Wildlife Observations: 2020 Roundup (Plus a Rare Hawk)
A leucistic red-tailed hawk in Demetra Mehta’s backyard. Photo: Demetra Mehta
2021 started off with something special: Demetra Mehta of Swarthmore submitted a photograph of a leucistic* red-tailed hawk in her backyard. The photo made the hawk the darling of Nextdoor Swarthmore. Kevin Scott of Swarthmore submitted photos of the same bird. This eye-candy avian has been residing on the block bounded by S. Princeton, Lafayette, and Harvard avenues. I happen to live near this block, and from the comfort of the armchair in which I write this article, I spied the white wonder taking flight!
But the big inside-baseball news in the birding world was the mid-December sighting of a tundra bean goose at Crum Creek Reservoir. For days, buzz circulated in the birding world about the appearance in our community of this Siberian species. I made several unsuccessful trips to the reservoir to try to see it. A luckier Dave Eberly of Swarthmore succeeded in sighting the bean goose.
Dave writes: “Wikipedia tells me the name “bean goose” derives from the habit the geese have of foraging in bean-field stubble on their wintering grounds. A bean goose is about the size and shape of a Canada goose. It is a light-chocolate-brown bird with white underparts. Its head and neck are darker than the body. The most striking features of the bird are its bright orange feet and legs and an orange splotch on an otherwise dark bill. It’s a handsome bird.” This first-recorded sighting in Pennsylvania of a member of the species, which is native to Siberia, is said to have attracted birders from across the eastern United States.
In mid-November, 13-year-old Nolen Spivey of Yale Avenue in Swarthmore submitted some beautiful photographs of a Carolina wren, a black-throated blue warbler, and a red-breasted nuthatch, which he took in his yard or nearby. I first met him when he set up a table in front of H.O.M. and Gallery on Park and was selling calendars illustrated with his bird photographs. He sold out as we were speaking. Spivey’s are without a doubt the best photographs submitted to me since this column started running.
Carolina wren. Photo: Nolen Spivey
Red-breasted nuthatch. Photo: Nolen Spivey
Black-throated warbler. Photo: Nolen Spivey
In doing a year-end roundup of all the sightings reported in 2020, I was struck by the fact that many of the species that were sighted hail from distant corners of the globe. The American eel seen in Ridley Creek was born in the Sargasso Sea. Numerous warbler species stop here on their way to and from the boreal forests of Canada and Central and South America. And then the bean goose arrives all the way from Siberia. It is inescapable that what happens here has repercussions around the globe, and vice versa. It’s a small world after all (sorry for the earworm).
In 2020, readers observed the following number of species for the following animal classifications: eight mammals, 61 birds, 10 herps (reptiles and amphibians), five insects, one fish (born in the Sargasso Sea), one crustacean, and one bivalve. Here are the specifics:
Mammals: bat (species not identified), beaver, chipmunk, gray squirrel, groundhog, raccoon, red fox, white-tailed deer
Birds: American goldfinch, American robin, American crow, bald eagle, Carolina wren, Carolina chickadee, catbird, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, Canada goose, tundra bean goose, white-breasted nuthatch, red-breasted nuthatch, slate-colored junco, mourning dove, northern cardinal, red-tailed hawk, wood duck, great blue heron, Cooper’s hawk, eastern screech owl (red morph), belted kingfisher, mallard duck, eastern bluebird, rose-breasted grosbeak, Baltimore oriole, wild turkey, veery, eastern towhee, great crested flycatcher, Eastern kingbird, turkey vulture, black vulture, common merganser, hooded merganser, house finch, white-throated sparrow, house sparrow, starling, tufted titmouse, scarlet tanager, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, yellow-rumped warbler, ruby-crowned kinglet, golden-crowned kinglet, magnolia warbler, black-throated blue warbler, pine warbler, black-and-white warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, blackpoll warbler, Kentucky warbler, Nashville warbler, American redstart, ovenbird, yellow warbler, common yellowthroat, warbling vireo, blue-headed vireo
Herps: common garter snake, eastern ribbon snake, American toad, bullfrog, wood frog, eastern box turtle, painted turtle, snapping turtle, northern dusky salamander, red-backed salamander
Insects: common green lacewing, praying mantis, crane fly larva, millipede, spotted lantern fly
Fish: American eel
Crustaceans: amphipod (commonly known as a “scud” or “side swimmer”)
Bivalves: freshwater mussel
*When a bird is “leucistic,” that means it has partially lost its pigmentation. “Leucism (/’lu:sɪzəm, -kɪz-/) is a wide variety of conditions which result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal — which causes white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticles, but not the eyes.” – Wikipedia
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