Location Galitzin State Forest, Cambria county, PA
I went to this location in hopes of finding a Henslow's Sparrow. One had been reported and my Audubon app alerted me. So I was listening especially carefully. I heard a fairly brief wolf whistle call, and I suddenly realized what it could be. I was not convinced on the first repetition, but on the second I was sure.
I continued birding in the area I was in, hearing the call about a dozen more times up-slope, not really thinking I would be able to find it. I decided to drive up the hill and give it a try anyway.
A classic pose of this bird is to perch on a post in a field and vocalize. I did find such a post and thought I saw something on it, but it was too far away to identify for sure if it was an Upland Sandpiper or any bird for that matter.
I found a couple of people further up the road, and they asked me what I was looking for. One lady had a camera with a monster lens on it, and she had a picture of it on a post, probably the one I had looked at. It wasn't a great picture -- it was still quite a distance even for the large telephoto lens.
I hung around there a bit longer then started walking back down to my car. By now it was early dusk. I saw a bird flying ahead of me that I wasn't sure I recognized. I found it in my binoculars. Well, it was perfectly backlit, or perhaps not sufficiently lit, so it was just a dark shape. It paused its normal flight, swooped up in the air, and make the classic wolf whistle.
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