Photo Study Of A Northern Wheatear In Lebanon County, PA, October 9th, 2011        

   A special thanks goes to Joan Silagy for being the first to get the word out about the Lebanon Northern Wheatear. The bird had been reported
   again on PABirds several times this week hanging out behind the Days Inn in Jonestown/Lickdale, PA. In any event, when I arrived at 9:00AM this
   morning, there were about twenty people with scopes and cameras enjoying this beautiful little vagrant. Rudy Keller was kind enough to point the
   Wheatear out to me. Apparently, this is only the fourth record for the species in Pennsylvania. The Wheatear was very cooperative and put on quite
   a show as it moved around the property posing on walls and construction debris, as well as dropping down every once in a while to eat some seeds,
   berries, grasshoppers and caterpillars. Here are a few of the photos taken today:
                                                                                  

Eating A Berry 
   
On A Retaining Wall

On A Retaining Wall
      
              On A Pylon                                                                             On A Shingle
 
Calling                                                                                                                    In The Grass                                   
                                                             
 For comparative purposes, here are a couple of photos of another Northern Wheatear taken December 24th, 2010 at Fox Point State Park
in Wilmington, Delaware (this beautiful 1st Year male was found and reported by Colin Campbell.) 

    The Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) is a small passerine bird 5 3/4 inches long with a 12 inch wingspread. It was formerly classed as a
    member of the thrush family Turdidae, but it is now more generally considered to be an Old World Flycatcher, in the family Muscicapidae. It is
    the most widespread member of the Wheatear genus Oenanthe in Europe and Asia. The Northern Wheatear is a migratory insectivorous species
    breeding in open stony country in a wide geographic range that extends from northern Europe and Asia south to the Middle East and North
    Africa, and includes Iceland, Greenland, northeastern Canada, Alaska, and the Yukon. It nests in rock crevices and rabbit burrows. All Wheatears
    winter in Africa...so somehow, just for us, our beautiful little visitors made a very, very fortunate wrong turn. Its white rump gives the Wheatear
    its name from the corruption of an older and perhaps inappropriate English term. (Cornell BNA; Wikipedia; Sibley Guide To Birds)

    To see a larger image of any of today's photos below, please click on either the thumbnail or the caption...thanks!

     © Howard B. Eskin 2011      Please click here to email your comments to <hbeskin@voicenet.com>   Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index 

                                       Please click here to see the December 2010 Photo Study Of The Delaware Northern Wheatear