Oct. 10th LVAS Guided Bird Walk at Leaser Lake

Lehigh Valley Audubon Society Field Trip: Leaser Lake

Saturday, Oct 10 · 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM EDT

Leaser Lake is wonderful at all times of the year. This time we will look for waterfowl on the lake and continuing late passerines coming through our area.

Meet at the parking lot for the Leaser Lake - North Boat Launch at 8:00 am, accessed from Ontelaunee Road. Coordinates for the meeting location at the North Boat Launch: (40.678560, -75.836670)

Leader: Frank Dickman 484-695-3887

Never miss an event by joining Lehigh Valley Audubon Society (LVAS), your local Audubon Society chapter, and receive invitations to guided bird walks and quarterly newsletters with the latest on all of our local activities.

Green Heron photo by Dave DeReamus

LVAS Led Kids in Bird Lesson and Outdoor Birding Experience

An action-packed morning for Lehigh Valley Audubon Society (LVAS), leading two sets of 40-50 children at Central Elementary STREAM Academy in Allentown in a bird lesson and an outdoor birding experience.

The chaos and noise that that many seven-year-olds can generate is impressive 😀. Still, a good time was had by all. Right after the second group got to see a soaring turkey vulture, a soaring bald eagle passed over us!

A big thank you to Dan Pokras for helping lead the lessons.

LVAS Plants and Prints Maker Event really mixed things up!

Our Plants and Prints Maker Event really mixed things up!

We learned about native plants in the context of learning how to make cyanotype prints and trying our hand at making some. And Lehigh Valley Audubon Society (LVAS) members worked alongside Lehigh‘s Mountain Hawk Birding members at the print studio on Lehigh’s Mountaintop campus.

Thank you to Prof. Deidre Murphy and Mountain Hawk Birding past president Holly Fasching for collaborating to pull this event together, along with help from current president Gianna Ollinger.

Photos by Holly Fasching.

Sept. 12th LVAS Guided Bird Walk at Whitehall Parkway

Lehigh Valley Audubon Society Field Trip: Whitehall Parkway

Songbirds are emptying out of the Canadian forests and pass through our area yet again. Fall migrants are a great way to challenge and improve your bird identification skills.

Saturday, Sep 12 · 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM EDT

Meet at the Whitehall Parkway parking lot by the barn on Chestnut Street (west of Rt.145). There is a gravel parking lot.

4041 Chestnut St, Whitehall, PA 18049 · Whitehall, PA

Location via Google Maps: Pin near 4041 Chestnut St, Whitehall, PA 18049

https://goo.gl/maps/81zMmjMsrbt

Leader: Frank Dickman (484-695-3887)

Never miss an event by joining Lehigh Valley Audubon Society (LVAS), your local Audubon Society chapter, and receive invitations to guided bird walks and quarterly newsletters with the latest on all of our local activities.

Photo credit: CC BY NC ND 2.0 John Sutton

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!