As summer's warmth begins to fade, I hope you've had a chance to relax, recharge, and reconnect with nature's splendor. Perhaps you've spotted a few fledglings taking their first flights or marveled at the vibrant blooms in our beautiful Pennsylvania landscape. Aren’t we lucky to live here? Sure, not everyone appreciates the phenology of our ever changing seasons, but if you are reading this, chances are you do. In this short life we live, it is my belief that every day, and every season is a gift to be enjoyed.
Brown-belted bumble bee on swamp milkweed – Photo by Michael Kensinger
As we resume our regular monthly meetings and field trips, I'm excited to share the promise of a new season with all of you! Autumn, winter, and spring will bring fresh opportunities to explore, learn, and make a difference in our community Remember that by participating in field trips and events, you help seal a bond of fellowship with like-minded people who care about our planet and will fight to protect it.
Together, let's:
Delight in the fall migration's spectacle!
Discover winter's serene landscapes and secret spots.
Welcome spring's vibrant renewal and new life.
As per usual, one can expect our field trips, meetings, and conservation efforts will be filled with camaraderie, education, and inspiration. (Not to mention a bit of humor!) I invite you to join us, share your ideas, and help shape our chapter's impact. Without you, there is no Juniata Valley Audubon Society.
As we move forward, expect updates regularly on our Facebook page, including pop-up field trips that may not be mentioned in this newsletter. If you do not use Facebook, check our website for updates!
Here's to a wonderful year ahead, filled with wonder, growth, and a deeper connection to the natural world around us! Please enjoy the newsletter, and thank you for your support.
Warm regards,
Michael Kensinger
President, Juniata Valley Audubon Society
Our annual picnic, moved from the usual June date due to the heat, has been rescheduled for August 20 at Canoe Creek State Park Pavilion #2. It's a covered dish with friend chicken provided by the chapter. Please RSVP BY Friday, August 16, so we have enough chicken for everyone. Email Catie at [email protected] and her know what dish you will bring.
Regrettably, I am writing to inform you that tomorrow's picnic has been cancelled due to the heat advisory issued for our area.
The safety and well-being of our members are our top priority, and extreme heat poses significant health risks, especially for outdoor activities. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures and humidity can lead to heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. These conditions can be severe and even life-threatening, especially for vulnerable individuals, including the elderly, young children, and those with pre-existing medical conditions. In light of this, we have made the decision to cancel the picnic to ensure everyone's safety.
We will reschedule the event for a later date when the weather is more favorable. Thank you for your understanding, and please stay cool and hydrated during this heatwave! We will be in touch with a new date in due time.
Best regards,
Michael Kensinger
President, Juniata Valley Audubon Society
I am thrilled and honored to have been installed as the new President of the Juniata Valley Audubon Society. As a passionate advocate for wildlife conservation, I want you to know that I am motivated to lead our organization in making a positive impact in our community. Above all, I am excited to work with our dedicated members and volunteers to protect and preserve the natural beauty of our region for future generations. To do that, I also intend on bringing younger membership into the group to ensure JVAS longevity into the future.
As your President, I plan to increase our presence as an organization on social media to engage with a wider, more diverse community. I think regularly posting JVAS content online will attract a wider audience to our cause. By leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, we can share our mission, events, and conservation efforts with a broader (and at times, younger) audience. It is my belief that this will enable us to strengthen our group with a diverse, inclusive community of nature enthusiasts and conservationists.
I would like to also welcome my friends as newly elected Officers for JVAS.
As newly elected Vice President, we have Catie Farr - who is also our Hospitality Chair. Catie’s dedication to bringing delicious meals to our JVAS meetings extends beyond what is expected. I’ve had in-depth conversations about how much happiness that brings her, which speaks of her character. I know I, as well as many other members, appreciate all of her efforts and bringing top-notch meals to our meetings. Catie is also responsible for the fun and exciting Earth Week Birding Classic, which we are working on together, to ensure growth for 2025.
Our Treasurer, with 17 years of service to JVAS, is George Mahon. George is on my team for the Christmas Bird Count, and I always enjoy spending time with him. We are lucky to have such a kind, and trustworthy person managing the books for JVAS.
