Category: What to Do
Swans – Toughing Out the Cold
A few weeks ago a Mute Swan and it’s ‘flock’ – 2 or 3 Canada Geese and a similar number of Mallard Ducks – moved onto about the only open stretch of water on Peters Lake. As the ice receded they stayed along the same shoreline, just spread out a bit. As the ice cover grew they retreated back into a small inlet close to the trail which circles the lake. At one point the open area was scarcely the size of a bathtub. The swan floated in it and some of the other birds stood on the ice nearby. But as the other birds joined the swan in the water the open area slowly grew to a small room size.
This morning, Wednesday, I took Frodo for a very short walk along the opposite shore where we had some protection from the trees. Looked like the swan & some of his buddies were still there so after the walk I drove thru the neighborhood to the opposite shore. There’s no roadway around the lake.
I drove around the parking lot to the point nearest the birds and took this shot through the car window.
It was 3F outside & I was cold enough from the walk so, OK, I wimped out. I think you can see the ice coming in on the right side and the shore is immediately on the left. So this is a pretty small patch but, without a doubt, the only open area on the lake.
I took this second shot & you can see one of it’s companions stretching it’s wings.
I think I figured out what’s going on here. Above the shore on the immediate left is an old service road dating back to when this was a water company reservoir. On the opposite side of that road (now part of the walking trail) are 3-4 small springs coming out of the ground. They flow together, and then through a old concrete culvert several feet below the road surface, before flowing into this small inlet. That spring water will be much warmer than the surrounding ice. The birds paddling and feeding is probably mixing it more thoroughly with the surrounding water, raising its temperature and keeping the water open. Their purely physical activity is probably helping also.
It’s not exactly a warm spring spa but I’m sure that’s what is keeping the birds there. There’s water to drink and the roots etc. of plants reachable in shallow water. It certainly looks a lot more inviting than a nearby lake where dozens of Canada Geese were huddled together, perched on the ice, in the middle of a frozen lake.
We’ll see how they do when the temperature drops below zero tonight. If they can tough that out, and I think they will, they’ll be seeing much warmer temperatures over next 7-10 days. Hang in there guys.
Launch My Business
Swans
I’ve been stalking this bird for weeks. Stalking, but not harassing. Never got close enough for that. And really, only got close enough for half decent pix last week. I now realize that I’ve been seeing a solitary swan when driving by various nearby lakes for a couple of years. Saw it, but then discounted what my eyes were seeing because ‘ swans don’t live around here’. About sums up the human condition. But when I did some research on swans after seeing a trio of migrating Tundra Swan on Peters Lake in November, I realized that the imported European Mute Swan could indeed live around here. It was imported to ‘beautify’ parks & ponds and as a non-migrator would tend to stay in place. Nature being what it is, however, enough birds ‘escaped’ from this form of captivity that there are naturalized, wild breeding populations along the East Coast and around the Great Lakes. It is described by various sources as ‘invasive but contained’.
Oh, BTW, my tentative ID of the Tundra Swans has been confirmed by some naturalist friends:
” Ken,
Guess I forgot to tell you that I put one of your Tundra Swan photos up on iNaturalist, as blurry as it was, to see if those guys were willing to confirm them as Tundra Swan and within a day a fellow from northeast PA confirmed them as Tundra Swan. That’s what I believed them to be as well given location and timing.
Tim”
When first spotted, this solitary Mute Swan was swimming at the far end of the upper pond, probably 70 yards from my vantage point. Using my iPhone with it’s maximum 2X zoom and some enlargement, this is the best I could get:
After looking at the pictures I realized that there was a small object & wake in front of the swan. Probably following one of the mallards common there.
Finally, after a longer cold spell, the upper pond froze over & the swan moved to the larger, lower lake. It was weeks before it settled into a small inlet near the walking trail and I could get the following shot :
After my experiences of the last few months, I’m starting to see the limitations of the iPhone for any kind of nature photography. I’m not trying to capture birds in flight or lions on the Serengeti Plain but it’s not realistic to expect to see wild creatures at selfie/close-up distances unless you’re at a zoo. And I’m not interested in the artistic side of photography. But, if I see something new or interesting swimming 50 yards out in the lake, I want to be able to take a photo good enough for ID purposes.
