Baird's Sandpiper and Caspian Terns highlight Forty Fort Weekend

Overall the weekend was pretty slow numbers wise. Really not a ton of birds around. But there were two shimmering starts of the weekend

First on saturday I woke up early and walked through Plains Flats and out to the river (which is what I generally refer to as Forty Fort). Walking on the island all of a sudden 3 terns raised up and flew a tiny bit upstream, then turned back downstream and eventually right over me. Finally I was able to find Caspian Terns in Luzerne County.

Then today (Labor Day) I wasn’t going to go to Forty Fort. However my 2-year-old, Kenley, started talking about the river. So my wife and I hopped in the car and went down for a walk. Of course I had my scope so I checked the islands and didn’t find much more than the ominpresent Killdeer and a group of 7 Lesser Yellowlegs. After a little walking around we were about to head off towards the farthest island when I saw a piper flying. It landed on the closest island and as soon as the color of it registered through my naked eye I knew I had a Baird’s Sandpiper. The last date for a Baird’s at this location was 2 on September 8, 2008.

Click this image to view an interactive map of my Forty Fort and Plains Flats sightings.

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NOTE: Any post that begins "REPORT:" is something I'm passing along and will include date, while all other posts will be my sightings from the field and should be considered from within a half-hour of the post.

Countdown to 300

After re-entering birding in June 2007 and subsequently throwing away my life list, I am finally approaching 300 species on my new life list. So I’m going to countdown the last ten.

#290 Arctic Tern
Lake Wallenpaupack, PA Oct. 24, 2009
After a crazy storm pushed down lots of seabirds. Not accepted by PORC but I didn’t get a photo. But I’m positive of ID.

#291 Common Eider
Sandy Hook, NJ Nov. 8, 2009

#292 Lapland Longspur
Sandy Hook, NJ Nov. 8, 2009

#293 King Eider
Sandy Hook, NJ Nov. 8, 2009

#294 Ivory Gull
Cape May, NJ Dec. 6, 2009
Seen on my first true “chase” of a single bird.

#295 Cackling Goose
Harvey’s Lake, PA Dec. 9, 2009
Weird to see this on my list after a mega like Ivory Gull, but I wasn’t very aware of this species since it wasn’t it’s own species when I originally birded. Then I haven’t crossed paths with it since studying up on the ID until now.

#296 Brown-headed Nuthatch
Lewes, DE Apr. 2, 2010

#297 Little Gull
Lake Wallenpaupack, PA Apr. 10, 2010
This was on my most wanted list for a while. Now on to Black-headed Gull.

#298 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
PPL Riverlands, PA June 14, 2010
In county lifer. Nice.

#299 Black-headed Gull
Bombay Hook, DE August, 21 2010
One of my most wanted birds. Check.

#300 Clay-colored Sparrow
Forty Fort, PA September, 16 2010
The fight is over! And it ends in what is my most birded locales!!