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A Fascination With Birds: Photographs from Avian Hotspots

Laura Densmore is a second generation photographer. Her father ground his own lenses and built his own cameras during the depression. From a very young age she absorbed his lessons on composition and attention to detail.

 

Laura lives in Pennsbury, Chester County. She has traveled to numerous locations in search of birds. She has photographed: puffins on Skellig Michael and the Snaefellnes Peninsula in Iceland, various auks on St. Paul’s Island, which is closer to Siberia than to mainland Alaska, and gannets on Bass Island in Scotland.

 

Closer to home, she travels yearly to Florida for large wading birds, to south Texas for warblers and other migrating travelers, Arizona for desert birds as well as takes images out her back window.

 

She has studied with: Alan Murphy, Greg Downing, Ron Rosenstock and taken intense instruction from Rick Holt in Photoshop.

 

Her avian work tends to be portraiture and bird behavior in natural settings.

 

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Event Series Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

For: Seasonal birds

Place: Exton Park, 8:30 a.m.

Leader: Various leaders in conjunction with Friends of Exton Park

Note: Formerly known as Church Farm Pond and now a part of Exton Park, this pond and surrounding wetland had been a popular birding spot for years.

Directions: From the intersection of Routes 30 and 202, drive west along Route 30 and turn right on Valley Creek Blvd. At the end of the road, make a left on Swedesford Road and park in the gravel parking lot on your left where the perimeter trail starts. This is a 1.5 mile walk and will take between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Exton Park

Event Series Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

For: Seasonal birds

Place: Exton Park, 8:30 a.m.

Leader: Various leaders in conjunction with Friends of Exton Park

Note: Formerly known as Church Farm Pond and now a part of Exton Park, this pond and surrounding wetland had been a popular birding spot for years.

Directions: From the intersection of Routes 30 and 202, drive west along Route 30 and turn right on Valley Creek Blvd. At the end of the road, make a left on Swedesford Road and park in the gravel parking lot on your left where the perimeter trail starts. This is a 1.5 mile walk and will take between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Exton Park

The Great Marsh

For: Winter Residents & Early Spring Migrants

Place: 28 Moores Road, Elverson, PA, 7:00 a.m.

Leader: Mike Coulter. If you plan to attend please email the Great Marsh Institute at lori@greatmarshinstitute.org to let them know to expect you. This will help them to organize and keep groups small. This event is free but donations are always welcome via Paypal or donations at the door. Note that the time has been shifted an hour earlier this month.
 
Note: Join local birding expert Mike Coulter as he guides us through the Great Marsh, an ancient periglacial marsh and the largest marsh in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
 
This event is hosted by the Great Marsh Institute, a non-profit with the mission of supporting scientific studies and educational opportunities for all! This event is free, but donations of any amount are welcome to support the Institute! For full trip details see here. This will be about a 3 hour walk. Conditions could be muddy and very wet so wear appropriate footwear.

Please note that the property is private but you can always visit during our planned trips.
 
Directions: The marsh is off of Rt. 401 four miles northwest of Rt. 100 at Ludwig's Corner. Lat/Long = 40.127651, -75.767697 or use 28 Moores Road for GPS directions. Meet at the grassy parking area at the top of the hill near 28 Moores Road. Once you turn off of Rt. 401 on to Moore's Road proceed 1/4 mile along the gravel road. You will cross a bridge and at the 1/4 mile mark make a right up the hill on the paved part of the drive. This is the first right after the bridge. At the top of the hill you should see other cars parked in the meeting area.

Do birds prefer or avoid invasive non-native plants when nesting and feeding?

Ian Stewart - Ornithologist working at the Delaware Nature Society.
 

This presentation describes an experiment conducted recently in southeastern PA where most of the invasive non-native plants were removed from 10 woodland plots but left in place in 10 comparable plots to see if it affected their use by nesting birds. It also describes an observational study conducted in the fall to see if insect-eating birds prefer to feed in native or non-native plants. These results will be of interest to anyone involved in restoring habitat for bird conservation.

 

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Event Series Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

For: Seasonal birds

Place: Exton Park, 8:30 a.m.

Leader: Various leaders in conjunction with Friends of Exton Park

Note: Formerly known as Church Farm Pond and now a part of Exton Park, this pond and surrounding wetland had been a popular birding spot for years.

Directions: From the intersection of Routes 30 and 202, drive west along Route 30 and turn right on Valley Creek Blvd. At the end of the road, make a left on Swedesford Road and park in the gravel parking lot on your left where the perimeter trail starts. This is a 1.5 mile walk and will take between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Exton Park

Event Series Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

For: Seasonal birds

Place: Exton Park, 8:30 a.m.