After researching, I’ve found various companies offering clip on lenses for the iPhone camera that will add fisheye, wide angle, macro and zoom capabilities. But each of those lenses cost about $90. And the only one I care about, the zoom, only comes with 3X. On top of the phones 2X, that gives a total of 6X zoom. More, but not really enough. I’m seriously considering a ‘good beginners quality’ Canon, digital, point & shoot, that can give up to 40X zoom. Now, you’re talking zoom.
If any readers have camera suggestions I’d welcome them. Keep you posted.
The Ghosts of Washington County – Part 2
Unfortunately, not all ghosts live just in our imaginations. And some come back to haunt us repeatedly. Discovered one of those ghosts along the Montour Trail again.
Between mile markers 29.5-29.0, about a half mile from the old Montour 4 mine portal, there’s a covered pavilion along the trail. Courtesy of an Eagle Scout project. It sits next to a ravine which climbs sharply to the back end of a housing plan. Many springs tumble down that hill, under the trail, under a dirt road and then onto Chartiers Creek. Ultimately this drains into the Ohio River. One of the springs seems to be coming out of the rock nearer to the bottom of the hill. It’s stream bed is quite orange. I associate that color with iron contaminated acidic mine drainage. It joins other springs which come from higher up the hill which ‘appear normal’ but from that point on the stream bed is orange all the way to Chartiers Creek.
I went back there last week to take some pictures and to test the pH and conductivity of the orange effluent stream. This is a view from the trail of some of the streams on the hillside. The flow on the right has a definite orange color.
I started the climb down but, unfortunately, the ‘easier way’ I thought I saw turned out to be a wet drainage way. Tried another route that turned out to be steeper than it looked & covered with wet leaves & moss. Got about 75% of the way down. At that point took a zoom close up of the orange stream bed where it seems to come out of the rock outcropping.
And then where it’s culvertized further down under the trail.
But below that point the slope ended in a 5-7′ vertical drop to the spring. Way too much adventure for a mid-70 something. Climbed back up without testing the effluent stream.
The above information was passed along to the Chartiers Creek Watershed Association and subsequently to the Washington County Conservation District. They’re going to try to access the stream at the bottom of the hill where it’s culvertized under the dirt road.
Let me know if you’ve got some ‘finds’ to document or explore in your area.
The Ghosts of Washington County – Part #1
The southwestern PA region has a long history of mining & manufacturing activity. Some of this activity ‘died’ a long time ago & evidence of it may be obscured, forgotten, or unknown. I had a discovery experience just like that recently.
In the Fall of 2018 we’d moved to a neighborhood in Peters Twp. that was near a section of the Montour Trail that I’d never been on before. So, Frodo, our Standard Poodle, & I have since been exploring that trail. We start out at Mile Marker 30.4 next to the Peters Twp. Sanitary Authority plant on Brush Run Creek. Last week we’d walked only a short way from the parking lot & decided to take an old road/trail that left the Montour Trail & cut sharply up the hillside that lined the trail. It was steep enough & long enough to get the heart started. And it was deserted enough to let Frodo off-leash so that he could run around, explore, & do doggy stuff. A win-win for both of us. When I got tired of climbing, we took a trail across the face of the hillside on to a path & series of cutbacks down. Coming around the last cutback into a clearing saw this locked metal door on the face of the hillside.
Moving in closer realized that it was the actual portal into the Montour 4 mine.
This portal was opened in 1953 and allowed a conveyer belt to bring coal from the mine into a collector which loaded the coal into rail cars parked directly below at the Montour Trail level. Unfortunately, this portal did not have a particularly long use life.
Fortunately, some folks had the vision to see this as the starting place to develop a real regional asset which now connects all the way to Washington D.C.
Two Local Christmas Bird Counts
If you’re a birder, or curious about what birders do, or maybe just looking for an outdoor activity and to meet some new people interested in nature, consider the following:
Washington, PA Bird Count, Dec.15
Contact is Tom Contreras at tcontreras@washjeff.edu
I am happy to announce that the Washington PA’s 45th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday, 15 December, 2018.
