Northumberland County Spotlight Summary
March 28-31, 2025
This year’s first of 3 spotlights took us up the Susquehanna river to the oddly shaped county of Northumberland. It is always nice to get gulls and waterfowl for the March spotlights and this county offered quite a bit of the river, so it was a nice destination to attempt that.
The planning committee asked some birding friends we knew from the area and Court Harding, Karol Pasquinelli and Andy Keister came through with some great locations and field trips for the attendees.
On Friday day 1, I lured Amber Wiewel down from Centre county and we picked up Jessie Sauder from Snyder county along the way. We met at Weiser State Forest for some birding in the woods, it had a really nice parking lot as well as a bathroom, always a bonus for those who have long drives to get there or after the walks. We had Chuck Berthoud from York, Tim Grover from Monroe and others who traveled a few counties to join us. Karol and Court led the day for us. Sadly the lake was drawn down so no waterfowl was to be had, but we did see a Bald Eagle and a probable eagle nest in an attempt to get some breeding data. A few Killdeer were around the water and visible mud. We were all thrilled to pish out a Fox Sparrow and saw several Brown Creepers, many of the expected birds of that habitat.
Karol took us back the scenic way towards the reservoir at Sunbury. From there we were finally able to see some waterfowl including Pied-billed Grebe, Ring-necked Duck and American Wigeon. With a quick lunch break at the world famous Squeeze In hotdog stand, we were off to the Adam Bower dam on the Sunbury side as our next destination and we set up the line of scopes to scan. We got our first Wood Duck of the trip, Greater Scaup, Long-tailed Duck and distant Red-breasted Mergansers.
After Court discovered a crow building a nest on the Selinsgrove side, we crossed the river to hit that side and confirmed Fish Crow for breeding data as well as a previously undiscovered Peregrine Falcon. We added our first Bonaparte‛s Gull. My crew ended our day at the Isle of Que and were able to add Bufflehead on the river and confirm nesting Bald Eagle across the river from the boat launch. Some of the group kept going that evening and went to the Natalie Trails which includes a large field surrounded by overgrown coal strippings. The group was entertained by 15 to 20 Woodcocks. The owls kept their silence. Trip list up to 65 after day 1.
Saturday morning for day 2, I wasn‛t able to join as I had my son‛s wrestling tournament to attend but our spotlight crew started off the day at SGL 84 on Dornsife Mountain Road. Court led the group of eleven including the Higbees, Dan Brauning and friends from the North, around the perimeter of the grassy fields and then to other locations in the same Gameland. Other notable birds were a Wilson‘s Snipe, lots of field birds and raptors, and a Common Raven carrying a chicken egg, a new confirmation. Others birding along the river that day including Chuck Berthoud, Jessie Sauder, Joe Gyekis and Loanne Snavely saw a sub adult female at one of the Peregrine nests and got to see a migrating flock of Ring-necked Ducks get attacked by a falcon.
Saturday evening some of the group along with some Easterners went for owls again and a couple of Woodcock peented and displayed. The group then traveled to another location on Creek Road to see and hear an Eastern Screech Owl, Barred Owl and an enthusiastic Northern Saw-whet Owl. They awoke a flock of Turkeys roosting in the trees along the trail. The trip list was 89 at the end of day 2.
Sunday morning for day 3, was our official river day and I met Joe Gyekis at the Isle of Que early. We were able to add Tundra Swan to the spotlight as well as a Scaup species. We just weren‛t able to ID from a distant scope view. We met the crew on the Sunbury side of the Adam Bower dam and started scoping. Brian Byrnes came from the Philly area and Paul Nale came from Monroe county, along with more long distance travelers. We were able to get several nice species of waterfowl there including American Black Duck, Bufflehead, Wood Duck and the lingering Long-tailed Duck. Three gull species showed themselves as well as a flyover pair of northbound Eastern Meadowlarks.
Traveling to Shikellamy State Park gave us quite a thrill in seeing and hearing a pair of Merlin making a ruckus and we were able to see passing of a Dark-eyed Junco between the two and the female ended up having her meal. The whole group got great bin and scope looks as well as many pictures.
Moving up the river, we were able to see a Peregrine Falcon carrying food. At Chillisquaque Access we found Brown Creeper and Hermit Thrush. At Warriors Run wetlands, we jumped some Wilson‛s Snipe, saw Northern Shoveler, Hooded Merganser and Field Sparrow.
Old Swamp wetlands gave us Red-headed Woodpeckers, a pair of loving American Kestrels and a Northern Harrier. The Amish pond gave us more snipe and Horned Larks in the nearby fields. Trip list is up to 101 at the end of day 3.
Monday morning for day 4, I was able to get Aden Troyer to join me for a run. We decided not to join the planned walk and just hit water spots and maybe some hotspots to do some cleanup on species we had missed on the prior 3 days.
We decided to hit the Susquehanna river at the closest spot we could that offered Northumberland county river spots, so Liverpool it was, where rt 104 crossed over from PA 35 to US11/15. We got into Red-breasted Merganser, Northern Shoveler and American Black Duck. As we were pulling off 11/15 on the exit ramp, we saw a large white bird that I first considered being an egret but it ended up being the probable Tundra Swan we saw the day before with a large group of Ring-billed Gulls.
We met with Jessie Sauder on the Isle of Que and were able to refind or find the scaup species much closer and put an ID on it for a Lesser Scaup, a new species on the weekend. We found Court was already at the Bower dam as the morning walk got cancelled and was on a Tundra Swan which may have been the one we saw earlier in the morning from the Isle and this one was above the dam as well as a Horned Grebe.
Court then joined us for the rest of the day. We came upon a large vulture flock that was feeding on a carcass in the field and counted 18 Black Vultures loafing and feeding. After hitting several small streams, we finally got a singing Louisiana Waterthrush to our delight and new addition on the weekend. We thought we had a Red-shouldered Hawk laying low on a nest, took pics, scanned with scope, added it, but then after the spotlight, Court went back and confirmed it as a Red-tailed Hawk on a nest. We removed it from our list but thankfully Karol P got one late Monday and kept our tally the same.
In the end, we were able to find 108 species of birds, using 207 eBird checklists that had 44 species with pictures and 13 species with audio. Julia Plummer usually comes on these and goes solo so she can get recordings and needs the quiet. She was able to get 13 of the species for audio, with Jessie, Court and Karol each providing 1.
We were almost able to get the complete sweep of obtainable Owls on the spotlight, only missing Short-eared Owl. That was a huge thrill for those who were along and helping find them.
It was by far our best March spotlight yet, but the river really helped. Once again, we had so many great local birders helping as well as our traveling posse of birders providing more eyes and ears. There were several of our usual travelers involved, but many newbies joined for the first time too.
Here is the link to the trip report if you want to check it out: https://ebird.org/tripreport/286448
The PSO has really had great success at these spotlights and they are becoming more popular each time. If you aren‛t already a member of the PSO, please consider it as we do these types of things for free. A membership for friends makes a great gift for someone else as well.
Our next spotlight will be York County on the last weekend of April 25-28, for 4 days, the link for info on that is here: https://pabirds.org/york-county-spotlight/
The last one for 2025 will be going to Susquehanna County October 17-20. More plans on that one to be announced later as details are being worked on. I want to thank Joe, Court, Karol and Jessie for helping me create this writeup and correcting my errors.
