Bamber Lake 1/23--Pied-billed Grebe

Tundra Swans

I went shopping again for birds today. It rained most of the morning and early afternoon, but around 1:30 there was a break in the precip that looked like it would last for about an hour, so I drove over to Bamber Lake, about 15 minutes away, hoping I'd find Tundra Swans for the county. Obviously, from the picture above, I did. But wait: How do I know they weren't Trumpeter Swans? I got fooled on Sunday at Assunpink. Well, for one thing, 26 Trumpeter Swans would be mind-blowing and for a another, these birds were "singing," making their weird little whistle (more like a wheeze) that I heard as soon as I got out of the car before I even saw them. So I'm pretty confident in the i.d.

The other waterfowl on the lake were the expected species: geese, black ducks, Ring-necked Ducks but there was one happy exception when I saw a smaller bird (thin neck, stubby bill) diving and realized from shape and style of diving that it was my FOY Pied-billed Grebe. Bonus Bird.

I walked up & down Good Luck Road which is a path that runs along the east side of the lake and only heard a few birds, then walked around on the lawn behind the tennis courts where I saw my county Red-tailed Hawk. Just as I opened the car door, the rain began again, so my timing was perfect.

During the morning I off and on checked the feeders and while looking at the ones on the side of the house I saw a couple of turkeys walking through the catch basin next to our house. A couple of turkeys turned into 8 or 9, then 18, then 29. They just kept coming. I threw some seed out onto the lawn and a few came over to investigate. Seeing that the scouts were eating, the rest of the flock walked up out of the basin and paraded past my back window and over into my neighbor's yard. I went back outside, took photos and counted 30 birds. He just called me and said he counted them as they walked past and his number, counted twice, was 32. We've had big flocks before, but they numbered in the low 20's. There were a few Toms in the flock, but most of them seemed to be first year birds.

Turkeys walking into my neighbor's yard.

A couple of Toms