Field participants will meet at 7:30am in 305 Dieter-Porter Hall (W&J College) at the corner of College St. and East Maiden St.
Field participants should be able to park in the Grant Street lot across from Swanson Hall at the corner of Grant St. and Lincoln St. or in the lot directly behind Dieter-Porter Hall (access to lot from College St.).
It’s important that those of us doing field counts meet to discuss coverage and travel within the count circle.
If you absolutely can’t make it in to W&J that morning, but would still like to participate in the field count, please contact me the week before the count so we can arrange proper coverage for the count circle.
I need to know who will be helping with the field count, so please contact me by email or phone (724-223-6118) to let me know if you can help with the field count.
If you know of anyone else who would like to participate, have them email me.
For those of you watching your bird feeders on the day of the count, I have attached a checklist which you can fill out and send back to me sometime before 20 January, 2018. Remember to only record the maximum number of individuals of a particular species you’ve observed at one time—this will help to avoid double-counting of individuals.
Thanks to all of you for your help with this year’s count.
Let’s hope the weather cooperates.
To see results from previous years, go to http://netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/ and enter “PAWS” as the “Count Code”. Results go all the way back to the first counts for this area in the 1970’s.
Also, my cell phone number is 724-413-2310 in case there are any weather-related issues on the day of the count and you want to contact me to determine the status of the count.
Buffalo Creek event in Washington County, Dec.16
Buffalo Creek in Washington Co. on Dec. 16th.
If interested in participating contact Larry Helgerman, coordinator, at bobolink1989@gmail.com or 412-508-032.
In Search of Swans
On Thursday, 11/15, Frodo & I were taking our regular walk near Peters Lake in Peters Twp. It was cold & raining, but a dogs gotta do what a dogs gotta do. It would be a short walk. As we walked along the lake, I spotted the three large white birds, pictured below, near the middle of the lake. I’ve seen snow geese in migration that stopped there once, but these seemed too large for geese and there was none of the blue/gray color variations I saw the last time. I wondered if they were swans, but they “didn’t look like swans”. More about that thought later.
As soon as Frodo had done his duty, we hustled back to the car. I grabbed my iPhone and left Frodo in the back seat. I didn’t hear any complaints from him as I left. Guess even he’d rather be warm & dry than cold & wet. I took several pictures. These were the best of a bad lot. I’ve since retained a consultant ( my granddaughter) who showed me how to use the cameras zoom feature & then further zoom & take a screen shot of the subsequent pix. I explained to her that they were most likely swans but could be snow geese (less likely in my opinion) and the birds having a black bill rather than a light colored bill would confirm it as a swan. As she ramped up thru increasingly blurry enlargements she suddenly said, ” they’re getting fuzzy, but they have black bills”. I can almost see them myself but as I read further about swans I concluded there was only one ID likely.
There are 3 swans found in North America.
1. Trumpeter Swan – Although there are some populations around the Great Lakes it’s main range is across the northern tier to the West Coast, then north into Canada. It has a black bill but, more decisively, the Cornell website describes these as ” immense birds ” that can reach 30 lbs + in size with a wingspan of 8 ft & over. It’s described as the worlds largest swan, the largest waterfowl in North America, and one of the world’s largest flying birds. My trio above were clearly not immense bids. So, not Trumpeter Swans.
2. Mute Swan – This is a non-native, European, bird. It was imported to decorate our ponds & parks, so it can be found all over the country. It is slightly smaller that the Trumpeter, but clearly mine were not mute swans (below).
3. Tundra Swan – This is a white swan with a black bill. It is considerably smaller than Trumpeters or Mutes. It’s summer breeding range is, as the name suggests, along the Arctic Circle from Canada to Alaska. In the Fall, easternmost populations take a migratory route that can pass over W PA on their way to wintering grounds along the Atlantic coast from Maryland to the Carolinas. I think this is the bird I saw.
Comfortable with the ID, I wondered why my first impressions were that they ” didn’t look like swans “. And then I came to understand why I expected swans to have a certain look.
* The only live swans I had ever seen were likely those stocked in parks & ponds. These were invariably Mute Swan.
