ANOTHER NEW BIRD

OK kids,

I told you that spring was the big time of year for bird watching. Today I found another new bird for my list. It's a Blackburnian Wabler. Isn't he cool? I love the bright fire orange throat he has. He was a great find at Rocky Ridge Park today.

This makes bird number 196 on my list. 200 may be right around the corner. Stay tuned....

Love,

Uncle Shawn

NEW BIRD

Hey kids,

Just keeping you updated with my bird watching. I found another new bird for me today. It's a Black Billed Cukoo.

According to my guide books, they are fairly common but it has taken me 7 years to find one. He is decribed as being near water and likes to eat caterpillars. Well, I found him by a lake eating gypsy moths nests full of caterpillars. And his red eye was totally easy to see. I was looking down near Hanover at Lake Marburg in Corodus State Park. Very cool, huh?!

This is bird #195 and counting.......

Love ya,
Uncle Shawn

NEW BIRDS

Hey kids,

It's springtime and that means the warblers are back!! Every spring, warblers (there are over 30 different types in the Eastern US) fly from as far south as South America north to the US and Canada. In the fall they fly back down where it is warm for the winter.

Here is a new one I found last week. It's a Cerulean Warbler. Do you know what cerulean is? It's a shade of blue. Can you tell how they bird got that name? I can't wait for it to get sunny again and look for more!!

I also spotted a new bird in the backyard!! I was looking out the kitchen window and saw a bird that was unfamiliar. I quickly grabbed my binoculars, looked at all it's features then ran to my bird book to look it up. It was a Rose Breasted Grosbeak!! It's a member of the cardinal family. Isn't he cool!!!

Unfortunatley, I did not see a male bird (above.) I saw the female (below.) In the bird world, the male attracts the female so he is usually the one with all the fancy colors and patterns. She was a great new bird that I added to my list. Now I have a total of approximately 194 birds on my "life list." That's my list of all the different birds I have spotted since I started keeping track in January 2001. I wonder what the 200th bird will be ?????

love,

Uncle Shawn & Mr. Ted

NEW BIRDS

Hi everyone,

Just a quick hello and hope you all had a great weekend. We had FANTASTIC weather at the beach. We got 3 good days in and Uncle Shawn even went into the chilly water!! Read a few books, had some good meals and found 4 new birds.

Willow Flycatcher - found him in the marshes.

Prarie Warbler - First heard his call then took us 20 minutes to find him high in the trees.

Blue Grosbeak - look how big his bill is. Very excited to find him.

Black Skimmer - Mr. Ted spotted this flying overhead then we saw 2 more. Look below at the pictures to see how he gets his name. This was a great find!!

Love,

Uncle Shawn & Mr. Ted

NEW BIRDS

Hi kids,

As you know, I am always looking for new birds. Today I found 2!!!

A Wilson's Warbler (easy to spot with the black cap on his head)

And a Canada Warbler (they call the black marks on its neck a "necklace")

So happy to see these new birds today. The warblers don't stay for long so I'll be out again later this week.

Love,

Uncle Shawn

NEW BIRD ON ERIC'S BIRTHDAY

Hi everyone,

Today I went out looking to see a rare bird that my birding friends saw this weekend. It is a yellow billed loon and was on it's way to northern Canada or Alaska. Unfortunately, I did not see him.

However, I did get to see a brand new bird!! A prothonotary warbler. He was very cool!!! He was in a swampy area up near Harrisburg.

This bird was named after officials in the Roman Catholic Church known as the protonotarii, who wore golden robes. Find more info here.

Hope you had a happy birthday Eric. I was thinking of you when I found this bird.

Love ya,
Uncle Shawn

NEW BIRD

Hi ya,

Mr. Ted and I went to the beach this past weekend. The weather was GREAT!! We even got to sit on the beach Saturday afternoon and read a book or two. Too cold to go in the water.

