That was a fast 6 hours - (Chambers Lake and Hibernia Park, Chester County)

I was sick the day before I was going to get up at 5:45 am. I'm guessing most people would have "tapped out" but it's fall migration and I need to be outside.

I meet Brian Quindlen (BQ) at his house at 6 am with coffee and we zip out to Chambers Lake to meet the other Brian (Raicich). Having both of these guys with me is great not only for the extra pairs of eyes and ears but they are better birders than I am and I am learning a lot from them. Plus they are funny. Yes, I value people more for their comedic value than most other attributes. I'd say that's a life value I can easily defend.

Anyway...

I ignore the last vestiges of my cold and lack of sleep and the stupid, sick humidity and we gather at the Chambers Lake "curve". Often during migration you will see birders sitting at this corner of the lake by the road looking for shorebirds. We take our thorough scans of the lake and BQ picks up a Pied-Billed Grebe. As I write this he just texted me of a "Black Crowned Night Heron" in this exact spot. Damn it! 


Caspian Tern - photo by Brian Quindlen

We start skirting the edge of the lake for a little while and pick up a few of the usual suspects. For me the female Bobolink is pretty cool. But we just get hotter and it gets quieter so we double back.

Suddenly 4 large Caspian Terns swoop down over the lake. The Caspian Tern is the largest tern in the world with a wingspan that's about 4 - 4.5 feet. These big birds fly into the place calling and swopping and diving and basically taking over. Their call is a rough and aggressive sounding like a combination of a bark and  screech mixed in with high pitched sounds you'd expect from a gull-like bird. Even the handful of fishermen and kayakers seem to take notice. It appears that one of the birds is immature and the others are helping it. I read later that the young will stay with the adults often a long time to learn  how to fish. Makes sense to me. Learning how to dive 30 feet down into the water and catching a fish can't be that easy. We spent a long time watching the birds. The splash down periodically and come up with fish. They seem to intimidate 2 Great Blue Heron's and circle and dive.

Raicich breaks us out of our reverie and we drive a few hundred yards down the road the entrance for Hibernia Park. We've seen reports of some birds that we "need" for our Chester County list. To those of you unfamiliar with this idea, some birders like me enjoy the game aspect of birding. I keep a life list and a county list and many other lists. One of those lists is the year total for Chester County. It's a lot like a golfer. Golfers compete with other golfers but primarily compete against themselves. For me, birding is similar in the scorekeeping aspect.

We don't get far up the driveway/entrance to Hibernia before pulling over to the side of the road. There are a log of birds in a little copse of trees over the roadway. For a moment I wonder if this is a legal parking spot but I stop caring when I see how much activity is happening. We nab many species in this spot including Chestnut-sided warbler, Black and White warbler, Red-eyed vireo, Hummingbird, Chickadee's, an unknown flycatcher and,  my favorite, a really good look at a pair of Canada Warblers. Someone once said "birding its like going to an art museum where the paintings hide." The Canada Warbler with it's mane makes me think or that quote. Click here to see it ==> http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Warbler/id it's very cool.

What's crazy is that we probably spent over 1 hour standing in this one area looking up so much our necks hurt. I think birding is a good way to exercise my patience and tenacity...and my neck. I hope all this looking up doesn't give me a stroke.

BQ and I headed back home but scouted out a few corporate ponds and retention ponds for migrating shorebirds. Nothing special but we feel good about the scouting value. I check the clock and I've been out for 6 hours.
I guess time flies when you are birding.