Bulletin Board

Bird Sightings Early June. Although it seems like summer has barely arrived, many nesting birds have already started to fledge their young and started second broods. Some of the young ones seen already include eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings, and barred owls. Barred-owl fledglings were seen at the conifer grove next to the campground boat landing at Hills Creek State Park. Mallard ducklings are no longer so small, and the Canada goslings are getting as large as their parents, although they have not yet shed their first set of feather. There are also a pair of not-so-small eaglets in the bald-eagle nest visible from the parking area at the Darling Run access to the Pine Creek Rail Trail. Although one last common loon was seen on May 30, during the final Hills Creek SP bird walk of the season (see photo below), it is clear that the spring migration is over and the birds to be seen now are our regular summer residents. Almost every morning, depending on your location, you can hear the singing of red-eyed vireos, alder and willow flycatchers, wood thrushes, veeries, and Baltimore orioles. Incidently, the hanging nests of Baltimore orioles were found on a sycamore overhanging the Railroad Grade Trail at Hammond Lake/Ives Run and over the new section of the Pine Creek Rail Trail within walking distance of the parking lot at the end of Butler's Road near the Rte 6/Rte 287 intersection. The nests are relatively easy to find -- just keep your ears open for the singing adults. Although we tend to think of wood warblers as migratory birds, we have several species that nest here in Tioga County. Of course, you can easily find the abundant yellow warblers, chestnut-sided warblers, and common yellowthroats in almost any brushy area, but a walk in the forested areas at higher elevations can be very rewarding with views of less commonly seen species. For example, a walk around the rim-side trails of Leonard Harrison State Park will often yield black-throated green, black-throated blue, and Blackburnian warblers. Summer is a wonderful time here in northcentral Pennsylvania, and watching birds is an excellent way to get out an enjoy it. (GT)

The Williamsport Sun-Gazette ran a very nice story about the Tiadaghton Audubon Society in the outdoor section of the June-14 Sunday paper. You might find it interesting reading if you can get a copy

Eels and Mussels Program Progress Report. On May 22, 308 eels were released into Pine Creek at the Darling Run access to the Pine Creek Rail Trail. The site selected for the initial release is just up stream of a bed of Elliptio complanata mussels, which are very effective at filtering water, but are endangered because of their inability to reproduce without the help of the eels. Present for the release were about 30 people, including Chuck Dillon, representative of Joseph Scarnati of the Pennsylvania 25th Senatorial District; Mike Glazer, representative of Glenn Thompson, US Congressman from the Pennsylvania 5th Congressional District; representatives of most local environmental groups; TAS volunteers; and, of course, Bill Lellis of the U.S. Geological Survey, who is running the program. Much of the program's funding is thanks to a Collaborative Grant of $1,500 awarded to TAS by PA Audubon for the program. The Williamsport Sun-Gazette has a good article about the release, which you can read here. A larger version of these photos and additional photos are available at the TAS gallery on Flickr (below).

Mussels (Elliptio complanata) are very effective, natural water filters, and one mussel can filter a gallon of water in an hour. Needless to say, the health of the ecosystem of an entire watershed could very well depend on a large and healthy population of these mussels. In our case, a clean Susquehanna watershed would lead to the proliferation of numerous macro invertebrates, which in turn would lead to an increase in the number of animals feeding off of this source of food, including native fish and various species of birds -- the Louisiana Waterthrush, for example. The eels come into the picture because there is a relationship between them and the mussels -- the mussel larvae use the American eel as their primary host in the breeding process. Unfortunately, dams on the lower Susquehanna have prevented the eels from migrating upstream, and this, in turn, has kept the mussels from breeding. As a result there are very few mussels left in the upper Susquehanna watershed, and the ones left of this beneficial species are very old. TAS hopes to improve the situation with this grant.

More eels will be collected for release, and PIT tagging (electronic tag for tracking the eels in Pine Creek after they are released) will take place at the 'fish lab' on an unspecified future date this summer. The eels will then be monitored through October. For more details or if you wish to volunteer for this program, please contact us.

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Gallery

Gallery Instructions: You can watch the gallery slideshow here, but for full-size images, click on Tiadaghton Audubon Photostream/Tiadaghton Audubon's Photos (this will take you to the Flickr site), then click on the slideshow icon in the upper right-hand corner. If the images are too large, click options and uncheck the embiggen box.

If you see a black box or nothing here at all, you will need to download and install Adobe Flash Player. You can get it for Internet Explorer here or for Mozilla Firefox here. This is a simple, free utility, and you can download and install it in less than a minute.

If you would like to contribute a photo for consideration in the gallery, please feel free to email it to us. Pictures should be of wildlife or nature-related and have been taken in Tigoa County. Please send us your pictures as large as possible so that they can be cropped, resized and edited 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.

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Program Schedule. The 2009-2010 program schedule has not yet been determined. There will be no meetings before September. If you have any suggestions or requests, please contact us.

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(Updated 15 June 2009.)

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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.