* Early images of swans, in e.g. Disney movies, were also Mute Swan.
* As a child, my reading included the classical fairy tales of European authors like Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm. Naturally, if the story had anything to do with a swan, the illustrations would be that of the European Mute Swan.
* As a result, my minds classical image of a swan was that of a large white bird with swept back wings held high on the back; a long, gracefully arched neck; right down to the large black ‘nose bump’ at the base of a light colored bill. In short, a Mute Swan.
I rather enjoyed that short voyage of discovery. I hope you have the opportunity for similar ones.
A Fly Over the Mon
Have you watched the drone footage of flying over the Mon?
Fishing on Daniels Run
On Saturday , October 20, the Marianna Outdoorsmen Association stocked 500 Rainbow & Golden Trout on the Daniels Run tributary of 10 Mile Creek for an October 21 fishing derby. When Frodo, the Wonder Dog, & I arrived creekside at 11 AM Sunday it was a chilly 40F morning. He had a great time making new friends while I tried to keep my fingers warm enough to take pix & notes.
The MOA had started clearing the site of high grass , weeds & piles of debris, from previous high water events, on September 22. One short month later they had cleared paths & access to hundreds of yards of stream bank & fishing spots. That was a way ‘ beyond the call of duty’ kind of effort. Thank you folks. And some of the dried out debris ended up as fuel for a big warming, bonfire.
After arriving, I checked in with the organizers. 62 trout had already been caught, registered & released in just the 1st hour of fishing. And 3 more were pulled in the 1st 10-15 minutes I stood stream side.
Whole families were out having fun. In one group it looked like Dad was fishing with a junior sized, or ultralight outfit. As soon as he hooked a fish he handed the rod over to one of the young (pre-school?) children alongside. Now the child had a fishing rig size that they could handle with a fish that was a handful with that tackle. Still, they brought in a couple while I was watching. A great way to learn.
Thanks again to the Marianna Outdoorsmen Association for all they give back to the community.
Birding Along Peters Lake
Walking along Peters Lake yesterday, 10/16, & spotted an Osprey doing a slow pass along the shoreline before it veered off. I’m thinking that it’s getting around the time when they’ll start moving toward a wintering ground. A very stable metric such as daylight/nighttime hours must be one trigger. Food availability has to play in there also since I’ve read that they don’t make a ‘continuous ‘ migration flight but a series of jumps & layovers on the way to a final wintering ground.
Also wondered when Cormorant move out since I hadn’t seen them for a few days. But then met a walker who described the ‘unusual’ birds she saw yesterday. ” Black, like crows, but with ‘funny’ necks & beaks “. Turns out she was describing 4 Cormorant perched in same tree I usually spot a pair. So we have a little flock of Cormorant. In nice weather they seem to prefer a perch at the top of the biggest, deadest tree overlooking the water and spend more time out of the water than in it. And, in the water, they ride so low that it reminded me of a submarine running with periscope up & deck barely breaking the surface of the water.
More Egrets. Met another couple & the fellow remarked ‘ I think I saw what might have seen 3 Snowy Egret yesterday ‘. I’d also seen some white ‘birds’ in shallows at far end of the lake yesterday but way to far for me to make an ID. I replied that my ‘ birder friends ‘ had advised that we don’t see Snowy’s around here but more likely Great White Egrets. I described the Snowy as a medium sized bird only a couple of feet tall while the Great White is closer to the size of a Great Blue Heron. Nope, he said, weren’t nowhere near that big. So there we are. Trouble is, the Audubon Field Guide on-line for Snowy Egret quotes ” After breeding season may wander well north “. Their range map shows “Common” breeding area in E PA & coastal areas as far N as Connecticut and ‘Uncommon” breeding area on W end (Ohio Shore) of Lake Erie to a dotted line that approximates the US/Canada border. So, it’s certainly possible. Wonder if there have been other reported sightings of Snowy’s? Either that, or we have some ” Not-So-Great White Egrets ” out there.
Hope the Fall stays brighter for a while. Really tired of rain. Have fun out there.
Ken Yonek
Note from Mon River Towns Program: We would like to include images of the birds referred to in this blog. So please, feel free to share your photos with us!!