I’m very excited about our newly elected Secretary Conner Schmitt. Conner is young, enthusiastic, and a new member to JVAS as of this year. Conner has stepped up to bat to fill in for field trips and is eager to help whenever needed. Having him officiated as Secretary is exciting, because I know he is reliable, and passionate about birding and bird conservation. Most recently Conner has joined me in the Louisiana Waterthrush Survey which we do to help Moshannon Creek Watershed Association to gain eligibility for various grants to fight acid mine drainage in this waterway. This survey requires a 4 AM rise, almost 80 minutes drive (round trip) and four miles of hiking to survey birds. And yet, Conner shows up on time, with a smile, ready to work.
Red-winged BlackbirdAs your Field Trip Chair, I have recognized that some of our members may have physical limitations that prevent them from attending field trips or hikes. When leading field trips, it always saddens me to hear someone can’t participate despite wanting to enjoy nature. So, one of my goals is to remedy this situation so that people do not feel left out. And so, to ensure inclusivity, I plan to create videos and photo essays that will showcase our events, conservation efforts, local wildlife appearances, and share them online with members who want to be outdoors but cannot be. By bringing a summary of these events to your computer screen, everyone can experience and appreciate our wild Pennsylvania, regardless of physical abilities. As the new Publicity Chair, I have already begun this process on our Facebook page. If you enjoy simply reading about JVAS, and the outdoor experiences in our area, you can simply go to: facebook.com/juniatavalleyaudubon. If you do not have a Facebook account, I do not believe you will be able to interact with the posts, but you should be able to scroll down our page and enjoy local photos, writing, events, and perhaps learn a thing or two along the way. I try to post new content daily, so feel free to enjoy it while enjoying your coffee or tea.
Once we begin making videos, we will upload them to YouTube, and they can simply be emailed to members and posted to the website for you all to view. In this scenario, there is no need to leave the comfort of your home to enjoy a bit of nature.
The future is bright for the Juniata Valley Audubon Society. In conclusion, I’d like to say this new position as President is not one I take lightly. My dedication to birds, wildlife, and their habitats will remain unwavering for the duration of my tenure for this amazing group. I look forward to building on the strong foundation our previous Presidents, board members, and long-time members have created as we move forward into this next phase.
May the road rise to meet our every step in this next chapter together.
We would like to thank everyone who attended the 2024 JVAS Banquet on April 16th. Thank you to Hospitality Chair and new Vice President Catie Farr, as well as Laura and Mike Jackson for the work they put into organizing this event. We would also like to thank everyone who donated an item to our raffle. We ended up raising $525, which is much more than in previous years. There was a myriad of unique items to bid on, including original artworks, crafts, games, foods, and even a bird-themed Lego set!
Amber Weiwel, organizer of the Third Pennsylvania Bird Atlas, was our banquet speaker. Amber presented ways in which we could all get involved with the next PA Breeding Bird Atlas and spoke a bit about a new Winter Bird Atlas that would be coming soon. Attendees were shown imagery and given instructions on the process involved with making accurate decisions on bird breeding behaviors and when to record them. Additionally, we were able to view range variations in a species such as the Carolina Wren, and how Pennsylvania’s ground-breaking atlas has reflected the spread of Carolina Wrens since the first atlas in the late 80’s.
Angie Spagnoli, JVAS Conservation Awardee (left) accepts her Conservation Certificate from out-going JVAS President Mark Bonta and Conservation Chair Laura Jackson (right).
As per tradition, we give a JVAS Conservation Award to a deserving person, decided on by our board. This year’s awardee was Angie Spagnoli, who was nominated due to her tireless efforts to protect wetland habitats and the wildlife that call them home. While birds are an interest of Angie, her passion for amphibians, vernal pools, native wetland fauna and the like have earned her a reputation in our local community. She educates, inspires, and includes volunteers from a variety of backgrounds to get involved with hands-on activities such as tree plantings and invasive plant removal. Such activities do well to inspire new generations of conservationists and offer new perspectives for older generations who have not taken part in such activities before. It is important to note that such efforts are far from glamorous, but special people like Angie are willing to lead the charge.
