Autumn Offspring: Avian Collaboration with Willistown Conservation Trust

Natural Lands is pleased to collaborate with Willistown Conservation Trust (WCT) on a joint bird walk at Rushton Woods Preserve, co-led by Aaron Coolman of WCT, and Debbie Beer of Natural Lands. Note details below and register directly with WCT at the weblink provided.

As summer temperatures linger on, we receive hints of winter’s coming. Food sources begin to waver. Northerly winds bring waves of cooler temperatures from boreal forests, and along with it returns the excitement of fall migration. In late summer, invertebrate adults, nymphs, and larvae emerge, creating a perfect storm of conditions that usher along rainbows of avian sprites as they make their way to warmer climates of the south, where food abundance dwarfs that of what is available on their breeding grounds. By this time of the season, bird numbers have substantially increased – an entire continent’s new crop of juveniles brought into the world for the first time. This new cohort will learn how to forage for themselves, practice courting and territorial song which sounds like teenage voice cracklings, and most of all, travel extraordinary distances en route to warmer climes and food availability.

Autumn songbirds of Southeastern PA include insectivorous specialists such as Olive-sided Flycatcher, Bay-breasted and Connecticut Warbler, and Philadelphia Vireo. Frugivores that gorge on the abundant fruits and berries from our native shrubs bring Gray-cheeked and Swainson’s Thrush through our corner of the world. All these and more use the Willistown countryside as refugia and refueling stopovers, which is on full display at WCT’s premier nature preserve, Rushton Woods and Farm.

Join leaders Aaron Coolman of Willistown Conservation Trust, and Debbie Beer of Natural Lands, as they guide a group of wildlife enthusiasts through the mysteries of brownish juveniles and the worn plumages of proud new parents, all found in our own backyard of Rushton Farm and Woods Preserve. This is the second of a two-part collaboration between Willistown Conservation Trust and Natural Lands.