BIRDS: We hear from local folks about an active community of bird watchers through the region. We joined the Cornell Lab’s eBird program, not as bird watchers ourselves, but to see what sort of birds have been spotted in the area.

We confess there’s many we hadn’t heard of before — ovenbird, Eastern Phoebe, black-throated green warbler, lesser yellowlegs, least flycatcher, veery, brown-headed cowbird, gadwall and so many more.

Frankly, unless the bird “brand” is obvious, like a great blue heron, osprey, bald eagle, hummingbird, cardinal, bluejay, crow, or chickadee, on our part, it’s going to be called a little bird, a woodpecker, a bigger bird or some sort of hawk, owl or duck. Mallard.

There’s a rare birds list, too.

On Dec. 27, there were confirmed sightings of a snow goose in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. And as of Jan. 1, confirmed reports of a Ross’s goose at Children’s Lake in Cumberland County. We wonder if people in those areas get as excited as Bradfordians did with the snowy owl sightings a few years ago…

There’s a section to report new bird sightings, too. A Hudsonian Whimbrel was sighted in Kane in 2022. That same year, a red-necked phalarope (a duck, we checked) was sighted at the Red Bridge recreation area of the Allegheny National Forest.

The species leader for bird counts in McKean County is Kinzua Bridge State Park, with 152 species reported — northern shrike, chickadee, crow, goldfinch, junco, mourning dove, turkey vulture, blue jay, raven, three kinds of woodpecker, robin, nuthatch, sparrow, ruffed grouse, killdeer, red-winged blackbird, yellow-bellied sapsucker (what a great name!), scarlet tanager, tufted titmouse and many more.

What we’re getting at here is this — go outside, look around. Grab a photo with your ubiquitous phone and check the Cornell Lab to verify what you saw.