April 14 Hills Creek State Park BIrd Walk Sees Warmer Weather, 51 Species

This Saturday’s walk was much  nicer day than  last week’s, but it was still a little on the chilly side. We had 16 participants, the youngest being 9 years old. It is always nice to see young people showing a real interest in birding. We had a great day as you can see from the birds listed below, and we saw our first warblers of the season. As the month progress, we will see more and more spring birds migrating in and the number of waterfowl will start to decline. The ospreys are still at the nest, and hopefully they will lay eggs. The bald eagles are also sitting on their nest. By now they should have laid their eggs. We had 16 participants this Saturday and saw 51 species. Walk leaders were Sean Minnick and Rich Hanlon. Highlights included Bonaparte gulls, pine and yellow-rumped warblers, an eastern meadowlark, a spotted sandpiper, nesting ospreys, a bald eagle, pied-bill grebes, buffleheads, ring-necked ducks, wood ducks, gadwalls, hooded and common mergansers, double-crested cormorants, a brown creeper, a hermit thrush, and many others.

Next week’s walk will be at the same time, same place – Hills Creek State Park office, 8:00 AM in the morning. Birders of all levels are welcome to come.

Pine Warbler by Gary Tyson

April 18 Meeting -- Eagles and Ospreys

Please join us on Wednesday, April 18th, 7:00 pm, at the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center in Wellsboro for a program about our local bald eagle and osprey populations. The program will be presented by Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Rob Minnich. Rob will also address bird watching safety during hunting seasons and how bird feeding can affect other wildlife species. The program will be preceded by the usual business meeting at 6:00 pm. Both the business meeting and the program are  free and open to the public. You can also visit our site on Facebook, where you can learn more about the Tiadaghton Audubon Society.

Osprey at Hills Creek State Park by Gary Tyson

First Hills Creek Spring Bird Walk Results

April 7, 8:00 AM,  Hills Creek State Park. It was a very cold morning for our first spring bird walk at Hills Creek State Park -- 19 degrees and a bitter north wind -- but we were pleasantly surprised by the many birds we were able to see -- 31 species in all. Waterfowl, in particular, gave a good showing. We saw two common loons, several red-breasted and hooded mergansers, a half dozen ring-necked ducks, many buffleheads and lesser scaups, horned and pied-billed grebes, and some double-crested cormorants. A bald eagle made a nice, low flyover, later followed by a red-shouldered hawk. The first belted kingfisher of the year also flew by, and a pair of ospreys were also present. They are apparently setting up housekeeping on the platform by the dam -- first time that we have had a sincere nesting effort there since 2010.There were not a lot of land birds, but we did see some robins, bluebirds, song sparrows, cardinals and juncos.

Next walk will be April 14, 8:00 AM. Everyone is welcome to participate, and there are no fees. Meet at the park office.

Eastern Phoebe by Sean Minnick

                                                     

Nesting Ospreys at Hills Creek State Park by Sean Minnick