Longtime Christmas Bird Count participant Jim Hardy has agreed to take on two roles in Conococheague Audubon: He will be an apprentice zone captain with Dale Gearhart in Zone 5 this year, planning to take over that role on his own in the future. Jim is also our new Conservation Chair. We appreciate his willingness to support the chapter in both of these important responsibilities!
August 2020 From the President
Greetings all fellow nature lovers!
We are indeed in the dog days of summer. Can it get any warmer? Any more humid?
Bob and I have enjoyed watching the vigorous courting antics of a house wren couple. They zoomed all over our back yard, past our ears, and onto other neighbors’ yards, only to return much later to a small birdhouse we have attached to the side of our backyard swing. We are still waiting to witness the fledging of the chicks. The time must be near. We have been watching the adult (female) bring food to the little ones and removing the fecal sacks.
Though the CAS Bluebird trail near Upper Strasburg, PA has been officially postponed due to the COVID-19 lockdown, one of our members has taken it upon herself to watch over a total of 22 bluebird boxes in the Penn National area. On July 8, 2020 Ruth Barton wrote:
- Two of the boxes had fledged since her last visit and there were no new nests.
- She had only one active tree swallow nest with chicks and cleared out all other tree swallow nests.
- Four of the 22 boxes were inaccessible due to tall weeds.
- As of July 8, there were 16 empty boxes ready for new residents. (We can only hope there will be more bluebird baby chicks hatched before migration season.) Thank you, Ruth, for this report and for your tenacity!
Also, on July 8 Jim Hook decided to check out the CAS Bluebird Trail with its 25 boxes. He noted:
- The 12 boxes off Wye Road appeared to be dominated by tree swallows, with only one active bluebird nest containing one egg.
- Two of the four new boxes off Pine Road revealed two bluebird nests.
- Three of the four boxes on Joel Burkholder’s lane had evidence of bluebirds. Two of the boxes had bluebird eggs.
- The Druckenbrod Lane’s five boxes are dominated by house wrens, with evidence of three earlier bluebird nests.
- Jim reported that he found a total of five active bluebird nests with eggs that day. Thank you, Jim for your curiosity!
In mid-July, a young female birder, Miriam Weaver, located an anomaly on her family’s farm. She noticed that this new sparrow had a significantly different (“insect sounding”) song and appearance from the other house sparrows around her family’s farm. She had found a clay-colored sparrow.
- It breeds in the northern part of the USA west of New York and into western Canada.
- It winters in Texas and throughout Mexico.
- This is the first time one has been discovered in Franklin County. It is only the second account on record of one in Pennsylvania.
- Of course, such good news travels fast. Soon, the Weaver farm in the Orrstown area was inundated with curious birders. Some attempted and did indeed get some great photos. Please see my attachment with these photos. There were reports of still seeing it yet on July 31.
Thursday, July 30, Bill Oyler reported four glossy ibises were seen off Sandy Mount Road, Pleasant Hall area near Bender’s first pond. Many went to see them.
For your amusement, I am including the URL for an interesting story of how a mother cat adopts newly hatched ducklings. You will have to copy and paste this website into your browser. It should appear immediately. https://youtu.be/570khFoaE4s
Currently we plan to meet as usual at the Norlo Park Community Center on September 14, 2020. We are asking that you wear a mask and social distance. Members will disinfect the premises before your arrival.
- Just for your information National Audubon is making some new combinations. National Audubon Society announced on July 7 that Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C., offices are being merged into the new Audubon Mid-Atlantic office. We will still correspond with Kelly McGinley of the Harrisburg regional office.
- Val Barnes and Janet Tice have been working to update and improve our CAS website. The new site will allow us to change or add pictures more easily, identify how to contact CAS leaders via email or phone, let you view maps where we meet, and show all our activities on a calendar. If you see any problems not related to calendar events, please let Val or Janet know.
Stay cool and safe!
Terri Kochert
Clay-colored Sparrow by Jefferson Shank, 2020-07 
Glossy Ibis by Bob Keener 2020-07 Glossy Ibis by Bob Keener, 2020-07
Support CAS!
Greetings, members and friends of Conococheague Audubon Society,
We hope you are healthy and safe in this COVID-19 era. Another summer is on the wing as we approach a new season of lively birding activity. Some aspects of our planned activities remain tentative, but we are hopeful that all will proceed as planned. Check this website for updates.
Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel this year’s films due to COVID-19. Stay tuned for the 2021-2022 season!
