Lehigh Valley bird sightings for June 26

Mute Swan

Here are the Lehigh Valley bird sightings for the week ended June 26. The list was compiled by The Bird House from data collected by E-bird, the online bird-sighting reporting service.

Hugh Moore Park, Northampton County
Baltimore Oriole, 2 on June 26.

Easton, Northampton County
(on North Delaware Drive)
Warbling Vireo, 2 on June 26.
Also seen: Baltimore Oriole.

Monocacy Nature Center, Northampton County
Mute Swan, 1 on June 26.
Also seen: Warbling Vireo and Baltimore Oriole.

Bethlehem Township, Northampton County
(at the Emrick Boulevard retention pond)
Spotted Sandpiper, 5 on June 25.

Housenick Memorial Park, Northampton County
Brown Thrasher, 2 on June 25.
Pine Warbler, 2 on June 25.
Also seen: Indigo Bunting.

American Redstart

Covered Bridge Road, Northampton County
Black-crowned Night Heron, 1 on June 24.
Brown Thrasher, 2 on June 24.
Orchard Oriole, 1 on June 24.

Bangor, Northampton County
(at Valley View Drive)
American Redstart, 1 on June 24.
Also seen: Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting.

Moore Township, Northampton County
(at Cigar Road)
Scarlet Tanager, 1 on June 22.

(at Schlegel Road)
Horned Lark, 2 on June 19.
Vesper Sparrow, 1 on June 19.

Martins Creek Environmental Preserve, Northampton County
Double-crested Cormorant, 2 on June 19.
Osprey, 5 (including 2 chicks and 2 adults at nest site) on June 19.
Willow Flycatcher, 2 on June 19.
Yellow-breasted Chat, 1 on June 19.
Also seen: Indigo Bunting, and Orchard and Baltimore orioles.

Savannah Sparrow

Bear Swamp Park, Northampton County
American Woodcock, 2 on June 19.
Mute Swan, 1 on June 19.
Osprey, 1 on June 19.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 2 on June 19.
Louisiana Waterthrush, 1 on June 19.
Blue-winged Warbler, 1 on June 19.
Prothonotary Warbler, 1 on June 19.
Yellow Warbler, 4 on June 19.
Also seen: Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Graver's Hill, Northampton County
Horned Lark, 4 on June 19.
Grasshopper Sparrow, 3 on June 19.
Savannah Sparrow, 2 on June 19.
Also seen: Eastern Bluebird.

Little Gap Hawk Watch, Northampton County
Eastern Whip-poor-will, 1 on June 18.
Worm-eating Warbler, 1 on June 18.
Black-and-white Warbler, 1 on June 18.
Also seen: Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting.


Allentown, Lehigh County
(just west of Interstate 78)
Common Nighthawk, 1 on June 23.

Catasauqua, Lehigh County
(at Gethsemane Cemetery)
Grasshopper Sparrow, 1 on June 26.

Common Nighthawk

Leaser Lake, Lehigh County
Mute Swan, 1 on June 18; 1 on June 19; 1 on June 25.
Bald Eagle, 1 on June 18.
American Kestrel, 2 on June 25.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 2 on June 25.
Black-billed Cuckoo, 1 on June 18.
Willow Flycatcher, 3 on June 18.
Brown Thrasher, 14 on June 25 (3 solitary birds, 3 pairs, and one group of 5, including a juvenile).
Yellow Warbler, 2 on June 18; 2 on June 25.
Pine Warbler, 1 on June 25.
Black-and-white Warbler, 1 on June 25.
Yellow-breasted Chat, 1 on June 25.
Grasshopper Sparrow, 1 on June 25.
Savannah Sparrow, 1 on June 25.
Also seen: Purple Martin, Eastern Bluebird, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting, and Orchard and Baltimore orioles.

Willow Flycatcher

Hanover Canal Park, Lehigh County
(Catasauqua Lake)
Yellow Warbler, 1 on June 25.
Also seen: Baltimore Oriole.

Trexler Nature Preserve, Lehigh County
American Kestrel, 2 on June 24.
Brown Thrasher, 6 on June 24.
Northern Parula, 1 on June 25
Yellow Warbler, 4 on June 24.
Also seen: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Yellow-throated Vireo, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Bluebird, and Orchard and Baltimore orioles.

