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Andrew Williams's picture

Bird Watching in Lousy weather

We've lived in Montgomery County since 1980. The Perkiomen Creek is about half a mile behind my house on the other side of Central Perkiomen Park, which is all protected wetlands. We see deer almost daily and foxes regularly. I have a trailcam at the edge of my property and have discovered there are raccoons, too, although I have never seen one except on that camera. Turkey Vultures fly overhead daily. There were about twenty ducks in a pond back there a few days ago. There are rumors of coyotes, but I suspect those are misidentified foxes. I've heard owls, but I've never seen one other than the plastic one a neighbor put up to scare the cardinals from crashing into her windows (it did not work.) Today was the first time I'd seen a hawk in the park and the only time I've seen a buzzard at rest on a tree branch. For all I knew, they were born and died at high altitudes.

And that's after 42 years!

FYI, these were both shot at 400mm and were severely cropped, the hawk more than the buzzard. That s not noise, it is snow. They were shot through a window, so I may have lost some sharpness there. Even at this distance (the hawk at about 200 yards) there was practically no depth of field. The Nikon D850's autofocus was not able to cope, likely due to the tree branches, so I had to focus manually to get anything remotely sharp. At this magnification, camera shake was a problem even though the camera was on a tripod. Perhaps a newer camera with more intelligent autofocus and IBIS would have been helpful. I suspect re-reading the Nikon manual would be as helpful...Perhaps it would be as helpful as going outside to get a better view would have been.

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That's great you're having some long-awaited observations right from your property!

I am actually in southeastern Pennsylvania for the next month or so. Used to fish the Perkiomen Creek when I was a kid. I wasn't aware of the Central Perkiomen Park ..... maybe I'll check it out in the next few days.

Another place you may enjoy that is nearby is Pennypack Ecological Trust. It's also right in Montgomery County, but Hawk and Buzzard sightings are far more common there, like everyday occurrences, and there are plenty of Coyotes there, too, as well as Red Foxes. Lots of nice trails to walk on so the wildlife viewing is pretty easy.

Coyotes are very firmly established in Montgomery County, so it wouldn't surprise me at all of what you have there near your place are indeed Coyotes.