We are offering three FREE high-quality nature films for your family’s viewing pleasure:
January 21, 2021: “Last Stand of the Great Bear,” (National Geographic), Great Bear rainforest of British Columbia; brown, black, “spirit” bears, wolves, and salmon fishing.March 25, 2021: “Saving Songbirds,” (PBS), international efforts to save songbirds.April 8, 2021: “Return of the Clouded Leopards,” (National Geographic), a tale of two orphaned cubs. (This was originally scheduled for March 2020.)
All films will begin at 7:30 PM at Chambersburg Area Middle School South, with pre-show musical entertainment at 7. While the films are free, we still need your support and will accept donations at the door.
Your contributions are what keep us operating as a fully volunteer organization. All our activities are FREE to participants. Thanks to your donations, we give Audubon Adventures, an interactive science newspaper, to area third- through fifth-grade classrooms. Our Beginning Birders’ Workshop in June introduces both children and adults to the skill and thrill of identifying colorful local birds. We offer scholarships to local youth and adults interested in birds and conservation. This spring we gave Michaux State Forest a supply of native seeds for habitat restoration.
Your assistance allows us to provide the community with current educational and conservation programming through our scheduled monthly meetings (second Mondays at 7 PM in Norlo Park Community Center). Bring your family and friends – all are welcome. During the October and November meetings, we hope to see many entries for our annual youth birding contests – Longest Bird List and Best Bird Photo of the year.
Other ongoing projects that your contributions fund are the Norlo Park Native Plants Garden; Christmas bird count citizen science; educational, interactive exhibits and presentations; the Naturally newsletter; and other conservation efforts. We need your help to continue our conservation and educational outreach, and we thank all of you for joining us in being good stewards of the earth in our daily lives.
We appreciate your support. Please make a generous gift. Complete this form and send it with your check by September 30. Thank you.
We hope to see you at some of the 2020-2021 Conococheague Audubon events. Please wear a mask to keep us all safe. Please check this website to confirm the status of the event you plan to attend.
Thank you for your help,
Terri Kochert, President
July 2020 From the President
Greetings fellow nature lovers,
I trust that now that Franklin County has gone “green” that you are getting out more frequently to enjoy all life has to offer. It feels so good to be able to get your hair cut again. I do not think I will ever again take my hairdresser’s “essential services” for granted! Like many of you, I am still waiting to have face to face encounters with my dentist and doctors. Hopefully, this too shall pass despite spikes of the coronavirus in neighboring states. I encourage you all to be careful and be safe.
Unfortunately, our nation has seen its share of upheaval and destruction this past month, scarring our beautiful Spring migration months. As a wildlife conservation group, the Conococheague Audubon Society, affirms that ALL lives matter no matter the color of one’s skin, ethnicity, or any other persuasion. Nature is for ALL to enjoy! I trust that we each acknowledge, greet, and smile at ALL fellow birders we encounter along the way. I personally have found bird watchers to be friendly, kind and most helpful when birding. It is part of our DNA to share our “newest” bird find with others. We want ALL to enjoy and preserve the beauty of this world. That is as it should be.
With June now behind us and the full brunt of hot weather ahead of us, there are less reports of birds being seen. I am grateful for the gloriously happy songs of the Indigo Buntings, Cardinals, and Goldfinches. When in the woods, I still hear the strong admonition of the Oven Bird and the ethereal trill of the Wood Thrush. A visit to the woods would be considered incomplete without hearing the Eastern Towhee reminding me “to drink your tea!”
- Locally, there are still warblers being seen. There have been sightings of Magnolia and Kentucky warblers, a Blue Grosbeak, and Willow Flycatchers.
- There are still Grasshopper Sparrows and Dickcissels being reported along local farm lanes.
- There are still reports of our local population of Eurasian Collared Doves at the Greencastle Reservoir.
- The Mountain Laurel is now beginning to fade. I do hope you all took the opportunity to drive through Michaux State forest to see it.
May you have a Happy Fourth of July, celebrating safely the freedom we Americans enjoy living here in the United States of America. Bob and I will be celebrating with our children’s families and our daughter’s mother-in-law, now a widow, who will be celebrating her arrival to the USA from Ukraine 71 years ago as a nine-year old girl on July 4. To her this is one of the most meaningful of the holidays we celebrate.
Good birding to you all!
Dame’s Rocket by Terri Kochert Dog-tooth Violet (Trout Lily) by Terri Kochert Bluebell by Terri Kochert Marsh Marigold by Terri Kochert
Conservation Links
National Audubon Society’s Conservation page
Become an advocate for birds and bird conservation. Visit National Audubon’s Take Action page to see what’s hot
Sign up for Action Alerts and receive occasional emails from National Audubon about actions you can take to help.