ASWP
Birding
Birding in Western Pennsylvania
A Guide to Hot Spots for Birding and Nature Walks
A comprehensive guide for finding and watching birds in the Western Pennsylvania region. Edited by Bates Easterbrook. Introduction by Paul Hess. © 1996 Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. This title is presently out of print. Contact us for information.
Table of Contents
The book includes maps, detailed descriptions, and birds of note for each site.
- PREFACE
- INTRODUCTION
- Western Pennsylvania Birding Locations Map
- ALLEGHENY NATIONAL FOREST Dead-end Logging Roads -- Allegheny River -- Allegheny Reservoir -- Tionesta Natural and Scenic Areas -- Heart's Content -- State Game Lands 28 and 29 -- Buzzard Swamp Beaver Meadows and Lake -- Farnsworth Creek Road -- Chapman State Park -- Buckaloons -- The Newbold Estate
- BEAVER COUNTY Brush Creek County Park -- Brady's Run County Park State Game Lands 173 -- State Game Lands 285 -- Aquatic Sites
- BEECHWOOD FARMS NATURE RESERVE
- CONNEAUT MARSH Lower Marsh -- Middle Marsh -- Upper Marsh -- Canoe Trip
- COOK FOREST STATE PARK Forest Cathedral -- Tom's Run Road -- Forest Drive -- River Road -- Fire Tower Loop
- ERIE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
- FRICK PARK
- THE GLADES
- GREENE COUNTY
- HARRISON HILLS PARK
- KEYSTONE RESERVOIR
- THE LIGONIER VALLEY Donegal Lake -- Trout Run Reservoir (Latrobe Reservoir) -- Laurel Hill
- MORAINE STATE PARK
- NORTH PARK
- OIL CREEK STATE PARK Oil Creek -- Route 8 to Petroleum Centre -- Tomado Area -- Hiking Trail
- PRESQUE ISLE STATE PARK
- PYMATUNING AREA End of the Road -- Linesville Fish Hatchery -- Ford Island -- Fries Road and Shelotoes Pond -- The Spillway -- Pymatuning Goose Management Area -- Administrative Headquarters Parking Lot -- Pymatuning Dam Parks -- Hartstown Marsh -- Lake Road Area -- Small Parks -- Causeway -- Ohio -- The Pymatuning Causeway -- Tuttle Point
- RACCOON CREEK STATE PARK Wildflower Reserve -- Raccoon Lake -- Valley Trail
- SIEGEL MARSH
- "THE STRIPS”
- TODD SANCTUARY Todd Sanctuary -- Little Buffalo Creek Valley -- Allegheny River at Freeport -- Countrv Roads
- UNION CITY DAM
- WASHINGTON AREA Washington Park -- Washington Cemetery -- Reservoir No 4
- YELLOW CREEK STATE PARK
- CHECKLISTS
Introduction by Paul Hess
(excerpted)
For diversity of birds easily observed in accessible places, western Pennsylvania offers a wealth of delights. This guide's 24 locations, all described by writers thoroughly familiar with their avifauna, produce a bird list strikingly extensive for an inland region. The array of species would be difficult to find in many comparable areas without expending considerably more time and effort. As an example, at least 28 warblers nest here; few regions western Pennsylvania's size can top that total.
Other numbers will add to the perspective. The guide's detailed checklist includes 311 species plus two warbler hybrids, nearly 170 of which breed regularly somewhere in the region. Visiting the right places at the right seasons, a diligent seeker can reasonably expect to list well over 200 of the birds annually. In one year experienced individual birders have tallied up to 264 species in Erie County, 245 in Butler County, and 202 in Crawford County alone. A May "big day" can easily exceed 100 species at the better migrant localities, and I recall one memorable outing at Presque Isle when the group's list totaled 151.
Birders from other parts of the country often want to see species we take for granted like Acadian Flycatcher, Cerulean Warbler and Henslow's Sparrow. To add these and many more life-listers, they could hardly do better than visit some of the sites in this guide.
There are several reasons why western Pennsylvania hosts such a rich assortment of bird life.
First is its great variety of habitats-not merely the myriad niches found everywhere, but major natural areas. Choose among awesome remnants of primeval pine-hemlock forest, an immense glacial-relic marsh and scattered wooded swamps, high Appalachian ridge tops, river and creek valleys both broad and gorge-like, Erie's open water and sandy Presque Isle shore, intriguing prairie-style grasslands on reclaimed strip mines, large manmade lakes and reservoirs, vast temperate deciduous woods in damp lowlands or dry uplands, plus rolling hills covered with farms, pastures, old fields and meadows. As this is written, even downtown Pittsburgh's skyscrapers deserve a place on that list with a nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons.
Second is the region's distinctive character as a meeting ground of northern and southern life zones. This is basically a matter of climate, warm summers and cold (though warming) winters. It involves not only latitude but also altitudes ranging from less than 600 feet at Lake Erie shore to more than 3000 feet atop Allegheny Mountain ridges. The results are exceedingly diverse faunal communities of breeding birds: the northerly sub-Canadian, the southerly Carolinian, and a transition between those usually called the Alleghenian.
Many other contrasting neighbors could be cited. For example, the region's southern portion happens to include both north-south and altitudinal borders between the Black-capped and the Carolina Chickadee.
Third, western Pennsylvania is quite a crowded migration corridor. Though it lacks the stature of the Mississippi Flyway or the Atlantic Coast, our region offers notable rewards in spring and fall. Presque Isle is a premier migrant collector by almost any standard. The mountain ridges produce interesting autumn hawk-watching. Fine waves of passerines pour through many of the sites in this guide…
Timing is as crucial as area and habitat for locating desirable birds, and this guide's checklist is designed to indicate when as well as where to improve your odds…