State Game Lanes 205, Lehigh County
American Kestrel, 3 on June 25.
Blue Grosbeak, 1 (a male) on June 25 along Warren Road.
Also seen: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, White-eyed Vireo, Indigo Bunting.

Lake Muhlenberg, Lehigh County
Mute Swan, 1 on June 24.

Ironton Rail Trail, Lehigh County
Baltimore Oriole, 1 on June 19.

Alburtis, Lehigh County
(at Smith Lane)
Horned Lark, 2 on June 18.
Yellow Warbler, 1 on June 18.
Savannah Sparrow, 2 on June 18.

Blackpoll Warbler

Penn Forest Reservoir, Carbon County
(at Hell Hollow Road)
Common Loon, 1 on June 20.
Ruffed Grouse, 1 on June 24.
Black-and-white Warbler, 6 on June 24.
Black-throated Blue Warbler, 3 on June 20.
Blackpoll Warbler, 1 on June 20.
Pine Warbler, 1 on June 20.
Hooded Warbler, 2 on June 20; 2 on June 24.
Also seen: Yellow-throated Vireo.

Wild Creek Reservoir, Carbon County
Black-throated Green Warbler, 1 on June 21.
Also seen: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Indigo Bunting.

Beltzville State Park, Carbon County
Brown Thrasher, 1 on June 20.

Green Lane Park, Montgomery County
Killdeer, 13 on June 23.
Orchard Oriole, 2 on June 23.

Green Lane Reservoir, Montgomery County
(at Church Road)
Osprey, 1 on June 23.
American Kestrel, 1 on June 23.
Yellow Warbler, 4 on June 23.
Also seen: Baltimore Oriole.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

(at Walt Road)
Mute Swan, 3 on June 23.
Also seen: Eastern Bluebird.

Peace Valley Park, Bucks County
Bald Eagle, 1 on June 18; 1 on June 25; and 1 on June 26.
Osprey, 2 on June 25 and 3 on June 26.
American Kestrel, 1 on June 26.
Ring-billed Gull, 2 on June 23.
Blue-winged Warbler, 1 on June 26.
Prothonotary Warbler, 1 on June 23.
Yellow Warbler, 17 on June 18; 3 on June 23; 6 on June 25; and 5 on June 26.
Also seen: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Willow Flycatcher, Eastern Bluebird, Indigo Bunting, and Orchard and Baltimore orioles.

Nockamixon State Park, Bucks County
Wild Turkey, 1 on June 24.
Great Egret, 2 on June 19.
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, 1 on June 19.
Double-crested Cormorant, 1 on June 24.
Louisiana Waterthrush, 2 on June 24.
Prairie Warbler, 1 on June 24.
Also seen: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole.

New Products: Mosquito candles and sticks

It's that time of year when you'd like to enjoy birdwatching from your patio. Unfortunately it's also the time when pesky mosquitoes are a nuisance. Two products may keep mosquitoes at bay.

Mosquito Candles and Mosquito Sticks are made of 100 percent natural materials that mosquitoes find repellant. They include five ingredients: citronella oil, lemongrass oil, rosemary oil, cedar oil and peppermint oil. Purely natural. No manmade chemicals like DEET.

The candles and sticks are formulated with significantly more repellant oils than other naturally based products. The scent of the oils is pleasing—especially when you consider their value.

The Mosquito Candles burn for 24 to 30 hours. They can be snuffed out when you want to go inside for the rest of the day. Relight the candle the next time you spend time outdoors. 

One can of Mosquito Sticks contains 12 sticks. They are ideal for placing around the perimeter of the patio or garden.

Both products are made in the United States.

Give them a try! Before buying a candle, a friend reported he was bitten several times—and had to swat a lot—in just an hour outdoors. He suffered no mosquito bites when he used the Mosquito Candle the next day. 

Enjoy a bite-free environment!

Lehigh Valley bird sightings for June 18

Ruddy Duck (male)

Here are the Lehigh Valley bird sightings for the week of June 18. The list was compiled by Dave DeReamus, of the Eastern PA Birdline, which is sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society.

Saylorsburg, Monroe County
Pine Siskins, 3 on June 3.

Lower Nazareth Township, Northampton County
(at the Glemar Road retention ponds)
Ruddy Duck, 1 on June 11.

Williams Township, Northampton County
Mississippi Kite, 1 on June 5

Bethlehem Township, Northampton County
Peregine Falcon 1 on June 16.

Wild Creek Reservoir, Carbon County
Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1 to at least June 3.

Green Lane Reservoir, Montgomery County
(at the Church Road area)
Alder Flycatcher, 1 to at least June 8.

Peace Valley Park, Bucks County
Prothonotary Warbler, 1 to at least June 12.

To report bird sightings to Dave DeReamus, send an e-mail to becard@rcn.com with the word "Birdline" in the subject heading.

New Products: Aggregate concrete baths

The Modern

Made in Michigan, these new baths are hefty and durable. They are made of pebbles mixed into a concrete aggregate, then sprayed with a finish of special blended colors that will sparkle in the sunlight.

Three models are available: 

• The Modern, which features a sleek column topped by an amply-sized bowl for birds to bathe and drink.
• The Brute, with a powerful pedestal. The bowl is still strong but it's also shallow, enabling even the tiniest of birds to splash comfortably.
• The Superior, which evokes the fluted style of ancient Greek temples. The bath is tall and the bowl elegant.

Anyone of them would be an appealing choice for a natural-look to backyard. The birds will enjoy them too!

Products sold at The Bird House may be available for a limited time, so hurry in!

House Wren

A plain brown bird with an "effervescent" voice, the House Wren is a common backyard bird seen over almost all of the Western Hemisphere.

The House Wren is small and compact with a flat head and long curved beak. It has short wings and the tail is often held cocked above or slightly drooped from the body line.

The bird is a subdued brown with darker barring on the wings and tail. The pale eyebrow that is characteristic of wrens is quite pale in the House Wren.

House Wrens are very energetic and you may often see them hopping quickly through bushes pausing to sing their songs. They are found in open forests and forest edges, as well as backyards.

The House Wren has one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the New World. It breeds from Canada through the West Indies and Central America, and southward to the southernmost point of South America.

Twigs make up most of the nest

House Wrens pile twigs into cavities to make a bed on which to build a soft cup lined with a few feathers, grasses, animal hair, snakeskin or string. Despite their small size, they are fierce competitors, often evicting larger birds, dragging eggs or young chicks out of a nest and sometimes even killing the adult birds. House Wrens are the main source of nest failure for bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Prothonotary Warblers and chickadees.

Nests in tree cavities or nest boxes can become infested with mites and other parasites. Wrens will often add spider egg sacs to their nesting materials. Once the spiders hatch, they help the wrens by devouring the nest parasites.

The House Wren's diet consists of spiders, beetles, caterpillars, earwigs, daddy longlegs, flies, leafhoppers and springtails. They will sometimes eat small snail shells for the calcium and grit.

As with many birds, you may hear a wren before you see it. The long song may be hard to learn because the notes are nondescript and because there is so much of it! It is loud and insistent, making it hard to believe that such a little bird is making all that noise.

Cattle Egret

Male Cattle Egret in breeding plumage

The Cattle Egret, a stocky heron that usually isn't seen these days in the Lehigh Valley, was spotted twice in Northampton County last week. 

One sighting was reported at the Silver Creek retention pond in Bath on May 29. A second was reported at Seiple's Pond in nearby East Allen Township, also on May 29. Dave DeReamus, of the Eastern PA Birdline, said it's likely that the two sightings were of the same bird.

Native to Africa, the Cattle Egret has undergone one of the fastest and wide-ranging expansion of any bird species. For untold centuries they have been hopping behind the feet of elephants, zebra, rhinos and gazelle, foraging for insects that are stirred up in the grass. They also ride the backs of large grazing mammals, picking and consuming ticks and flies.

Somehow a few birds crossed the Southern Atlantic Ocean to the Guianas (the present-day countries of Guyana and Suriname) in the late 19th century. By the 1930s they had established colonies there. The first sightings in the United States occurred in 1941. By the 1960s the species was flourishing in croplands and pastures. Within a decade colonies reached Canada.

Cattle Egrets follow herds of North American cattle, much as the large land grazers of Africa do. Grasshoppers, crickets and flies form a major part of the Cattle Egret's diet. The birds also take advantage of farm machinery as it churns up ground that harbors insects, larvae, maggots, earthworms and snakes. When smoke is seen coming from a field, Cattle Egrets fly toward the fire, consuming insects as they flee. The birds supplement their diet with moths, frogs, fish and sometimes the eggs of other birds. 

Spread of Cattle Egrets in 20th Century

"Their rapid spread stems from versatile feeding and breeding abilities, an aptitude for dispersing to new areas, and a changing landscape: they gained foraging habitat as people converted land for livestock production and crops," the Cornell Lab of Ornithology observes.

Cattle Egrets are smaller and more compact than other heron species. Their legs are shorter, their necks shorter and thicker, and their bill daggerlike but short. 

Their habitat differs as well. They are less likely to be seen in water than other herons. Instead they are apt to be seen on farms, in pastures and plowed fields, near marshes and wetlands, and even along roadsides.

Cattle Egrets form colonies for breeding, often intermingling with other herons. The male establishes the nesting site but the female usually does the building. The nests, located in marshland or in trees beneath streams, are shallow bowls of sticks, twigs and vines lined with soft plants. The female lays three to four eggs (but occasionally as many as nine). The young begin to fly in 25 to 30 days and are fully independent 45 days after birth.

In the northern United States, Cattle Egrets migrate during the autumn and spend their winters in the Deep South where temperatures rarely fall below 40 degrees and food remains abundant. However a few birds have wintered along coastal waters as far north at Rhode Island.

Cattle Egrets do not have many predators, except for mammals and birds who raid their nests for eggs. Animals that have been known to prey on adult Cattle Egrets are Red-tailed Hawks, red foxes and bobcats.

The National Audubon Society ranks the Cattle Heron, a newcomer to North America, as a species of "least concern" for population decline.

That is not so in the Lehigh Valley, however. The first documented sighting of a Cattle Heron occurred in May 1960 at Spring Creek. Ironically, although the birds continued to spread across the United States, reported sightings in the Lehigh Valley have become rare, according to Birds of the Lehigh Valley and Vicinity, the authoritative guidebook of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society.

Could it be that Cattle Herons are uncommon here because so many farms have been converted into office and industrial parks, suburban housing and shopping malls?

Lehigh Valley bird sightings for June

Wilson's Phalarope (male, breeding plumage)

Here are the Lehigh Valley bird sightings for the week ended June 4. The list was compiled by Dave DeReamus, of the Eastern PA Birdline, which is sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society.

Saylorsburg, Monroe County
Pine Siskin, 2 to at least June 2. (Pine Siskins are wintertime visitors to our area. It's extremely rare that these two siskins have not migrated to Canada by now.)

Bear Swamp, Northampton County
Prothonotary Warbler, 1 on May 28.

Jacobsburg State Park, Northampton County
Lincoln's Sparrow, 1 on May 26.

Bethlehem Township, Northampton County
(at the retention pond of the St. Luke's Anderson Campus)
Wilson's Phalarope, 1 on May 30.

Bethlehem, Northampton County
Peregrine Falcon, 2 on May 31.

Bath, Northampton County
(at the Silver Creek Road retention pond)
Cattle Egret, 1 on May 29.

East Allen Township, Northampton County
(at Seiple's Pond)
Cattle Egret, 1 on May 29 (likely the same bird as seen in Bath).

Wild Creek Reservoir area, Carbon County
Olive-sided Flycatcher, 1 to at least June 2.

Pool Wildlife Sanctuary, Lehigh County
Gray-cheeked Thrush, 1 on May 27.

Green Lane Reservoir, Montgomery County
(at the Church Road area)
Ruddy Duck, 2 on June 1.
Alder Flycatcher, 1 to at least June 1.

Peace Valley Park, Bucks County
Prothonotary Warbler, 1 to at least June 2.
Common Gallinule, 1 from May 13 to at least May 28 (near the Chapman Road bridge).

To report bird sightings to Dave DeReamus, send an e-mail to becard@rcn.com with the word "Birdline" in the subject heading.

Look for grosbeaks at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center

The Lehigh Valley Audubon Society is sponsoring a field trip to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center on Saturday, June 11. Meet at the nature center's parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Scott Burnet will lead the trip. 

The Lehigh Gap Nature Center is the home of a variety of local breeding birds. Blue Grosbeaks have nested in the area in recent years. Keep an eye out for them!

For details, visit the Audubon Society's website and click on the "Events Calendar" link.