Wetlands are important habitats for many creatures, including the spotted salamander
In a world where many people are willing to talk about conservation, Angie ‘walks the walk’. Where many people will share newsbytes on social media, Angie is out there in the mud and in the dirt working to make our planet a better place. As a woman of science, she serves also as the only woman on the board of Directors of the Little Juniata River Association. An advocate for protecting wild spaces, Spagnoli has helped lead the charge in the Coalition to Save old Crow Wetland. Currently, Angie is leading the charge as the battle ensues against Rutter’s senseless development up against this vital Huntingdon habitat.
Angie’s work resonates through many conservation groups including The Little Juniata River Association, The Coalition to Save Old Crow Wetland, Friends of Tipton Wetlands, and more. Aside from her talents as a scientist and conservationist, Angie involves people of all backgrounds in her projects spreading awareness of native habitats and ecosystems, and why we must protect them. Congratulations Angie! And thank you for all you have done and will continue to do!
A caravan of refugees leaving Honduras in 2018 (photo by boitchy licensed to the public domain)
Why migrants? Think twice!
Buried in popular coverage of the climate crisis a few years back was this piece at Futurity, ‘Is climate change driving migration from Central America?’ Around 2019, there were a flurry of reports claiming climate change in countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador were responsible for a massive outflow of people northward.
The article discusses a National Science Foundation-funded study by geographers at the University of Arizona and elsewhere that reached a conclusion similar to mine: Hogwash! “Migration is complicated and there are many reasons that people migrate…[this] doesn’t mean that an individual climate event can’t have an impact, but there are other driving forces…such as limited land and resources, violence, and corruption,” the leader researcher explained.
As a geographer myself, and a life-long student of Central America, I find that this study resonates with my own experience. I’ve been engaged with Honduras since 1991, and climate change was a primary reason I first worked in Honduran national parks while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Climate change brought together impoverished rural communities to save the environment and protect their water sources, fomenting—there and across Latin America—a veritable local-grown environmental revolution that has received scant coverage in US media. Why, then, am I agreeing with the study?
Microclimate change
Because the climate change that communities were concerned about was (and remains) microclimate alteration. Decades of deforestation funded by North American and European agricultural and forestry development projects had reduced rainforests and pine forests to grasslands during the Green Revolution. Tiny mountaintop water reserves called “cloud forests” were among the last hope for communities in surrounding lowlands, where deforestation had otherwise wrecked watersheds. USAID, the World Bank, and numerous other aid and lending agencies had transferred billions of dollars into the pockets of “entrepreneurs” who rotated between political office and ownership of logging companies, agro-export corporations, and other rapacious ventures. In living memory, places had become hotter and dried as forests turned into deserts.
Talking about a revolution…
The environmental revolution of 1990 to 2010 in Central America was not bloodless. Many environmentalists lost their lives; some were my close friends. The weather wasn’t kind, either, with hurricanes wrecking infrastructure as fast as it could be rebuilt. The US’s appetite for illicit substances didn’t help, as somewhere close to 90% of the world’s cocaine flowed through in the early 2010s, and the environment was hit hard as those who laundered the profits—moguls, politicians, billionaires—did so through mining conglomerates, timbering, real estate, dam building, and the expansion of cattle (see, for example, this paper in Land Use Policy).
Nevertheless, against incredible odds, many of the most at-risk forests and other precious habitats that had seemed doomed in the 1980s, in countries such as Honduras, were saved. Water sources were saved as well, so entire villages didn’t have to be abandoned. For most ordinary citizens, protection of the environment became a sacred duty, and in my experience, ideas such as animal rights, habitat protection, and the values of clean and safe natural resources such as water and air are much more popular and less contentious there than in the US. It is far from a perfect system, of course: great swaths of unprotectable rainforest are still being cut down, and the greenwashing practiced by domestic and foreign interests is too often given the stamp of approval by big environmental NGOs.
Why leave Central America?
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Central America who would tell you honestly that climate change at the macroscale is the principal driver of migration from the region. Indeed, even with changing microclimates due to deforestation, there is an incredible diversity of environmental conditions to choose from, and each little niche has distinct growing conditions that can theoretically support just about any crop or domestic animal known to humanity. On top of that, there are factors such as abundant natural resources that can be utilized sustainably, family and culture ties, and other positive reasons to keep people there.
