Birds of the White Clay Creek  

    photo: J. White

New Garden Township Municipal Building, Starr & Newark Roads, Landenberg, PA

An enthusiastic group of 50 attendees, from avid birders to the most novice, gathered at 7 p.m. Nov. 5th at New Garden Township Building to see slides of, hear some calls, and learn more about the amazing variety of birds in the White Clay Valley. The range of habitats in different sections of the watershed are key to the survival of many year-round and migrating bird populations and the basis for a submission to Pennsylvania Audubon for designation as an Important Bird Area (IBA).

Derek Stoner, President of Delmarva Ornithological Society, and on staff at Delaware Nature Society, birds frequently in the watershed.  He also had just completed the IBA submission in which he reviewed information from the recent Pennsylvania Bird Atlas and from his own bird surveys on select properties.

During his presentation, Derek presented amazing and beautiful close-up photographs of birds, nests, and young, which he took with a standard digital camera using a 10x lens.  He also accompanied his photographs with entertaining anecdotes from his hours spent surveying the field and led us through a list of common and not so common birds of the watershed, habitat by habitat, including forest, thickets, grass and meadow, and stream corridor nesting birds and species that can be seen reliably as they simply pass through during annual migrations. 

The presentation followed a welcome by the White Clay Wild & Scenic Program and very brief annual business meeting of the White Clay Watershed Association.

View a listing of bird species found in the White Clay.

Please visit the Delmarva Ornithological Society's webpage to learn more about birds and birding events in our area.