Bulletin Board

Hills Creek State Park's annual spring bird walks, which are sponsored by DCNR and led by Tiadaghton Audubon Society volunteers, will continue through the month of May on Saturday mornings at 7:30 AM (meet at the park office). The bird walks are free, and everyone interested in birds is welcome. With migration in full swing now, there are a lot of birds to see. Wood ducks and green herons frequently fly over the lake, ospreys and bald eagles often come in for a visit, and one can almost always count on seeing a barred owl near the campground.

The May meeting will be a picnic at Hills Creek State Park at noon, Saturday May 10, as part of the annual Spring PA Migratory Bird Count. No registration or signup is required. Simply go out anywhere you want in Tioga County and record the species and number of birds you see (keeping track of hours spent and miles walked or driven). Bring your list to the park around noon to Pavilion No 1 in the picnic area on the right side of the road right after you cross the bridge into the park.

Early May Bird Sightings. Warblers are beginning to show up in large numbers now. Hills Creek State Park seems to be filled with yellow-rumps, and black-throated greens can be heard high up in the trees. Ovenbirds are here as well as yellow warblers and common yellow throats. The waterfowl migration is pretty much over, but an occasional commomn loon or horned grebe may be found in the lakes. Backyard birders are beginning to see house wrens, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and white-throated sparrows. Not many hummingbird reports yet.

Bald eagles are confirmed nesting in three places: Hammond Lake, Darling Run Access to the Pine Creek Rail Trail, and about 4.5 miles north of Blackwell on the rail trail. Ospreys have also been seen on the nesting platforms on Crooked Creek near Hammond Lake, and a second nest is "under construction" on the poles near the admin buildings at Ives Run. You can watch the ospreys at work on the right hand side right after you cross the bridge into the Ives Run Recreation Area. (GT)

Please check out the sightings page for information on other recent sightings in our area.

The Friends of the Allegheny Wilderness, an organization that seeks to foster an appreciation of wilderness values and benefits and works with local communities to ensure increased protection for Allegheny National Forest, will be holding a 3-day training conference April 11-13 at Parker Dam State Park in Clearfield County. Please come and see what you can do to help preserve the national forest's remaining wilderness areas. More information is available in their December 2007 newsletter, available here.

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Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy. One of the great things about living in Tioga County is its abundance of natural lands, and the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy is one of the key organizations in our area trying to keep things that way. If you missed Rene Carey's presentation at the February meeting, you may want to visit the NPC's website, where you can read about the NPC's accomplishments in our area and see some of the areas it has helped protect. Unlike the Nature Conservancy. the NPC does not own land, but helps landowners protect their land while continuing to use it for productive purposes. NPC programs allow properties to be managed as working forests to provide resources, jobs, and recreation for families and as working farms that produce food for the immediate and surrounding communities. If you own land (even if only a few key acres) that you would like to see protected or are just interested in keeping Tioga county a land of farms, nature, and wildlife, please take a look at the NPC's website.

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If you have a wildlife photograph you would like to share, please consider submitting it for our new Photo Gallery. We only ask that it be taken in Tioga or Potter County and be of reasonably good quality. More megapixels (higher resolution) are better so the photo can be cropped and sharpened and contrast adjusted if necessary.

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Meetings

Meetings are held September through May on the third Wednesday of each month at the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center on 134 Main Street next to the Green Free Library in Wellsboro. A board meeting takes place at 6:30, and the general meeting is at 7:30; all are welcome.

(Updated 4 April 2008.)

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Photo policy: Photos taken by the webmaster (Gary Tyson) and unattributed photos may be used for non-commercial purposes without permission; however, please credit the photographer and TAS. Please contact us before using photos taken by other persons. In most cases, permission for further use will be given.

Thanks to Wayne C. Sierer for the new raven logo.