However, negative push factors far outweigh the positives. The fact is that for the vast majority, it is nearly impossible to survive economically, thanks to, as the authors above point out, “limited land and resources, violence, and corruption.” Land isn’t limited, but access to capital and credit is, and few people control most capital and most land. The rule of law belongs to those who control the capital and the land. This means that if you are poor and you step out of line, you have few options.
(Note: where social and political conditions are much more stable, particularly in Costa Rica but also in Panama, out-migration is negligible.)
Teaching us a thing or two?
The crisis in Central America that drives people to choose to flee is a social and economic crisis, not an environmental crisis nor a climate crisis. I would go so far as to say that, in the environmental realm, Central Americans could teach Central Pennsylvanians a thing or two about how to protect the environment. After all, we share many of the same birds. I have to wonder what the birds coming north after nine months in a shaded coffee plantation think when they find yet another convenience store in place of where they nested last season, or when they have to choke their way through another Canadian burning season, or when yet another unnecessary suburban subdivision cuts down the elms and the maples to make way for Elm Street and Maple Street.
What’s an Auduboner to do?
Research your food, and pay more for it: because cheap coffee, bananas, and other tropical fare signify that people are paid little to produce it, perpetuating poverty. Find the food that economically benefits small farmers.
Work to preserve bird habitat here, so that Central American birds have decent places to breed.
Spend your ecotourism dollars in Central America, in ecologically sustainable places that benefit local and indigenous communities, not wealthy elites or corporations.
Think twice before letting profit-seeking, corporate media conglomerates convince you that the reason for the migrant crisis is the climate crisis rather than the same-old, same-old: greedy corporations, corrupt governments, entrenched power structures… Remember that it’s easier and safer for the media to invoke an all-powerful, impersonal foe such as climate change than to name and shame the actual powerful entities perpetuating the desperation that is driving millions northward.
Educate elected officials about the right policies for the US to pursue in Central America, environmental and otherwise, that will lead to sustainability.
In honor of the hundreds of environmental leaders who have lost their lives in this fight over the last decade, activists such as Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla.
A singular birding moment that I will forever hold close to my heart as a testament to life's beautiful surprises, was the day two American Flamingos became the birding spotlight for Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
On September 7th, 2023, I escaped for a lunchtime bird outing in hopes of finding fall migrant shorebirds at local ponds. When approaching the country pond on Long Lane, little did I know that this would be the most unparalleled experience in my life of bird watching, as I discovered the first recorded American Flamingos in the state of Pennsylvania.
Near the end of August 2023, Hurricane Idalia stirred across the Gulf of Mexico, pushing flocks of American Flamingos from the Caribbean into Florida and well beyond. American Flamingos started showing up in many other states in response to this tropical cyclone, creating a Flamingo mania.
I was as jittery as a caffeinated squirrel, and the enthusiasm bubbling over like a shaken soda can. As I stood alone along the farmland road admiring a once in a lifetime species discovery, I knew this was an unprecedented event that other bird and nature lovers would marvel over. Just as the flamingos flocked to this hidden oasis in the Cumberland Valley so would a mass of people near and far. The news spread like wildfire through the communication channels and fortunately the landowners were accommodating and gracious to welcoming people to take on the observation of these majestic splendors.
The birds had daily surveillance taking in accounts of behaviors and interactions, the state police would help manage the crowds of people so safety and respect would follow suit to help establish appropriate observation etiquette. Another extraordinary, mega rare visitor of a Brown Booby would flyover and be documented on September 14th.
As nature goes, not everything concludes with a happy ending. On September 11th the subadult flamingo was attacked by a resident common snapping turtle, causing a substantial injury to the leg. The bird was quickly and safely captured, and then transported by the PA Game Commission to the Raven Ridge Wildlife Center in Washington Boro, PA. The injured bird was making strides in its recovery, but would perish en route to the next stage of its recovery.
