FEATHERS in our CAP
Three of the best birding spots listed in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s top 100 are in Berks County.
It’s no secret that Berks County has some prime bird-watching locations, thanks to its observant birding community. A list from the Pennsylvania Game Commission of the 100 Best Birding Locations highlights three.
For more information, check out Scott Weidensaul’s 2009 guide to birding in Eastern Pennsylvania and Audubon Pennsylvania.
Blue Marsh Lake, Bern Township
Blue Marsh has been designated an Important Bird Area by Audubon Pennsylvania. Located along the flyway of many migratory waterfowl and songbirds, Blue Marsh is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a flood control area resulting in 1,150-acre manmade lake.
The lake adjoins 7,000 acres of State Game Land 280, a quarter of which is forest or woodlands. There are also grassland species such as the barn owl and field sparrow that enjoy the habitat in warm weather.
Some of the birds spotted in January and February in the last two years, according to accounts on ebird.org, include ring-billed gull, red-bellied woodpecker, Carolina chickadee, bald eagle, tundra swan, merlin, snow goose and darkeyed junco.
The lake is fed by the Tulpehocken Creek, which drains a 175-square-mile area west of the site. The site also has warm season grass plantings that provide high quality habitat for barn owls and field sparrows.
Lake Ontelaunee, Ontelaunee Township
A pink-footed goose sighting in Berks became part of a book and a movie, as recounted in Bill Uhrich’s punny column in 2011, but there is much more for the novice and veteran to discover here.
Scott Weidensaul’s 2009 guide to Eastern Pennsylvania birding
notes that winter is a good season to look for geese, ducks and gulls.
He said long-tailed duck, common goldeneye, bufflehead, all three species of mergansers, redhead and canvasback are possible.
Lake Ontelaunee was formed by damming of Maiden Creek, resulting in this 1,080-acre lake. It is the main water supply for Reading.
Located between the Kittatinny Ridge and the Schuylkill River, it is a stopover point in spring and fall for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. About 300 bird species have been recorded at Lake Ontelaunee.
Thousands of snow geese at one time have stopped on the lake, and more than 500 northern pintail have been sighted. Pied-billed grebe is a common migrant, too.
Hawk Mountain, Albany Township
You can’t have a best list in Pennsylvania without this worldrenowned hawk-watching site.
Audubon Pennsylvania calls it one of the best in the East along the “premier raptor migration corridor in the northeastern United States.”
Situated on the Kittatinny Ridge, the ridge funnels thousands of southbound migrants. Audubon says other species in addition to raptors migrate through, including ruby-throated hummingbirds and monarch butterflies.
The ridge is covered with second-growth deciduous forest. The valleys on either side are characterized by mixed farmland and small, rural communities.
Hawk Mountain was established in 1934 by Rosalie Edge. She bought 1,450 acres on the mountain to stop the annual slaughter of migrating raptors. The site is considered an Important Bird Area and National Landmark. It now encompasses 2,400 forested acres along the Kittatinny Ridge.