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Events

Contact:

Roger or Margaret Higbee at
724-354-3493
bcoriole@windstream.net.

Yellow Creek Outing

Sat, November 5, 2011, 8:00 am
Yellow Creek Park Office
Outing Leader: Roger and Margaret Higbee, bcoriole at windstream dot net, 724-354-3493

Description

Yellow Creek State Park, led by Roger and Margaret Higbee (724-354-3493). Meet at 8:00 at the park office. This is a joint outing with the Three Rivers Birding Club.

Trip Report


Twenty-one birders, including first time outing attendees Patrick Birch and his son, 10-year-old Nathan from Indiana, arrived at Yellow Creek State Park for the joint Todd-Three Rivers field trip on Saturday, November 5. Beautiful, but cool, weather greeted us. The area around the park office uncharacteristically yielded few birds with the highlights being a passing flock of about 50 Canada Geese and a Hairy Woodpecker. After all the introductions were made, we proceeded to the maintenance building and walked across Rt. 259 to view the lake. Here we scoped Cedar Waxwings, Eastern Bluebirds, one Northern Mockingbird, and quite a few goldfinches and juncos. Amid the raft of coots on the lake were Pied-billed Grebes, one uncooperative Horned Grebe, three Hooded Mergansers, and several Ring-necked Ducks. The morning�s only flicker called here. We continued to the boat launch where we were lucky to watch an immature Bald Eagle flying parallel to the north shore. We proceeded to the main recreation area where Ian Haigh found the day�s only Wilson�s Snipe. A Fox Sparrow was a nice find here. We walked to the bridge over Little Yellow spotting the season�s first Am. Tree Sparrows. Golden-crowned Kinglets foraged low in the shrubbery along the stream giving us all good views. Our next stop was at the beach where Richard Nugent spotted two Brown Creepers in the pines. At the beach two Common Loons and a Double-crested Cormorant were the only non-coot birds on the water. A Cooper�s Hawk flew across the lake and landed in one of the oaks on the north shore. Seconds later another Cooper�s followed and perched several trees to the left of the first. While most of us had our eyes glued to scopes watching the Cooper�s, Ian spotted yet another raptor flying from the north shore to the south and identified our only Northern Harrier. Next we walked to the observatory but found little activity along the trail. The view from the observatory yielded a lone Mallard, 2 Lesser Scaup, 25 Ruddy Ducks, and a Great Blue Heron. All my attempts to find a coot counter failed this year, so we ended the outing with an estimate of roughly 1000 individuals. The count totaled 38 species in the park plus a Pileated Woodpecker seen by most of us driving into Indiana. Fourteen of us continued to the Golden Dragon where we enjoyed each other�s company, lunch, and more conversation.

Submitted by Margaret Higbee

If you participated in this trip, you may add an outing report.

Black-footed Albatross, Bodega Bay, CA, Marg Higbee

Upcoming Events

Muddy Creek Wetland Trail Outing

  • Sat, March 30, 8:00 am
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Tuesday Yellow Creek Outing

  • Tue, April 2, 7:15 am
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April 2024 Meeting

  • Tue, April 2, 7:30 pm
  • Blue Spruce County Park Lodge

Tuesday Yellow Creek Outing

  • Tue, April 9, 7:00 am
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Tuesday Yellow Creek Outing

  • Tue, April 16, 7:00 am
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Tuesday Yellow Creek Outing

  • Tue, April 23, 6:45 am
  • Yellow Creek Park North Shore Gazebo

Tuesday Yellow Creek Outing

  • Tue, April 30, 6:30 am
  • Yellow Creek Park North Shore Gazebo