The remaining adult flamingo would remain at Long Lane Pond for another 8 days giving opportunities for bird chasers, nature lovers and just curious individuals a chance to see a once-in-a-lifetime birding opportunity in the wild. The adult flamingo departed the pond soaring on the evening of September 19th.
It was such a joy to see the smiles and excitement of others taking in their encounter of the American Flamingos. I ventured to the pond seven different times and was beyond grateful to share my binoculars and spotting scope with outside visitors so they could have a close-up view.
Rutters has not yet received a permit from DEP to build a truck stop next to Old Crow Wetland in Huntingdon. It is likely that they will, and the coalition is raising funds to appeal a DEP stormwater permit. Our lawyer is working for us pro bono but we’ll need to pay experts who will testify for us at an appeal with the Environmental Hearing Board, so we are raising money for a legal fund. See below for how to donate.
We have two avenues to stop this project: DEP and Smithfield township. On the first Tuesday of each month, members of the Coalition to Save Old Crow Wetland voice opposition to Rutters’ plans at Smithfield township supervisors’ meetings. We point out how Rutters’ plans do not meet Smithfield township’s ordinances. The next meeting will be on January 2, 2024 at 6:00 pm at 202 South 13th Street, Huntingdon, PA 16652. Any member of the public may attend and speak at these meetings.
Local media calls Rutters’ project a “convenience store” because that is how it is labelled in DEP and township documents. Reporters claim they must use that term, but it is misleading because the project is a seven-acre truck stop, one of the largest in central Pennsylvania, open 24 hours a day. A large Rutters is being built in Blair county now and another is planned for Centre county.
Coalition members have spoken with the Maxatawny Community Coalition near Kutztown PA. Since a Rutters was recently built there, traffic congestion in the area has become worse. Residents are concerned about gambling machines and the sale of alcohol at the Rutters, as well as many warehouses now proposed for the area. A member of the Maxatawny group wrote:
“Even though Rutters calls themselves a convenience store, we consider them to be a truck stop due to the massive amount of parking they have for tractor trailers in the back parking lot and the amount of diesel gas pumps on the property. Trucks park overnight on the property which is against our ordinances and many of them are idling non-stop regardless of any laws against it. These types of facilities should be up on the Interstates and NOT in communities! - A.F.
The Coalition held a Non-Violent Direct Action Training session in December, 2023, led by Michael Badges-Canning and Penn Garvin (NVDA training facilitators) in Huntingdon, Pa.
If you want to prevent traffic, pollution, and related problems in Huntingdon and to prevent harm coming to the beautiful Old Crow Wetland, please join the Coalition.
To donate to the legal fund, send a check made out to Coalition to Save Old Crow Wetland to: Coalition to Save Old Crow Wetland, P.O. Box 7, Huntingdon PA 16652, or donate to fundrazr.com/saveoldcrow Any donation would be much appreciated.
Of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, Blair, at the core of our Audubon chapter’s area, is ranked 46 all-time in number of bird species recorded. We’ve logged 259 species so far, 38 above Sullivan County, Pennsylvania’s lowest, but 96 less than Lancaster County, number one in the state.
This year, I set out to see if it was possible to detect at least 200 species in a single hotspot – in this case, Plummer’s Hollow, at the northern end of Blair County. I used every means at my disposal, including a nocturnal flight call recorder, and managed to count 202 species (pending continuing flight call analysis that may swell the total). One of the things I learned was that knowing how to detect birds (I call it “intercepting” them) is a large part of what we think of as “species richness.” Location, habitat quality and diversity, and observer effort are also critically important, but it’s amazing how many species are missed just because someone isn’t in the right place at the right time. We probably missed Sandhill Crane, or Swallow-tailed Kite, or you-name-it this year because someone didn’t glance up at just the right moment in just the right location.
While I like to think that Plummer’s Hollow is special, I suspect that virtually every Pennsylvania natural area with varied habitat and a few hundred acres of woods and fields could turn up similar hotspot top-ten numbers on a yearly basis. The problem is how hard it is to detect some birds unless someone is onsite 24/7. I can’t imagine how many rarities escape notice on our many local ponds and lakes, or even muddy fields, for example. Often, waterfowl and waders land in the night, spend a few hours in the morning, and they’re off again. How many of these completely escape detection? How many of the rarities that non-birders see ever get noted or reported to birders?
