Birding Benezette

Located in the "PA Wilds" of north central Pennsylvania, Benezette township is best known for its biggest tourism resource: wild elk. Every year, particularly in the fall, photographers and wildlife enthusiasts of all kinds visit this small village in hopes of witnessing bugling bulls in the scenic backcountry. But, outside of the fall, Benezette is just as wonderful a place - particularly if you hate crowds, and love birds.

I visit Benezette several times a year, being that it's only about 2 hours from my home in Altoona. In fact, the growing elk herd has spread so much, that you can see them in many counties across the northern tier, as healthy herds spread into adjacent counties. But, I still find myself drawn into The Benezette Hotel for smoked wings and blueberry wheat ale, Benezette Wines for a Jolly Juice slushy, and Elk Life for a delicious ice cream cone. Afterall, foods can be just as key in making an experience memorable. And, in all locations I've mentioned, my husband and I have become a familiar face and treated with kindness.

Yesterday, the birds didn't disappoint - and while we generally don't have a ton of luck elk viewing in the spring, we saw around a dozen or so elk during our expedition. We saw bulls with delicate velvet antlers, and cows that looked about ready to give birth.

Of course, antlers aren't that impressive at this point in the year, so it makes it easier to focus more on the birds. As an avid birder, Benezette offers species that are not as common in my home county of Blair. For example, we tallied several Veery, a thrush that is among my favorite of all singers. Check out the various sounds this bird makes on Cornell Lab's "All About Birds" page.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Veery/sounds

Wild Turkeys were very active in the evening, at at the Winslow Hill viewing area I enjoyed watching a mature gobbler strut with four hens in the field. They were at such a distance that my camera didn't allow for good photos, but up the road a quarter mile three young "Jakes" pecked around and posed for me. Here are two of them:

As we perused the road leading up to Winslow Hill, my husband and I pulled over to watch a Turkey Vulture feed on a gray squirrel that had been hit by a vehicle. As natures clean-up crew, I have much appreciation for our vultures and what they do.

Many of the birds at Benezette are purely seasonal, and will be gone by the time elk tourism season is peaked. Barn Swallows were observed collecting mud for their nests at Winslow Hill, and various Warblers (including the Yellow Warbler pictured below) are arriving or passing through to breed. Cliff Swallows too, frequent the Benezette Hitel parking lot when mud is present ins build their hollow mud nests under the bridge in "downtown".

While we didn't see any this trip - Winslow Hill's grassy meadows will soon be bustling with the calls of the diminutive Grasshopper Sparrow. Grasshopper Sparrows primary prey is grasshoppers, and their song is very insect like. They have flecks of yellow in their otherwise drab plumage, which actually makes for a handsome bird up close. All of these birds will leave by late summer and early autumn to head south to their wintering grounds far, far away from elk county.

And so, here was the final tally for this birding trip for Benezette, PA. Thanks for reading:

2 Canada Goose

9 Wild Turkey

3 Mourning Dove

1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo

2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird

2 Killdeer

2 Turkey Vulture

1 Red-bellied Woodpecker

1 Pileated Woodpecker

2 Northern Flicker

1 American Kestrel

2 Eastern Wood-Pewee

4 Least Flycatcher

1 Eastern Phoebe

2 Great Crested Flycatcher

5 Red-eyed Vireo

2 Blue Jay

3 American Crow

1 Common Raven

4 Black-capped Chickadee

1 Tufted Titmouse

2 Northern Rough-winged Swallow

8 Tree Swallow

13 Barn Swallow

1 White-breasted Nuthatch

3 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

4 House Wren

9 European Starling

5 Gray Catbird

2 Brown Thrasher

1 Eastern Bluebird

5 Veery

17 American Robin

5 Cedar Waxwing

5 House Sparrow

4 American Goldfinch

4 Chipping Sparrow

5 Field Sparrow

5 Song Sparrow

5 Eastern Towhee

3 Eastern Meadowlark

2 Baltimore Oriole

100 Red-winged Blackbird

2 Brown-headed Cowbird

4 Common Grackle

5 Ovenbird

2 Black-and-white Warbler

3 Common Yellowthroat

7 American Redstart

3 Yellow Warbler

1 Scarlet Tanager

5 Northern Cardinal

Number of Taxa: 52