birding John Heinz on 18th of August (1 Viewer)

[temmie]

Hi Pennsylvanians,

I have a 4-hour stopover at Penn airport on the 18th of August. Any regular birdwatcher at John Heinz would be welcomed to introduce me a bit.
I would be happy with good company taking me for a casual stroll and seeing some Grey Catbirds and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and maybe a Northern Flickr or Wild Turkey, but if anybody wants to treat me with some 4-hour-fast-birding and trying to see as many species as possible, that would be fine, too.

Let me know if you are that person or you happen to know somebody who would go birding anyway.

 

[twins920]

I was just there last Thursday...what a little gem of a place. I did see hummingbirds, heron, catbirds, thrashers, woodpeckers and more. If you look on my page, I did post a couple of photos of my find! I am not able to take you there, but you won't be disappointed. I was there for 3 hours and walked 6 miles!
Have fun on your trip!
Safe travels,
Linda

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Hi Temmie,

Four hours wouldn't leave you much time to go birding, especially if you're coming from Belgium. You'll have to clear immigration, get your bag, and transfer it before you even get out of the airport. That could take an hour or more, especially since baggage handling at Philly is notoriously slow. Also, all of the flights from Europe arrive at the same time, so the lines at Immigration can back-up pretty badly.

After birding, you need to allow time for getting back through security for your connecting flight. If you're going to or from Belgium, that means you'll probably be re-connecting in the evening, which is the worst time for lines at security.

So if you're lucky, you might get an hour of birding in. I wish it weren't so, but Homeland Security and TSA in the US are "thorough" (albeit not necessarily effective). It's nowhere nearly as easy as getting around in Continental European airports.

 

[temmie]

Hi Jeff,

I arrive from Miami at 10AM and leave for Brussels at 6.20PM, so I have already taken the time into account to leave the airport (should be fast as my check-in luggage will go through, unless I need to re-check-in), and some time to be back around 4PM.

I unfortunately have only the hours between approx. 11-12 untill 3PM, so not the best time of day. But any hummingbird would be nice, or any catbird, ...

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

In that case, it should be fine.

Mid-day may also be OK. If not for a hummingbird - and I haven't been recently, but I suspect they have feeders at the visitor center - then certainly for shorebirds, which should be moving through by that time. Just checking eBird, there have been hummingbirds seen recently.