Visiting Philadelphia and beyond, April 2008 (1 Viewer)

Hi, my girlfriend is trying to persuade my to accompany her on a visit to the states in April, to visit a friend from her college days who lives in Philadelphia and also to have a break and have some holiday time. And she says we can go birding.

I've had a little look into it and of course there could be some good birding to be had so I may be persuadeable . . .

Anyway, it'll be about 7th april for maybe 10 days, what would be the best plan?

What's the birding like directly around Philly? thought a few days there and then move on somewhere else could be good.

I guess Hawk Mountain won't be at it's best then, or will the general birding be good in the vicinity anyway?

Otherwise the other main attraction as I see it is Cape May (NJ, I admit), but would that be a good time of year also? Would it be a reasonable place for a holiday?

I have been over before a while back, mostly Florida and California, (so catching up with the more regular slightly more temperate species would be good) and was wondering if some coastal area with good range of habit to base would be worthwhile. And if so where? And since the girlfriend hasn't been to the states before it will all be new and exciting . . . although won't be able to bird totally 24/7 !!! Given the time available it could be worth going a half days journey somewhere good, or even visiting several different sites. In or out of state. Maybe not NY city if we've already been to Philadelphia already tho.


Any ideas? Appreciate any advice /suggestions . . .

Cheers a lot, Dan

Cape May is a good Holiday location. Not sure what the birding will be there then as it may be a bit early for migration. I would put up a post on the New Jersey forum and see what responses you get. In Philadelphia the John Heintz National Wildlife Refuge is a good spot. It is directly across Interstate 95 from the Philadephia Airport. If you want a day trip, one of my favorite places is Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware.

Your timing is bad in that I will be in Florida for most of April or I would have volunteered to a day or two of birding with you.

bobsofpa said:

Cape May is a good Holiday location. Not sure what the birding will be there then as it may be a bit early for migration. I would put up a post on the New Jersey forum and see what responses you get. In Philadelphia the John Heintz National Wildlife Refuge is a good spot. It is directly across Interstate 95 from the Philadephia Airport. If you want a day trip, one of my favorite places is Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware.

Your timing is bad in that I will be in Florida for most of April or I would have volunteered to a day or two of birding with you.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your info I'll certainly check those places out. I've posted a similar request on the NJ forum, I think we will definately have to book the flights soon (prices will probably go up), and try and stretch to 2 weeks if we're coming all this way over, but there will plenty of time to sort out exactly where to stay and go in the near future. Seems like some time around that part of PA, and yes the coast as well.

Thanks for the offer of birding (if you'd been about!), shame, would've been cool to meet another fellow BF birder and useful to get some first hand local knowledge. Limited time off, and if we don't do it now might not happen at all (was going to be last year originally, after all).

(And you're going to Florida for the birding I presume??!!)

Cheers, dan

Dan
Cape May in NJ would be an excellent choice to spent a day (dress warm) and its close.

Another good place would be Central Park in NY City, especially in April
(google Central Park birding)

Either way, there are very many choices on the East Coast.

Bring lots of money (for the Flash Discs).

and enjoy your stay B

April birding might be fairly decent (May would be better).

Dan, here are a couple of places in the New York area you might like to consider. I highly recommend them.

Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, check out the birds to be seen, click here.

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (Gateway National Recreation Area)
Brooklyn/Queens, NY, click here.

Cheers a lot for those suggestions, I think that those are places definitely worth a visit. So much so, booked the tickets to JFK airport New York (a bit cheaper as well) so can bird NY in addition to around Philadelphia when we're there.

(BTW what are flash discs? )

Larry - also having trouble sussing out where the Edwin B Forsyth reserve actually is! Is it the same as Brigantine? (I notice its in the opus as well)

Cheers, dan

Dan, the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge was formerly called the Brigantine or "the Brig". They are all one and the same. That's where I saw the beautiful, male Black-throated Blue Warbler. I was very elated at having seen it. Then passing a couple of lady birders coming in as I was going back to the parking lot, and seeing that they were not too impressed with my find they asked me if I had seen "anything good"! They are pretty easy to find out there but it was a great bird for me just the same.

Cheers, yep, I'd like to catch up with a few more of the wood warblers, including the BTBW, they are a pretty super family! Just a slight shame I'll probably be a little early, but we'll see . . .

Nice one

Dan, I remembered posting on BirdForum something about my "one morning trip" to Jamaica Bay. We were only there a couple of hours (I sure wish I could have stayed longer, but my son needed to leave and he was driving so I had to go too). Click Here for a list of the birds I saw while I was there.

Here is a page concerning the "Brig" (Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge), should you care to take a look.

Philly birding

Hi,
I visited a non-birding friend last May and used Birdingpals to contact several local birders at The Heinz Reserve.They were amazingly welcoming, knowledgeable, really enjoyed showing me round and were even willing to accompany me on trips elsewhere.Try it out.

There are actually some places within the city limits of Philadelphia to bird that are pretty decent that you could even get to by train and a couple of miles of hiking

http://www.fow.org/bird.php

http://www.fow.org/documents/birdchecklist.pdf

If you are renting a car, in addition to the places mentioned by others, very near Philly:
http://www.wvwa.org/birds.htm

And less than 2 hour drives to the following NWRs:

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/primehook/birding.html

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/bombayhook/

Everyone gave you some great links so far I also recomend you checkout this website

http://www.dvoc.org/DelValBirding/MonthlyBirding/April.htm

and this link

http://www.dvoc.org/DelValBirding/Index.htm

When you do go to Cape May take the Ferry to Lewis Delaware and go to Cape Henelopen State park.

Cheers for all the help and suggestions given. We ended up going a little northwards to begin with, (NY area and then Plum Island MA), before Philly and Cape May. We were also quite early (but we knew that) for a lot of stuff, and didn't make it to all the places we'd have liked to, but it was still a pretty good trip, with plenty of interest.

If anyone's interested in trips to the general area, I've put our trip report on BF;

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=114065

Cheers again, dan