Hello First name / VFAS Member,

Summer is in full swing! We at VFAS hope you are embracing the warmth of the sun, the whispers of the breeze, and the symphony of birdsong this summer. We wish our fellow nature enthusiasts in southeastern Pennsylvania a season filled with captivating sightings, serene moments, and endless discoveries in the great outdoors- perhaps at one of our programs? 😉

 

As always, thank you for your interest in your local Audubon chapter, we hope to see you at a program soon!

It may be hot and humid out, but the birds don't care! We at VFAS continue to run events all summer long. You can always find the most complete schedule of upcoming events on our website or through our Meetup profile. Some upcoming events we are looking forward to include the continuation of our Chesco Parks Birding Series, our monthly hike at Ridley Creek SP, and our annual meeting at the John James Audubon Center. We hope to see you this summer!

 

 

 

 

OUR FIRST NATIVE PLANT SALE WAS A SUCCESS!

Valley Forge Audubon Society held their first ever native plant sale on April 28th! Since this was our first event of this type, we were not sure what to expect.  We had hundreds of purchased and donated plants, but we wondered - Would we have too many plants? What would we do with the leftover plants? Would anyone come?  Our concerns proved to be unfounded. 

 

We were pleasantly surprised at the great community turnout.  Almost 90% of the plants, trees, and shrubs were gone within the first hour!  We did not price the plants but asked for donations to fund future events. Thank you for your generosity in supporting us and your enthusiasm for native plants and for helping the birds and pollinators. Thanks to our partners - the Lower Providence Bird Town Committee and the Mid-Atlantic Carnivorous Plant Society – for their help in making this event such a success!

 

 

We won! The National Guard Bureau, Joint Base Andrews, MD, had proposed reducing the minimum height requirement for military training flights in part of the PA Wilds from 8000 feet to 100 feet. The PA Wilds contain the greatest concentration of public lands in Pennsylvania and low flying planes could have caused great harm to birds.

 

Many organizations, recreation planners, state agencies, and residents opposed this proposed change, including Audubon Mid-Atlantic. On May 10, 2023, VFAS submitted a comment (edited from a draft prepared by Audubon Mid-Atlantic) to the National Guard Bureau, Joint Base Andrews, MD, taking a stand against the proposal. The voices of opposition got the attention of Pennsylvania’s US Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman, who worked against implementation of the proposal. On May 3, 2024, Senators Casey and Fetterman announced that the Air Force and National Guard Bureau had rescinded their proposal, a victory for birds in the PA Wilds.

 

kestrel banding at brightside farm park

This description of the kestrel banding was written by "Cassia the Nest Finder".

 

My mom and I saw a large crowd of people when we arrived at Brightside Farm Park.  We got out of the car and wove through the crowd until we found Dan Mummert (Wildlife Diversity Biologist for the PA Game Commission) and Patty Werth (mentor to the Valley Forge Audubon Society Youth Birding Club).  Dan talked about how important meadows are.  Meadows are an important home and food source for small animals and insects.  The voles, mice, and insects that the meadow feeds in turn feed the kestrels and other birds as well. However, even though meadows are so important, they are declining like the kestrels.  New housing developments take a lot of meadows.

 

Brightside Farm Park is one of the parks helping to bring back the kestrels.  Brightside Farm Park has many meadows with kestrel boxes. Earlier I had found my friend Lulu (another VFAS Youth Birder) and we watched while Dan went to the nest box maybe fifteen yards away.  Once Dan opened the box, we couldn’t see how many chicks he put in his bag; he was on the opposite side of the box.  We followed Dan back to a table where he took out the first chick.

 

The first chick, a male, was about two weeks old, his feathers were just barely coming in. Dan then weighed the chick and the chick was banded.  It was like a metal bracelet. The kestrel’s legs would not grow much bigger, so the band wouldn’t break. The next two chicks were both males too. None of their feathers were full grown. The last chick was a female. All weighed about 100 grams and were pretty healthy. All four kestrels were banded with their little bracelets.  Each band had a different number and letter on them. The parents were flying around the entire time.  How you can tell if a kestrel is male or female is that the female's wing feathers are a brownish-red color while males are more blueish gray.  Dan had also removed an egg from the nest that wouldn’t hatch so that the mother kestrel wouldn’t waste energy trying to incubate it. Then the banding was done.

