This morning's unseasonably warm day made for the birdiest morning of 2017! Winter birding is generally slow on the Nature Trail at BSES, but today's conditions broke the streak and produced an absolutely spectacular! I hadn't even made it out of the parking lot when I observed Eastern Bluebirds perched in a tree on the lot's perimeter. I even heard them singing their springtime song that they use to attract a mate, and upon my arrival, it seemed the male was doing just that.

Birding this past week in GV has been pretty good! There was quite a bit of bird activity Friday morning on my weekly walk. The list was pretty standard for a Friday walk in February, but there were a lot of active birds moving and even singing! Spring is on the way! Later in the day, I had the opportunity to lead a teacher inservice to instruct district faculty on how to incorporate the nature trail into their classroom. I was so thrilled to have about 30 teachers out on the

The American birding community was in a frenzy recently when a mega-rarity showed up right here in Pennsylvania! The bird is a Black-backed Oriole, a species so rare to the United States that it's not listed in any of the field guides in my classroom! This species is endemic to central Mexico, meaning it is only found in that region of the world. You can see through their eBird species map where they predominately occur. It's mind-boggling that this bird showed up at a feeder

Cold conditions provided a frosty backdrop for this mornings walk! With yesterday's snowfall and day off, the trail was snow covered and icy, but that didn't seem to impact the birds! Birds were very vocal and could be heard from the parking lot singing on the trail before I even arrived. Once at the trailhead, I observed lots of Carolina Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse activity in the treetops. Also, there were steady streams of mixed flocks of blackbirds overhead all morning.

Due to a late arrival for my morning walk (which resulted in me arriving close to my usual time for school), I did not have much time to devote to a real solid effort. I did a brief stroll to tally whatever was out and about, and I ended up with six species. Not bad for a quick run through without binoculars, but I am sure there were other more interesting things lurking in the bushes. I ended up heading onto the trail with my class later that morning as a reward for all the

This year's Nature Exploration for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students was another smashing success! Last year's Nature Exploration brought a snow-covered experience for the students, but this year's conditions were mild and welcoming! We began in the classroom discussing possible bird species we would find and practicing how to hold and use binoculars. Once we were all up to speed, we rushed out to the trail to make the most of our afternoon. Wildlife highlights on the walk inc