Forest County Spotlight Summary
March 15-18, 2024
The first spotlight adventure of the year took us to the NW corner of the state into the PA Wilds, the very odd shaped county of Forest, which the 2020 census said the population was 6973 making it the 3rd least populated in the state. It’s 427 square miles make it the 53rd size in the state. Our 4-day window was March 15-18.
The locals lined up 3 days of birding adventures, when we first planned this back at the end of 2023, many asked why the cold north in late winter, but we had hopes for winter finches, expecting some open water with the recent mild winters and we tampered our expectations. What would mother nature offer us on this weekend? In the weeks prior, the extended forecast was all over the place and as we know, weather is more unpredictable than ever now.
I was able to get in early Thursday afternoon and hook up with local Jim McGuire for some scouting of Buzzard Swamp. It had been almost 20 years since I was last at this location so it was nice to be able to visit it again. The walk in didn’t offer much but once we got to the water, we saw some waterfowl. Highlights were Northern Shoveler and Northern Pintail, which we never officially got during the spotlight. On the way back out, we saw a high-flying raptor that offered us an eagle vibe. After looking at it out discussing what it wasn’t, we ended up calling it a Golden Eagle which was also not found during the spotlight.
After a nice dinner in Marienville, we took a side road to a great American Woodcock site and had several zipping around us. I had 95 species in Forest before this trip and hoped I would get up to 100 which is my goal to do in all of the 67 counties. I didn’t think I would get to it the first evening of the trek.
The first morning, we headed to Cook Forest to meet our crew. I went with my fellow travelers Jeff Kenney and Angela Romanczuk for the day. Jeff was the madman behind all of the checklists the whole weekend in the group settings, so thank you for that spicy endeavor, Jeff. It was raining when we got there, parking below the building, we met our friend Alie, spoke to a park worker, and no one was showing up. We thought, did we go to the wrong spot, no one was reaching out to us, so I decided to walk around the building and there was the rest of the crew waiting on us on the top side. I was surprised I couldn’t hear Tom K telling stories from around the building. The day started off with 14 people.
We decided to slow drive along the river road and pull over a few spots, adding birds to both the Jefferson and Forest counties from that drive. We were heading to Beaver Meadows thinking the rain might bring in some goodies. As soon as we pulled in, we saw some distant waterfowl and noticed something different was out there with the Common Mergansers. Someone mentioned a gull, then an alcid, but finally got a scope view of a female Long-tailed Duck. A pair of adult Bald Eagles soon made it leave us, but as we started to walk around the lake, Alie was a straggler behind and was able to see a Ruffed Grouse get flushed by the dam. Further on our walk, our group got split into 2 and I thought I would try a screech owl call to see if anything would kick up in the pines. A Red-breasted Nuthatch kicked up, then a few birds flew overhead giving us jip jip jip calls. Carole Winslow and I looked at each other and yelled “Red Crossbills”. Two or three flew overhead and we were very happy as it was the first ones reported in the county all winter. They went towards the others who were busy looking at vernal ponds and we thought would they see or hear them. Of course, Jeff K not only heard them, he was able to record them and get our proof. This even got a poke from our friend David Yeany II who wasn’t able to join us, but we knew he was with us in spirit.
We then did some slow riding, birding, pulling off at various spots to kick up some birds when along Sheffield Junction Rd, eagle eye Carole W saw an American Woodcock along the road that hopped up and froze just a bit off the side of the road. Angela only knocked down about half of the group so she could see her beloved bird. All of us got great naked eye views as well as thru bins. Jeff got some good pics and video as well. As the day lingered on, we lost some people here and there, but a small group of us got to visit Cougar Bobs for a cold one and snacks.
Day 2 started with people meeting at Marienville. Joe Gyekis got up early to do some early birding in Cook Forest State Park but didn’t realize that much of his birding was in the adjacent edges of Clarion County and not far from Jefferson County. Still cool habitat in those beautiful old growth forest stands.
Buzzard Swamp was our first destination of the day, and 15 people joined us. We were very fortunate to have the key to the gate and could drive our caravan around the area. This is probably the most famous spot in the county, certainly the hotspot with the most species. We had some nice waterfowl to pick through, some raptors were hitting the sky, Eastern Meadowlarks were providing us some sunshine yellow from the trees and their song. Ducks were flying in and out, a group of ducks came around that everyone was trying to get on and ID, Michael David threw out an ID that later we were able to confirm correct when they landed in another pond, Ring-necked Duck and Lesser Scaup.
Another trip back to Beaver Meadows left some new people enjoy that gem of a spot in Forest County. As we were exploring that area, getting some lunch, then hitting various roads enjoying the day, we got a text from Kim Springer who just had a Tundra Swan in Tionesta by the boat launch. This is a good bird for that county, so we all zipped over there and it was right there giving good looks for all. A quick visit to Dawson Run got us excited for our first Great Blue Heron on the weekend.
Our dwindling group enjoyed a dinner at Fox’s pizza and all went our separate ways. Tom K was able to snag an Eastern Screech Owl back near his cabin, we were able to get a Barred Owl near Cooks Forest. Joe G brought along his night vison thermal scope, showing many mammals out and about but weren’t able to find any feathered friends that night.
Day 3 started off with a big owl for Tom K. he was able to report 2 Barred Owl near his camp in the morning. We all then met Kim and Jim Springer at Tionesta Lighthouse Island for a wonderful walk. We were able to get many birds on the island walk, including Redhead, American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Bonaparte’s Gull, Rusty Blackbird and Purple Finch. There were many Bald Eagles around in various ages and looks.
A repeat visit to the boat launch found the Tundra Swan still occurring, but it actually lifted up while we were there and took off, at first heading downriver, but then curving around and heading north out of sight. Many of us finished our day at Dawson Run which was another wonderful place to get some new birds on the weekend. Scott Stoleson told us some stories of his work there studying Cerulean Warblers and how Don “One Shot” Watts earned his nickname. Getting a Cerulean for banding is pretty tough because they like to stay high up, so their team pioneered a method of raising mist nets very high in the trees using a bow and arrow to pass a line over a high branch before attaching a heavier rope and hoisting the nets. Don’s excellent aim helped them get very high hang points quickly and easily, and this was especially important when certain birds were both wary from prior experience being captured and desperately needed to be captured to recover geolocators that would tell which part of South America these birds had been in the prior winter.
Once the bird walk commenced, we found many birds around the marshy floodplain, including Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Swamp Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow White-throated Sparrow (which we had not found in the mountain spots) and a very obliging Ruddy Duck were all found here.
On Monday, the last day, Mark Nale and Darla Shank found a Pied-billed Grebe, new for the weekend at Beaver Meadows to add our last bird for the spotlight in number 80. Our crew produced 73 checklists hitting so many wonderful spots in this under visited and under birded county in the state. I am told this is the last county to have zero intersections with red lights, so if you want to get away from it all, this is a good place to consider. We were able to add 21 new year birds for the county. For anyone who wishes to see our complete trip report, check out this link https://ebird.org/tripreport/194653
We couldn’t be successful in these types of birding adventures without locals putting in their time, wisdom and friendship and I have to put in extra thanks again to Scott Stoleson who really helped get this all off the ground, Jim McGuire, Kim & Jim Springer, Carole Winslow and Tom Kuehl.