 

My mom and I went on a walk and saw Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows, a baby groundhog, and an Eastern Meadowlark, showing just how important meadows are.  We also saw a new house being built.  Help keep our meadows safe!  The Kestrels will thank you!  As will all the other wildlife that need meadows for survival.

 

 All birds were handled and banded for research purposes under state and federal permits. American kestrels are listed as a Pennsylvania Species of Greatest Conservation Need according to the current PA Wildlife Action Plan.

Drawing of a kestrel nestling during banding by “LuLu the Wise”.

Cassia and Lulu are both members of Valley Forge Audubon Society's Youth Birding Club, which was created to connect young birders (ages 9-18) to each other. The Club provides mentors, field trips, and educational experiences designed to foster the young members' passion for birds and birding, wildlife conservation, and the natural world. 

Valley Forge Audubon Society Outreach: Birding is for Everybody!

Birding and birdwatching really is for all ages, all abilities, and all levels of experience (including those who say they “just love nature”)!  That “come enjoy the birds” message is one of the invitations shared enthusiastically by team members of the VFAS Volunteer Outreach Committee at various municipal “Community Day” events in the spring and fall.

 

Outreach Committee members shared that message this April with more than 160 people who visited our booth at the Upper Uwchlan Township 3rd annual Earth Day Celebration or at the Sheep and Wool Day at Springton Manor Farm in Glenmoore.

 

Members of the VFAS Outreach Terrific Table Team (T3) - Peggy Gillin, Karen Clayton, and Outreach Committee Co-chairs Marya Kaye and Lynn Sowden - staffed both events, answering questions and offering information about birds, the environment, and our many VFAS upcoming programs and events.

 

A highlight at the events was enjoying (and okay, sometimes helping a little) the more than 85 people who played our “Delaware Valley Bird I.D. Game”, challenging themselves to match photos of common local birds with the correct bird species name. Participants ranged from about age 7 up to about age “we-will-never-tell”.   All players received loud cheers for testing their knowledge, with winners receiving a packet of high-quality wild bird seed donated by Wild Birds Unlimited in Collegeville. Many who stopped by admired the bird photography (“gorgeous photos!”), supplied for the game by Outreach Committee volunteer and photographer Barbara Holland.

 

We hope to see you August 18th at our VFAS Annual Meeting, or at a community day in the Fall, to play the game yourself! Come try your skill at identifying some of the beautiful local birds— you may know more than you think!

Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science. Despite this, a few species—including some surprisingly common songbirds, hawks, sandpipers, and more—managed to evade discovery for years. Here, renowned bird expert and artist Kenn Kaufman explores this period in history from a new angle, by considering the birds these people discovered and, especially, the ones they missed.

 

A compelling global exploration of nature and survival as seen via a dozen species of trees that represent the challenges facing our planet, and the ways that scientists are working urgently to save our forests and our future. In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis, travels the world to learn about these trees in their habitats.

 

The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.

 

Matthew Papuchis didn’t set out to be a birder, but birds would end up playing a major role in his life. In the spring of 2020, Papuchis lost his job. Suddenly he had a lot more free time than he was accustomed to. This is when he started to notice and learn from all the wonderful bird species that had been around him the whole time. A Little Birdie Told Me isn’t just about birds. It’s about going through hard times while keeping a positive outlook on things.

 

In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: 52 chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.

 

It’s a well-known fact that plastics have a negative effect on the environment, and have become one of the most pressing environmental issues.  Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans, killing millions of animals, including birds, fish, and other marine organisms.

 

Nearly every species of seabird is plagued by plastic; however, the Flesh-footed Shearwater species are the most plastic contaminated birds on the planet.  Flesh-footed Shearwaters live on the island of Lord Howe, which is off the eastern coast of Australia.  New research has revealed that the large amounts of plastics ingested by these birds result in severe stomach damage.  Known as Plasticosis, this new disease underscores the impact of plastic pollution.

 

Why are birds eating so much plastic? Click below to continue reading . . .