Leader: Various leaders in conjunction with Friends of Exton Park

Note: Formerly known as Church Farm Pond and now a part of Exton Park, this pond and surrounding wetland had been a popular birding spot for years.

Directions: From the intersection of Routes 30 and 202, drive west along Route 30 and turn right on Valley Creek Blvd. At the end of the road, make a left on Swedesford Road and park in the gravel parking lot on your left where the perimeter trail starts. This is a 1.5 mile walk and will take between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Exton Park

eBird101: How and Why to use eBird

For: eBird class and walk

Place: Welkinwier, 1368 Prizer Rd, Pottstown, PA, 10:00 a.m.

Leaders: John Mercer (mercer1135@aol.com) and Patty Werth (home: 484-985-8164, day of walk: 215-859-1148, Pattyww@comcast.net)

Note: eBird is a global birdwatching and citizen science project run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that not only contributes to the scientific database, but has become a powerful personal tool that birdwatchers can use to keep track of bird sightings, manage bird lists, photos, and audio recordings, see real-time maps of species distribution, and find places to go birding. This approximately 2-hour program will be divided into two parts.  A classroom session will be held first where instructors will help you get started on eBird and go over best practices for using the website and the mobile app.  Following that there will be a short birding field trip during which we will practice using eBird, so please bring binoculars if you have them.   The classroom portion of this program will take place under an accessible pavilion and will be held rain or shine. If you are planning on using eBird on your phone, please have the mobile app (which is free) downloaded before you arrive. We are expecting to have wifi available during the program, so if you use a laptop you may want to bring that also. Accessible restrooms are available on site.

Meet in the visitor parking lot west of the main entrance.

Note: This is a joint program with Valley Forge Audubon Society, all are welcome.

Directions: Route 100 N towards Pottstown. Turn left on Prizer Rd, Welkinwier will be on the left in about 0.8 miles.

Welkinwier

 

Papua New Guinea: A Pilgrimage across the Pacific, for Birds and Family

Presenter: Dorothy Bedford
 

When Dorothy Bedford’s sister started writing up her WWII family trilogy, based on her parent’s diaries and letters, Dorothy hadn’t dreamed of visiting PNG, where her father was an Army officer under MacArthur. As she got drawn into her sister’s research, the opportunity to visit in the guise of birdwatching became compelling.  Last August, Dorothy visited Port Moresby and the Western Highlands with P.I.B for Birds-of Paradise and other specialties. She’ll share photos and stories.

 

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Event Series Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

For: Seasonal birds

Place: Exton Park, 8:30 a.m.

Leader: Various leaders in conjunction with Friends of Exton Park

Note: Formerly known as Church Farm Pond and now a part of Exton Park, this pond and surrounding wetland had been a popular birding spot for years.

Directions: From the intersection of Routes 30 and 202, drive west along Route 30 and turn right on Valley Creek Blvd. At the end of the road, make a left on Swedesford Road and park in the gravel parking lot on your left where the perimeter trail starts. This is a 1.5 mile walk and will take between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Exton Park

Chester County Parks Birding Series: #2 – Springton Manor Farm

For: Early Spring migrants

Place: 860 Springton Rd, Glenmoore, PA 19343, 8:00 a.m.

Leader: John Mercer (484-459-2062, mercer1135@aol.com), Patty & John Werth (pattyww@comcast.net)

Note: The Chester County Parks system has seven wonderful parks which provide excellent birdwatching opportunities.  Join us as we explore all seven of the parks, one per month, in 2023.
 
Our second location is Springton Manor Farm, part preserve and part farm and home to many types of bird-friendly habitats across its 300 acres. Of note here are centuries-old oak and maple trees, and a thriving Purple Martin colony during the summer.
 
This trip will cover about 2 miles on rolling natural surface trails and will last approximately 2-3 hours. Restrooms are available on site at the Great Barn, where we will meet.
 
Directions: Take Rt. 322 West through Guthriesville, take a soft right onto Springton Road at traffic light, Cross Highspire Road, continue .5 miles to park entrance on right.
 
Springton Manor Farm

Event Series Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

Every Thursday Morning Exton Park, Exton, PA

For: Seasonal birds

Place: Exton Park, 8:30 a.m.

Leader: Various leaders in conjunction with Friends of Exton Park

Note: Formerly known as Church Farm Pond and now a part of Exton Park, this pond and surrounding wetland had been a popular birding spot for years.

Directions: From the intersection of Routes 30 and 202, drive west along Route 30 and turn right on Valley Creek Blvd. At the end of the road, make a left on Swedesford Road and park in the gravel parking lot on your left where the perimeter trail starts. This is a 1.5 mile walk and will take between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Exton Park