Birding today.....

I dont have class on Wednesdays till 6:00pm, so this morning I figured I should go out birding for the day. As I was driving out 997, leaving Mont Alto, this adult Cooper's hawk was sitting on a fence in front of one of Penn National Golf Courses barns. It's crop is bulging out, hopefully full of a European starling, since they are always around that barn. I sat in my car and watched him for a few minutes and then he flew off and landed in a spruce behind the barn. This Cooper's is an adult, as you can see by it's plumage, but it has only been an adult bird for this year. Last year it was a juvenile. You can tell that because it's eyes are not red yet, they are still orange-ish.

Cooper's hawk

Cooper's hawk

Next I went over to Running Pump Road to try and search for the prairie falcon over there, but ocne again came up empty. There were some horned larks around also, but I couldnt find any longspurs or snow buntings. Above the Cumberland County Dump were literally thousands of gulls, mostly ring-billed. I also ran into friends from back in Hershey, that I worked at Meadowood Nursery with; Dick and Patty Williams. They were also searching for the praire falcon.

I decided to give up on the the falcon, and headed back towards Chambersburg, to stop at a house where eastern screech owls are supposed to roost. This would be my fourth visit, and so far I hadnt seen an owl there yet. But today was a different story. After searching around in the dead leaves in the tree for a little bit, I spotted the gray phase eastern screech owl. And sitting right next to it, was it's mate, a red phase.

eastern screech owls

red phase eastern screech owl (potentially the male)

gray phase eastern screech owl (potentially the female)

As you can see in the following picture, they were very well hidden. The red phase is almost exactly the color of the dead white oak's leaves and the gray phase is exactly the color of the white oak's bark.

I needed to start heading back to Mont Alto, but decided to detour through Greencastle to try again for the Eurasian collared-doves since I missed them the other day with Bill Oyler. Without much trouble, I spotted two doves sitting on top of a telephone pole and watched them for a little and then drove back to campus. Eurasian collared-doves are an exotic specis, as it's name implies, but they have been introduced into the US and have become established, especially in the midwest, but also in small pockets here in the east.

Eurasian collared-doves

On another note, I have created a Picasa page for a lot of the photos I have taken, here is the link. (Just click on "link")