Volunteers Needed to Help Purple Martins

Did you know that eastern U.S. Purple Martins rely completely on humans for their summer nesting structures?

They have done so since the days when Native Americans hung gourds to attract them. Martins benefit humans by eating loads of insects! They are also entertaining, with graceful flights over lakes and streams.  We need volunteers to help maintain Purple Martin breeding colonies.

Volunteers may assist with the following duties:
-- Deploy the towers and gourds in spring - March 1 - April 1
-- Weekly checks on breeding in each gourd - April 1 - August 15
-- Take down towers and gourds for cleaning & storage- August 15 - September 15

Volunteer requirements:
-- Time commitments are flexible.
-- You will work as a team with 1-3 other volunteers.

-- Breeding season, April to August, is the busiest time.  Our goal is to check and document each gourd in the colony weekly; date and times are flexible. Nest checks on each tower take approximately 30 minutes for each of the 4 towers at Leaser Lake (84 gourds total). Other sites may vary in size and number of gourds.

-- Towers are mechanically operated for lowering and raising. No need to climb.
-- Basic knowledge of tools is helpful; equipment is provided.

To volunteer, please contact,
for Leaser Lake Park (Lehigh County):
Laurie Lyter
Treasurer, Leaser Lake Heritage Foundation
Llyter@ptd.net
for Minsi Lake Park (Northampton County):
Jim Wilson
Northampton County Parks Department
jwilson@norcopa.gov
for Beltzville State Park (Carbon County), Nockamixon State Park and Lake Towhee Park (Bucks County):
Colin Monahan
Lehigh Valley Audubon Society Habitat Chair
colin.p.monahan@gmail.com

Allentown Back to School Bash

Dan Pokras and Nick Savant talked to parents and children at this year’s Allentown Back to School Bash.

We had almost 500 visitors at our table!  They took home lots of bird-themed items for fun and learning.

Thank you to volunteers Dan, Nick, and Michele Varricchio, Deb Rosene, and Paul Sherrer for all taking a shift at our table.

We couldn’t do it without you!

Interested in helping with future LVAS events? Join us and volunteer!

Great Backyard Bird Count Party at the Bethlehem Public Library

We had a big turnout of about 65 participants for this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) party at the Bethlehem Area Public Library!

Participants learned how to conduct their own count for the GBBC, practiced identifying birds, got to meet Te Kā, a Screech Owl from the Da Vinci Science Center, heard the story of how the newest edition of Birds of the Lehigh Valley and Vicinity came about, and went out for a guided bird walk at Nisky Hill Cemetery.

Yummy bird-themed refreshments were available, along with take-home handouts on bird ID and bird conservation.

Please enjoy this video made by LVAS volunteer Kelly Patla!

Thank you to Pattie Terrero, Diane Rudolph, Jon Levin, Dan Pokras, and Todd Watkins for helping make this possible, along with Bethlehem Area Public Library staff, Kelly Patla on video camera, and Brandon Swayser the Screech Owl wrangler!

12th Annual CBC4Kids Held!

Saturday, January 10, 2026 dawned with a threat of rain. Luckily, the rain held off until just after Lehigh Valley Audubon Society’s 12th annual CBC4Kids was over!

Eleven children from ages 4 to 10 spent time in our classroom at Muhlenberg College learning the purpose of bird counts, how to identify birds, and how to use binoculars. Then everyone piled into cars for a short drive to three local parks, and the three teams got to work spotting and recording birds. 

One of 3 bird counting teams of children who participated in Lehigh Valley Audubon Society’s 12th annual CBC4Kids on January 10, 2026

Altogether, the Crazy Crows, the Nutty Nuthatches, and the Mysterious Marshmallow Mallards counted 411 birds of 22 different species. Highlights included a Merlin, five species of duck, several Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a Mute Swan strolling down the middle of the road. 

The morning concluded with snacks, a tally of the birds recorded, and a visit to the ornithology museum of Muhlenberg College. Kids left with a National Geographic bird book for children and other fun and educational materials. We hope they also left with the start of a lifetime habit of appreciating and conserving birds.

This year, LVAS volunteer Kelly Patla accompanied Team Nutty Nuthatches in the field and provided a video for us to enjoy. Watch the video here!

Event organizers: Barbara Malt and Chad Schwartz.

We thank everyone who contributed as helpers in the classroom and in the field: Peter Saenger, Dan Pokras, Mark Boyd, Jon Levin, and Kelly and Nathan Patla.

And thanks to all of our LVAS members who support this program and others with your membership dollars and donations!

Article written by Barbara Malt and published January 2026 in THE OSPREY VOLUME 50 • NUMBER 1.

THE OSPREY is the Quarterly Newsletter of The Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, provided first only to LVAS members.

Get all the latest news and event notifications by joining our Chapter of the The National Audubon Society.

Former LVAS President, Dale Steventon, Shares History & Video of Bart Snyder's Egg Collection

Preview Video Clip of Bart Snyder's Egg Collection, courtesy of Dale and Alison Steventon

In mid-October, 2025, LVAS President, Barbara Malt, received an email from Dale Steventon saying “I am 90 years old. I was president of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society in 1977 to 1980. I would like to share several things with you...” Barbara and LVAS History Committee Chair, Betty Abrams, met with Dale and his wife, Alison, in their home in Schnecksville on November 10th.

During their visit, Dale kindly shared an hour-long video that he and Alison recorded in 1993 while visiting Bart Snyder’s museum of wildlife specimens. Snyder (1906-1998) was a member of LVAS and an amateur ornithologist and oologist – a person who studies or collects bird eggs. His personal museum, the largest private collection of its kind in North America, included mounted birds and more than 16,000 eggs representing more than 500 different species. Most specimens included valuable scientific data, including when, where, and by whom they were collected.

A 1987 Morning Call article offers some background on Snyder and his unique collection: “Snyder began his unusual hobby at age 14 when his cousin gave him a set of eggs. Later he became acquainted with oologists all over the country and traded specimens, thereby enhancing his collection. Only about 20 percent of the inventory was collected by Snyder himself. He’s long maintained state and federal licenses necessary for collecting and keeping the specimens, which have been emptied of their contents and rest on beds of foam mulch in cabinets in Snyder’s basement. Although legal at one time, for many years it’s been against the law to take eggs from nests – a point that Snyder underscores each time he speaks to students.”

The contents of Snyder’s collection have since been donated to various research institutions and organizations, including Muhlenberg College. This is a preview of the full video, which offers a rare glimpse of Snyder’s full collection while it was still on display in his West Allentown home.

LVAS thanks Dale and Alison for documenting Snyder’s collection and sharing this video. To view the full-length video, check out Lehigh Valley Audubon Society’s YouTube channel or visit this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCtMlOxdqYE

7 Communities Reached with Birding Backpacks

The Emmaus Public Library is the newest home to birding backpacks donated by LVAS!

Each kit contains a pair of Kowa binoculars, a field guide and common bird ID sheet, instructions on how to use binoculars in English and Spanish, and a guide to local parks.

We previously supplied kits to Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. This summer we expanded our program to Nazareth, Palmerton, and Parkland, and now we’ve included Emmaus.

Be sure to let your friends, neighbors, teachers, and others in these municipalities know that they or their children can check out a kit and give birding a try!