BIRDS. We were going back through some of the earlier ‘Round the Square pieces and came across one from Feb. 12, 2017 about the Great Backyard Bird Count going on at the Kinzua Bridge State Park.
How funny that the same event is in today’s edition of The Bradford Era as well. Last year, nearly half a million people participated in the international event. According to the Audubon and Cornell Lab, 7,538 species of birds were identified in 202 countries. The Macaulay Library received 151,479 photos, videos, and sounds from last year’s count.
Pennsylvania was ranked 25th for participation in the 51 states and providences that participated. We observed 149 species in all 67 counties. The bird we saw the most was the Red-breasted Merganser; it was counted 318 times last year. The Snow Goose came in second at 150 sightings. And in third was the Evening Grosbeak with a tally of 60. The last one was counted right here in the Allegany National Forest by Peter Linsdstrom.
This year’s event runs from Feb. 16-19.
But we wondered about the next part of the RTS — back in 2017, robins had been seen in Bradford.
Not only were the robins back in McKean County very early, but they were reportedly coming in large numbers, too.
Larry Ralph Bradford reported, “The last two days we have had a flock of robins at least 100 strong pass through the neighborhood of Nelson Avenue and Gregory Avenue.” He had submitted a photo showing dark spots in the trees. “They were fast on the move seemingly feeding in trees and on the ground,” Larry added.
Anyone seen any robins yet?
