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

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