Huntingdon County Spotlight
March 13-16th, 2026
The Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology (PSO) is promoting counties across the state, to explore its hotspots and find as many birds as we can. This will be the 13th county we have spotlighted since we started this birding adventure several years ago averaging 3 a year. To see how and where others have been and fared out, check out this link. https://pabirds.org/county-spotlights/
On March 13th, join us as we lead a 4-day concentrated effort to bird Huntingdon County! This is a center of the state county that we are planning on hitting during the early spring migration season in the hopes to get some waterfowl as well. We have bird outings lined up for several days. Huntingdon currently sits 20th all-time for species out of 67 and 18th all-time for total checklists. Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, covers a total area of approximately 889 square miles. Of this total area, about 875 square miles is land, while around 15 square miles (roughly 1.6%) consists of water.
As a group, we want to document as many birds as possible during this extended weekend. Birders are invited to tag along with others or explore the county’s game lands, water areas, fields and wild areas on their own terms.
Notable spots for the county can be found here https://pabirds.org/siteguide/pacountypage.php?CountyID=31
Day 1.
Friday March 13th – 8am at Stone Valley Recreation Area Parking Lot along Lake Perez located here. https://maps.app.goo.gl/e7c3TjNsXz29tMon6 Doug Wenzel of Shavers Creek is going to lead us around hopefully some open water as well as the trails on that side and work our way up to Shavers Creek to visit those feeders, possibly the visitors center, bathrooms and Aviary if construction is done by then. After that, we will travel to Whipple Dam State Park https://maps.app.goo.gl/CDZwuTrbvEBwV5L36 Depending on if there is any open water, this might be a short little walk and exploration of that area.
Lunch and afternoon to be on your own or decided by those attending friday morning.
Friday night 5pm – American Woodcock and Owl Prowl Greenwood Furnace State Park https://maps.app.goo.gl/d4FmjVpDf8B8Jaiz7 for some early evening water checks and bird around the main parking lot and picnic area until dusk in hopes of early Woodcock displays and look and listen for owls after dark.
Day 2.
Saturday March 14 at 8am. Meeting at the parking lot of the Bluegills Bar & Grill. https://maps.app.goo.gl/swJqxVToirLRFmPR9 Do our meetup, check the bridge and water on the river, heading up to Warrior Ridge Dam, to SGL322 for some Red Headed Woodpecker spots. From there visiting Old Crow, early lunch, then heading down western side to southern end of Raystown lake for those spots in the afternoon.
Saturday March 14 at 10am, Jo Hayes Vista/Tussey Mt Hawkwatch https://maps.app.goo.gl/L6SVHfY7FyuBbVZz5 Meet Jon Kauffman at the Vista to walk into Tussey Mt until noon, then he is taking his crew from Bald Eagle State Park on their paid trip to Shavers Creek at the Aviary from the Nature Inn. For those of you who wanted to meet the gang to walk out to the hawkwatch and/or hang out there more if the conditions are good, that is up to you. The north side of the vista and hawkwatch is Centre County, the south side is Huntingdon. We will try to have the counters make note of Hunt. Co birds to be added to our trip report on eBird.
Afternoon will be on your own or depending on morning attendee’s decision to hit various hotspots around.
Saturday at 7pm, Woodcock and Owling prowl. Meet up with Jon Kauffman for hitting a few spots near Lake Perez and nearby roads for some American Woodcock and Owling. Links to be provided soon. https://maps.app.goo.gl/srRb8uwkCuzGNhQC9 There is another spot or 2 we will explore after this initial one.
Day 3.
Sunday March 15th – Raystowns Branch River Rd tour. Meet at Ballfields at 8am to carpool. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vvHVsZbniciF2uP16 Led by Greg Grove. The River Road follows the Raystown Branch of the Juniata R, from the Raystown Dam to The Point (confluence of the Raystown and Frankstown branches of the Juniata). This stretch of fairly quiet (especially in winter into March) road is about 5 miles long, so we will stop at selected locations. This deep valley is perhaps the most sheltered location for winter birds in Huntingdon County. The cold wind does not penetrate so completely down to the valley floor, and the river here is fed from water coming out the spillway at the dam, which is somewhat warmer than others streams, contributing to the relative mildness.
Our stops and short walks will, of course, offer the possibility of waterfowl on the river, But the main attraction in winter and into March are the land birds in the good riverside habitat. In addition to the usual winter birds, this is the best area in the county to find half-hardy species that have wintered, like towhee, phoebe, sapsucker, and certain sparrows. We might hope that some winter finches are to be found – Purple Finch likely, maybe something better with luck.
Afternoon on your own, revisit some hotspots.
Day 4.
Monday March 16th, Nothing planned at this time, work on cleaning up on birds missed on the first several days, recheck waterfowl spots.
Here are the eBird hotspots link https://ebird.org/region/US-PA-061/hotspots
We have created a Discord text/chat group for the spotlight for rarities and group info, to join that, here is the link or you can search for the Huntingdon County Birding Spotlight under the PSO Spotlights & Events.
https://discord.com/channels/1111453242149306441/1463878959757393961
For anyone who is going to be birding during 4-day birding spotlight, we ask you share your ebird checklists with PSO Birding Data then we can keep track easier. We have also created an eBird Trip Report link where pictures, checklists, etc. will be available for everyone to enjoy.
Here is the link for the eBird trip report Huntingdon County Birding Spotlight – eBird Trip Report.
We will be sharing pics and updates on the Huntingdon County Birding Spotlight event page on Facebook; here is that link https://www.facebook.com/share/1LwbRJu9Sq/
Birders of all skill levels are invited to join-in and contribute! If you just want to learn more about birds or you can help others and our challenge, we want you to be involved!
More details to be shared closer to the date.
