Spring is an exciting time for birders. The arrival of migrating ducks and other waterfowl in March sets the stage for the arrival, beginning in mid-to-late Apr
The First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania will host an Earth Day Celebration at Rider Park on April 22. According to a news release, three ac
Veryl Frye passed away 2021-5-17 in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. This is the full obituary story where you can express condolences and share memories. Services by Yost-Gedon Funeral Home.
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PHOTO PROVIDED
This is the 1930 photograph which enraged Rosalie Edge and led to her purchase of the land now known as Hawk Mountain. It is used with permission of the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association (https://www.hawkmountain.org/)
The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary near Kempton is well-known to bird watchers, and especially those who enjoy birds of prey (raptors).
A new book review recently stirred my interest in learning more about the creation of the sanctuary. The popular raptor migration viewing site has existed for nearly 90 years, yet many people know little about the feisty woman who made it all possible. And not only did she enable the creation of the sanctuary, she also challenged, and eventually changed, the raptor protection policies of the Audubon Society.
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TOM MURRAY/Special to the Sun-Gazette
An Easter Whip-poor-will sits on a branch. The coloring of an EWPW makes it difficult for people to see, but its call of its own name is quite distinctive.
There is an enigmatic bird in our region which likes to be heard but not seen. It chants its song into the darkness of spring and summer evenings then spends the daylight hours sitting motionless in the forest, camouflaged by the grays and browns of leaf litter and tree bark.
A member of the Nightjar family of birds, it is the Eastern Whip-poor-will (antrostomus vociferus), and I, perhaps like some of you, have heard but never seen one. It is a grayish-brown bird, medium-sized and a bit bigger than a robin with large, dark-brown to blackish eyes. The only other local bird in the same family is the common nighthawk, and the populations of both birds are in steep decline in Pennsylvania.