On Sunday, we went to 2 National Wildlife Refuges which are protected areas where wildlife can roam free. We did not see any new bird there. :-(

But on Monday morning when I went for a hike at Rocky Ridge (where the Christmas lights are) I saw a new bird. It is even a shorebird so it usually lives near the ocean. This was at the pond. It is a Solitary Sandpiper and as it's name implies, it was all alone.

Wish we saw new birds at the beach, but I was happy to see something new right near our house. Right now is the start of spring bird migration so I'm looking for warblers and other bird passing through. If you ever want to go and looks for birds, let us know. We'd be happy to take you bird watching!

More info on the solitary sandpiper here.

Love,
Uncle Shawn & Mr. Ted

TWO NEW BIRDS

Hello,

With the nice weather we've been having, I have been getting up in the morning and gone bird watching. This morning I went to the Susquehanna River again, near our home and found a blue headed vireo. He was high up in the trees but I used my binoculars to find him. I always carry a few bird books to help me figure out what type of bird they are. He is not really rare but I was happy to find him. He looks like a lot of other birds so he was hard to figure out. Here is more info on the blue headed vireo.

The second new bird I saw was in downtown York. There is a small park with a pond where the same birds come back year after year to nest in the pine trees. They are black crowned and yellow crowend night herons. When I went to the pond last week, there were about 30-40 black crowned herons but I did not see the yellow one. My birding friends told me the yellow one was there so I went down to the park and looked for 25 minutes until I found him today. He was cool!!! Here is more info on the yellow crowed night heron.



Hope to find more birds in the next few weeks. Spring is the time when lots of birds are flying north from spending the winter in South America. We are heading to the beach this weekend so we'll be looking there.

Love ya
Uncle Shawn & Mr. Ted

NEW BIRD FOR MY BIRTHDAY

Hi guys,

On my birthday Monday, I decided to go for a hike in the woods down by the Susquehanna River and to my surprise, I saw a bird I have never seen before. It's called a Northern Parula. It is a type of warbler and he was mirgrating from the Caribbean where he spends his winter. He is such a pretty blue with a bright yellow underbelly. I spotted him high up in the trees and heard his distinctive voice. Here you can find more information about him.

This is bird number 171 on my life list. A life list is a list of all the different bird species that a person sees. Have you started a list? If you are interested, let me know. Sometime we can maybe take a hike to start your list.

Love,

Uncle Shawn

Peregrine Falcon

Have you ever heard of a peregrine falcon? It is a hawk-like bird that is beautiful. For 10 years, there have been a pair of peregrine falcons nesting at the top of a building in Harrisburg, PA. They just came back and YOU CAN SEE THEM LIVE!! As I type this, I am watching the live video of them. Click here to see the live video. It should open a video program you have on your computer. There are 2 camera angles so wait for the video to show both.

• Here is a story about these falcons that have been nesting at the top of the 15 story building
• Here is information about perigrine falcons.
• Here again is the link to the video.

Let me know if you see them.

Love,

Uncle Shawn & Mr. Ted

BROWN CREEPER

Did you know that Mr. Ted and I are birdwatchers? We love to take hikes and look for new birds that we have not seen before. We also love to watch birds at our feeders in our backyard too. They love coming to the feeders in the winter since food is hard to find right now. When we see a new bird or an interesting bird, we'll tell you about it.


Today Uncle Shawn saw a Brown Creeper on the tree in the front yard. As its name implies, the Brown Creeper forages by "creeping" along tree trunks, in an upward spiral, picking bugs from the bark with its pointed bill. Eventually, the bird will fly down to the base of another tree and begin climbing again. The brown and white spotted pattern of its upper feathers makes the bird nearly invisible against the tree trunk. This is one of the hardest birds to spot since it's feathers looks just like tree bark.


This is not the first time we have seen this bird, but we are excited when we do spot it each time. Are you looking for birds in your backyard this winter? Let us know what you see!!