WE ARE! (#20)
In 2023, Blair County cracked the top 20 in the state, in a five-way county tie of 223 species for the year. This is a substantially higher county rank than in the past and based on far less eBird checklists than the counties occupying one through 19. This 253-and-counting list is probably still dozens shy of the “true number” (total species present in the skies and/or on the ground at some point during the year) but is nevertheless a testament to the couple dozen casual and, well, fanatical birders who have focused more effort on Blair this year than ever before.
NIGHT WATCH
Blair added six species to its all-time list in 2023. They were the Painted Bunting on April 22, photographed at a feeder near the Juniata Valley Church, and five nocturnal migrants over Plummer’s Hollow: Common Gallinule (4/15); Whimbrel (5/22 and after); Ruddy Turnstone (5/27); Short-billed Dowitcher (7/1 and after); Upland Sandpiper (8/9). Now, there are naysayers who may doubt the importance of birds that fly over at night, but I think nocturnal migrants are equally as important as those that fly over during the day, such as raptors. Whether they land here or not, nest here or not—they are still within our territory. We don’t own them, for sure, but we are their stewards as long as they are here. And whether we know it or not, they—particularly the night-flying ones—face some pretty large obstacles. Take the tens of thousands of Swainson’s Thrushes, Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Hermit Thrushes, and Veeries that stream north in the spring and south in the fall. On certain September dawns, I sit in a field on top of Plummer’s Hollow, awash in the overlapping peeps of thousands of thrushes as they descend to the forests all around to rest and feed for the day. One day, it occurred to me that, minutes earlier, they may have had to thread the massive wind towers of Sandy Ridge, directly to the north, as they exited the Appalachian Plateau airspace and entered the Ridge and Valley Province. (Or, perhaps, they’ve learned to avoid those obstacles?) I’m happy that we’ve kept much of our part of their flyway free of obstacles, and also that we entice them and hundreds of other species with ample opportunities to spend a day, a week, or a season.
To paraphrase the great Eddie Kendricks, KEEP ON BIRDIN’!
It is with a heavy heart that I acknowledge the deaths of hundreds of millions of my friends in 2023. I’m talking about the toll that buildings take on birds worldwide, each and every year.
This year, Chicago once again earned its moniker as the deadliest city for bird strikes. On the morning of October 5th, residents of the Windy City were awakened by the flight calls of millions of warblers and other migrants. Birders descended on the parks along Lake Michigan and recorded the amazing spectacle of hundreds of thousands of warblers threading their way through the wilderness of steel, glass, and concrete. For more details on what a fallout of this magnitude looks like, see Marky Mutchler’s account and videos on eBird.
While most of the birds were able to make it through, untold thousands did not, and accounts tell of their corpses littering the streets and sidewalks.
To quote Mutchler: “TURN YOUR LIGHTS OFF”
It can be hard to fathom the sheer magnitude of what is transpiring in the night sky above our communities. On certain nights, particularly in May, September, and October, tens of millions of birds are on the move. If they become bottled up by stagnant weather for a while, they may surge forward on the next north wind, as apparently happened in Chicago this year.
This dead warbler (fall plumage) is a tragedy that could have been prevented
if the homeowners had treated their kitchen storm door to prevent bird kills.
It’s not just the tall buildings that represent danger to birds. It’s also all the light we humans generate. And in the daytime, it’s also the reflective glass panes that turn so many central business districts into giant funhouse mirror landscapes.
By night or by day, our iconic skylines are their killing fields.
To a lesser extent, these risks all exist in rural central Pennsylvania, in every mirror-like pane, every light left on needlessly at night, every churning turbine (I’ll have more on this last bit in a future comment).
Editor’s Note: Buildings two or three stories high kill more birds than tall buildings. Your home could very well be a death-trap for birds. Even if birds hit your window and fly away, chances are the injury is fatal and birds will die soon after they hit the window.
What can you do? Add Acopian Bird Savers (aka Zen Curtains) or purchase Feather Friendly dots. You can make your own Acopian Bird Savers™ or buy a kit designed for your window:
