Log In

Reset Password

It’s in your nature: April bird arrivals

Published April 18. 2020 07:06AM
by Barry Reed

“April showers bring May flowers.” We’ve heard that many times. But I look at April as the month that starts “bringing new birds.” My bird list from Feb. 1 through the end of March increases slowly by about 10 or 15 birds, but when mid-April arrives, I’m adding two or three new arrivals almost every day.

We have all been ordered/advised to stay at home until April 30, but most of you can practice social distancing and find a small woodlot, pond or hiking trail close by and you may not even need to get in your vehicle. In Lehighton, for example, Baer Memorial Park or the D&L trail near the river may be close by.

Jim Thorpe has a number of options for you to find a small wooded area.

Palmerton, even in Residence Park or the north end of town will find you near some wooded lots or ridges offering birding opportunities.

I’m sure the townships of Mahoning, Franklin, Penn Forest, Lower Towamensing and the Panther Valley all have a nature spot close by.

Over the next week expect to see arriving barn swallows and purple martins. In the woodlots, look for towhees, ruby-crowned kinglets, palm and yellow-rumped warblers, catbirds and brown thrashers. It may be a little early, but if you are still stocking your feeders with sunflower seeds, keep an “eye out” for rose-breasted grosbeaks, which reach our region about this time.

Look skyward for migrating broad-winged hawks, which are making their return from South America. If there is a pond, river or stream nearby, look for ospreys and maybe a green heron or two. No matter where you are, even your backyard, the next week or two will bring back some of your favorites. Get out safely and take your mind off our stressful times.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: True or False, a larch eventually loses its needles by late fall but is still considered a conifer but not an evergreen.

Last Week’s Trivia: True or False, it is true that only a female yellow jackets sting and only female mosquitoes bite you for a blood meal.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.

LEFT: Rose-breasted grosbeaks make their return in mid- to late-April. Look for them high in deciduous trees or at your sunflower seed feeders. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Gone since late September, the ground-feeding rufous-sided towhees make their return now to your backyards and woodlots.
Chipping sparrows, with their light-colored bellies and notched tails, will soon be picking insects from your lawns.
Take advantage of the mostly leafless trees as scarlet tanager males begin arriving at their breeding areas. Listen and look for them usually after April 25 or so.
ABOVE: Look lower, usually on the leafy forest floor for the veery. This thrush species arrives about the same time as the tanagers.
As the chipping sparrows arrive here, the northern juncos will make their last visits to your feeders until early October.
My annual records indicated that barn swallows make their return to our farms about April 15 each year.
A few tree swallow males have arrived by early April but now look for females joining in the search for your nest boxes.
Early morning walkers will first hear the flutelike songs of the wood thrush, then look for them singing from a perch announcing their presence to potential mates.
Our largest woodland flycatcher, the great crested flycatcher, arrives late April. Listen for its rather distinctive “Wheeeeep” call in deciduous woodlots.
If your morning walk takes you to a pond or stream, look for either the solitary sandpiper, on the left, or the spotted sandpiper. Both arrive in this region in mid- to late April.