Monroe's Blog

Last Sunday Joyce and I went birdwatching. We started at Susquehanna State Park, which is only about 10 minutes away from our house. Our first stop was the Rock Run Mill area. We didn't see many birds there, but we did hear what sounded like woodpecker babies inside one big dead tree. It sounded like several small tapping things inside the tree. We also saw some geese along with their babies, right by the river.

Our second stop was the picnic area of the park. We had luck seeing birds at a spot on the far side of the lake there, so we hiked around to try again. On the way we saw a woman apparently hugging a small boy. As we passed, she asked if we had any wipes. I said no, and told her there was a bathroom up by the parking lot. When I looked back, I saw that the little boy had his pants around his ankles, and his private parts were all hanging out. Apparently he either had an accident or was pooping by the lake. The woman was trying to clean him up, or keep his near-nudity private from the public.

Once we got to the spot, we did see plenty of birds. We saw red winged black birds, grackles, an oriole taking food to a nest in a tree, cardinals, an osprey, and a barn swallow that flew up and perched on a grill about 10 yards away. I took some photos of these birds, and Joyce spent much of the time with the binoculars.

On our way out of there, a group of adult geese and more babies blocked our path. The adults tried to protect the babies by keeping us away. They did this by hissing and moving their heads up and down, almost like a snake. We didn't want to hurt or scare the geese, so we took our time and waited until the path got wide enough for us to go around.

We finished our birdwatching at the dam. We saw another osprey, and apparently another one in a big nest up on an electric tower. We saw a bird pop its head out of the nest. We couldn't tell if it was an adult or a baby. Joyce saw an eagle with the binoculars. I saw a bunch of turkey vultures, herons, and a few ducks.