Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology
Pennsylvania County Birding

Huntingdon County

County Statistics
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Current County List:
Breeding Species: 136
Top County Lifelist: 233 (Greg Grove)
Top Big Year: 205 (David Kyler, 1996)
Top Big Day: 121 (May 4, 2002, Greg & Deb Grove, David & Trudy Kyler, Gene Zielinski)
"Best Bird": Mountain Bluebird, April 15, 1995, near Shirleysburg

 Compiler for Pennsylvania Birds:
Greg Grove,
4343 McAlevy's Fort Road
Petersburg, PA 16669
gwg2@psu.edu

Compiler for North American Birds:
 Rick Wiltraut Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center 835 Jacobsburg Road Wind Gap, PA 18091
rwiltraut@state.pa.us

Statistics compiled by Frank Haas. "Best Bird" is Frank's totally subjective choice. Send corrections/updates to fchaas@pabirds.org

Bird Clubs
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State College Bird Club
Birding Sites
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THE LOWER TRAIL (FRANKSTOWN BRANCH OF THE JUNIATA RIVER IBA)

The Lower Trail is a 16-mile long rails-to-trails route along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River between Canoe Creek State Park in Blair County and the village of Alfarata in Huntingdon County. The trail is owned by Rails-to-Trails of Central Pennsylvania and is open to the public free of charge. Public lands bordering the trail include Canoe Creek State Park and State Game Land 147 in Blair County, and State Game Land 118 in Huntingdon County.

The Lower Trail runs through an outstanding example of a Ridge and Valley riparian forest encompassing approximately 5000 acres. The combination of steep, wooded slopes, floodplain forests, and high soil moisture produces a diverse, healthy lowland riparian ecosystem.

More than 150 species of birds have been observed along the Lower Trail since Juniata Valley Audubon began a Special Areas Project there in 1995. This site hosts an impressive concentration of breeding riparian species. Breeding bird counts of up to 200 per hour have been tallied during walking tours along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. Species present at exceptional breeding concentrations include Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Wood Thrush, Yellow Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, American Redstart, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Baltimore Oriole. Other breeding birds include Wood Duck, Least Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Vireo, Winter Wren, Northern Parula Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, and Orchard Oriole. In addition to breeding birds, the number of Neotropical migrants during the early portion of spring migration is typically much higher at this site than in surrounding areas, due to early leaf-out along the river. This site hosts one of Pennsylvania's most important Cerulean Warbler breeding areas, with estimates of 50-60 breeding pairs along this 16 mile long corridor.

Bibliography
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    Please send corrections, additions, or updates to Frank Haas: fbhaas@ptd.net