Jacobsburg State Park and the Ponds ~ September 27, 2025

I went to Jacobsburg State Park at sunrise. Soon after, I ran into Terry Master and his field trip group from the Pennsylvania Ornithological Society, which was having its Birding Festival in Allentown this weekend. In the group was Ron Wagner, my friend who I used to go with to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary back in the 1970's. I was able to tag along with the group. We came across a few sizeable groups of warblers. I tallied eleven species of them----Cape May, Tennessee, Magnolia, Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, Blackpoll, Black-and-white, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Northern Parula, and Common Yellowthroat.

Other notables included Chimney Swift, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Phoebe, Red-eyed Vireo, Tree Swallow, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Bluebird, Swainson's Thrush, Cedar Waxwing, American Goldfinch, White-throated and Lincoln's Sparrow, and Eastern Towhee. I got this poor photo of one of the 4 Purple Finches found, which were my first of the year.

Purple Finch

I ended up seeing 47 species there. The entire group's list came to an impressive 63 species, a really good number for this time of year.

On the way home, I stopped at two ponds. The first was the Tatamy Exit retention pond, which still held 5 Least Sandpipers, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, and a Killdeer.

Pectoral Sandpiper

The other was the Newburg Road pond. There, I saw 11 Killdeer, 2 Great Egrets, and a Savannah Sparrow.

Great Egrets

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