
8. Downy woodpecker
9. Canada goose
10. Brown creeper
11. Robin
12. Mourning dove
13. Goldfinch
14. Hairy woodpecker
15. Chipping sparrow
16. Junco

…Getting through a sit spot backlog.  Please excuse the short post!

-Jess