Feathers and Scales

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Herping Near Home

In the afternoon of June 17th, I had some free time since it was the last day of school, and we had a half day. I decided to go to a spot near home to look for snakes with my friend. It was a little bit cooler that day and we had already caught an Eastern Garter Snake in the woods behind our house, so we figured it would be a pretty good day for snakes. We arrived at the trail leading to the spot we were heading to, so we began down. About twenty seconds in, and thirty feet down the trail, my friend spotted a juvenile Eastern Milk Snake making his way across the path. He was tiny, about six inches long, and beautifully colored. I spent a lot of time photographing this guy because the only other one I caught two years ago, I was unable to photograph. After a long time photographing and just hanging out with the snake, we let him go right where he was headed towards in the grass. Once we got to the main spot, the last thing that we flipped uncovered a large Eastern Garter Snake. He very quickly disappeared into the grass, so we put the board down and headed home.

Eastern Milk Snake

Herping Belleplain State Forest, NJ

On June 6th and June 20th, my family and I went to Belleplain State Forest, NJ to both herp and bird. The first trip rewarded us with three huge, nearly six foot long, Black Rat Snakes. Also, right around the nature center, we saw two Five-lined Skinks. Lastly, we found one Eastern Mud Turtle crossing the road.

Black Rat Snake

Eastern Mud Turtle

On the second trip, we found a Southern Leopard Frog and a Fowler's Toad around one pond behind the nature center. We also found likely the same two Five-lined Skinks around the nature center, and one Ring-necked Snake under a brick behind the nature center.

Southern Leopard Frog

Ring-necked Snake

Birding the Pole Farm

On May 30th and June 9th, my mom and I went to the Pole Farm in New Jersey. We went in hopes to get the reported Bobolinks, Eastern Meadowlarks, Grasshopper Sparrows, and Blue Grosbeak. We did very well, and between the two trips we got all of our target birds. The Bobolinks were the first specie of the four that we came across. Some were being very cooperative and landing in the high grass very close to the trail. The Meadowlarks were also very numerous, but not coming close at all. The Grasshopper Sparrows were a nice treat, and likely breeding in the area that we found them. However, we only observed one pair. Lastly, the Blue Grosbeak just happened to land in one dead tree as we were coming out and then quickly flew back into the grasses.

Field Sparrow with Meal

Grasshopper Sparrow

Bobolink

Birding the PA Mountains

Over the weekend of May 15th through the 17th, my family and I went out to Juniata County, PA for my cousin's college graduation. While we had a lot of left over time before and after the graduation, we birded a short section of a nearby park that wrapped around Raystown Lake in Huntington County. My mom and I went hiking up the first trail we came across and very shortly got our lifer Cerulean Warbler on the edge of a power line cut. While watching the Cerulean Warbler, we also heard a Ruffed Grouse drumming in the distance. After hiking a bit farther up the trail and seeing a few more warbler species, we decided to head home.
The last day before we left, we went to a different section of the same park. After crossing a few Eastern Box Turtles off of the road, we heard another Cerulean Warbler singing. Just a few minutes later, he came down a little bit lower to be visible. After spending a few minutes with him, we drove down the path a little bit further until I heard a Prairie Warbler singing. I got out of the car to see if he was in the open, and I heard a Golden-winged Warbler. This was a lifer and a major nemesis bird. Waiting a few minutes for him to come out in the open, he finally did. However he was staying high up and far away. We watched him for a little while and then we went home.

Eastern Box Turtle

Cerulean Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Friday, May 8, 2015

An Unexpected Great Day Herping

On May 2nd, 2015, I went over to Tyler State Park to meet up with my friend to go rock climbing, as the ground was very muddy beneath the boulder, we started to bring over some rocks to put down. One of the first rocks I flipped to bring over uncovered a dead Northern Brown Snake. This would have been a lifer for my friend, and only my second ever, so we kept flipping over every rock in sight. We soon uncovered a juvenile Eastern Garter Snake along with many Eastern Red-backed Salamanders. Just as we were about to give up and go back to rock climbing, I flipped a Northern Ring-necked Snake. This was only the third one I had ever seen, so I was very excited. After getting many pictures of him, I put him back under his log and watched him disappear.

Northern Ring-necked Snake

Birding La Salle Pond and Baldpate Mountain

On April 26th, 2015, my mom and I went over to La Salle Pond where two Virginia Rails had been reported. When we got there, we quickly heard them, but we knew that it would be very hard to see them. We circled the pond to try to pin down their location by their call and hopefully see one run through the reeds. After a while of listening to one very close, we finally saw movement. Then, after watching it quickly move through the reeds, it finally stopped for a second. I tried my best to manage a picture through the reeds hoping to get a decent shot.

Virginia Rail

A few days after on May 1st, 2015, I went over to Baldpate Mountain for a quick look for migrants. After seeing many Black-and-White Warblers and Common Yellowthroats, I saw one very cooperative Rose-breasted Grosbeak. He was sitting on one very close branch singing away.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Rose-breasted Grosbeak Singing

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Birding Heislerville

On April 25th, 2015, my bird club had a trip scheduled to go to Heislerville, NJ to look for shore birds. The week before, some of us also went to scout out the area. That day we got many early warblers including Ovenbird, Black-and-White Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, and Prairie Warbler.

Worm-eating Warbler

Prairie Warbler

On the second week, it was more weighted towards shore birds. That day we got many Dunlin switching over into breeding plumage, both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Clapper Rail, many Willets, a Yellow Warbler, Boat-tailed Grackles, a Killdeer on her nest, and Black Skimmers.

Black Skimmer

Dunlin

Boat-tailed Grackle

Killdeer on Nest

Male Yellow Warbler