Lehigh Valley

On my way out of Allentown yesterday, I stopped by Green Pond, a local warmspot in Northampton County. It was still quite rainy, so not much activity was present. There was a GREEN HERON, and a lot of people driving by, looking at me as if I were wreaking havoc.

I headed onto Hawk Mountain, which was only about 1 hour away, and took the shuttle bus their 75th Anniversary Celebration. Lots of birding "celebrities", including Scott Weidensaul and Pete Dunne. The weather was poor, so I guess I was birding birders as a replacement. The weather did let up a bit in the afternoon for some little guys to come to the feeders at the visitor center. I got great looks at a lifer BAY-BREASTED WARBLER, and also finally saw a bird that was sillily eluding me, the WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH.

I then met up with my couchsurfing hosts, Kevin and Lauren at Stonehedge Gardens, where they were fervently working to get ready for their art opening that took place today. The place was beautiful... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.



This morning I went back to Hawk Mountain, and the weather had finally cleared. I walked the trail with a lifetime birder from Pittsburgh who knew a lot about Hawk Mountain, and was in the midst of his own Big Year. He told me that he had started January 1st, and that he currently had seen 399 birds. He was hoping for a MERLIN today, but after spending the morning with him, he left with no such luck. I, on the other hand, had a pretty productive watch.


Hawk Mountain sits right along the Appalachian Trail. Hawks tend to migrate in large numbers along this ridge, where counters wait for their approach. As a counter sees a bird of prey lift over a distant peak, she yells the spot on the landscape, and species if possible, for the one seen. Peaks are numbered, and landforms are called by name. Today was supposedly a slow day, but there were a constant flow of raptors. Tons of BROAD-WINGED HAWKS and lesser numbers of SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS and AMERICAN KESTRELS came into view. I was also surprised to find out the BLACK VULTURES migrate through these parts. Unfortunately, the peak for ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS and NORTHERN GOSHAWKS are about a month from now, and no early birds showed up while I was there.


After birding, I headed back over to the Stonehedge Gardens to check out Kevin and Lauren's show. In addition to their paintings, Kevin was showing a documentary about him and his collective's walk across the country. Info on that can be found here: www.theillumination.tv

Tonight, we are camping in his backyard with a number of his friends to celebrate what seemed like a really positive showing. I hope this leads to more openings, and more people getting a chance to visit this amazing site.