by Shalom Shirk | Mar 1, 2023 | 2023, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Birds, Herons, Egrets, & Bitterns, The Birders' Trail
View the March 2023 Nature Friend Magazine American Bittern. Photo © Shalom Shirk. Climbing off some logs in our pond, I didn’t expect the pleasant surprise God had in store for me.Wait! What was that?! A female Mallard? The bird was sitting on a log preening itself,...
by Aden Troyer | Feb 1, 2023 | 2023, 02 February, Articles & Stories, Birds, Finches, Crossbills, & Grosbeaks, The Birders' Trail
View the February 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Hoary Redpoll. Photo © Simonas Minkevius/Dreamstime.com. Two years ago, the winter brought some unusual birds to us from the North country. One of these was a Hoary Redpoll. It was coming to another birdwatcher’s front...
by Cheryl Shank | Jan 1, 2023 | 2023, 01 January, Articles & Stories, Birds, The Birders' Trail, Warblers
View the January Nature Friend Magazine MacGillivray’s Warbler. Photo © Cheryl Shank. I reread the checklist comments: “Potential MacGillivray’s or COWA/MOWA…Found and photographed better the next day. Confirmed MacGillivray’s.” The words sparkled with...
by Kevin Shank | Jan 1, 2023 | 2023, 01 January, Articles & Stories, Birds, Study Guide, The Photo Focus, Warblers
View the January Nature Friend Study Guide This is the result from my first effort. The camera was handheld. Photo © Kevin Shank. “The bird must be here,” I stated to the family as we approached the parking lot of Lake Shenandoah. Birders with cameras and binoculars...
by Titus Nierwienski | Dec 1, 2022 | 2022, 12 December, Articles & Stories, Birds, The Birders' Trail, Waterfowl - Geese, Swans, Ducks, Loons, Grebes
View the December 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Snow Geese flying. Photo © Matt Anderson/Dreamstime.com. One sunny day we decided to go to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area. After driving a ways, we stopped and watched an assortment of ducks in some mud puddles. But...
by Judah Yoder | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Articles & Stories, Birds, Cardinals, Tanagers, & Allies, Gamebirds, Herons, Egrets, & Bitterns, Thrushes, Waterfowl - Geese, Swans, Ducks, Loons, Grebes
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Wood Duck drake swimming. Photo © Cheryl Shank. Slowly, quietly, yet steadily, I crept along, my binoculars in hand. Surely I can sneak in here without some duck, goose, or beaver announcing their displeasure at my...
by Clara Detweiler | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Articles & Stories, Birds, Mammals, Waterfowl - Geese, Swans, Ducks, Loons, Grebes
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Every Monday and Thursday morning my co-teacher and I meet on the road somewhere between her house and mine for a pleasant walk to school on the opposite end of the community.Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evening, we...
by Nancy Horning | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Articles & Stories, Birds, Owls, The Birders' Trail
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Long-eared Owl. Photo © Dreamstime.com. Ice-crusted snow crunched, warning the woods of the coming intruders. Blue Jays screamed somewhere. “Are they telling the other animals we are coming?” wondered one of the younger...
by Matt Amstutz | Oct 1, 2022 | 2022, 10 October Bonus Readers' Issue, Articles & Stories, Birds, Owls, The Birders' Trail
Long-eared Owl. Photo © Matt Amstutz. Brrr. My arms trembled. My hands shook. I strained to steady the lens in the -10° C (14° F) chill. But was it the cold making me shiver? Or was something like elation pulsing through me? That owl—I had to capture its portrait—in...
by Lyndon Anthony Erb | Oct 1, 2022 | 2022, 10 October Bonus Readers' Issue, Articles & Stories, Birds, Gulls, Terns, & Skimmers, Owls, Rails, Gallinules, & Coots, Shorebirds, Sparrows, Vireos, Warblers, Waterfowl - Geese, Swans, Ducks, Loons, Grebes
Canada Warbler. Photo © Dogwood Ridge. On May 13, 2022, my brother and I, along with five others, joined my grandfather on a big day birding trip. My grandfather, Andrew Troyer, keeps an annual big day birding trip in the first or second week of May. We always have a...
by The King Family | Oct 1, 2022 | 2022, 10 October Bonus Readers' Issue, Articles & Stories, Birds, Ibises and Spoonbills
Roseate Spoonbill. Photo © Darren Shank. “Did you see this!?” Dad asked Mom when he got home from work and glanced at the newspaper.“Yeah, let’s go see them,” she replied.“Rare Roseate Spoonbills draw onlookers from near and far,” declared the headlines. The article...
by Kevin Shank | Oct 1, 2022 | 2022, 10 October Bonus Readers' Issue, Acrostic, Birds, Crossword, Ibises and Spoonbills, Matching, Puzzle, Study Guide, Warblers
by David Allgyer | Sep 1, 2022 | 2022, 09 September, Articles & Stories, Birds, Warblers, Woodpeckers
Prothonotary Warbler. Photo © Dogwood Ridge. The adventure started at dawn. The young birders still slept. The lovely smell of honeysuckle braced the morning. As the early rain squall dripped to quiet stillness, a green blur shot around the corner of the brick house...
by Eugene Martin | Sep 1, 2022 | 2022, 09 September, Articles & Stories, Birds, Blackbirds, Orioles, Meadowlarks, Butterflies, Moths & Skippers, Contest, Freshwater, Insects & Arachnids, Sparrows, Thrushes, Warblers, Water Life, Waterfowl - Geese, Swans, Ducks, Loons, Grebes
Stream and wild lupines. Photo © Dreamstime.com. With a last cautious effort, the sun finally peeked over the eastern horizon. Gaining confidence, it rose fully, flooding the earth with its warmth and light. The mist covering the vales protestingly writhed in an...
by Ezra Looy | Sep 1, 2022 | 2022, 09 September, Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Finches, Crossbills, & Grosbeaks, Hawks, Eagles, & Kites, Nuthatches, Owls, Warblers, Woodpeckers, Wrens
Blue-winged Warbler. Photo © Dogwood Ridge. Before I started my twenty-four-hour birding adventure, I knelt beside our creek and looked into the water. As I did, I prayed for a successful birding day, and I thanked God for the opportunity to do this contest.To start,...
by Daniel Murray | Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 08 August, Articles & Stories, Birds, Blackbirds, Orioles, Meadowlarks, Chickadees & Titmice, Contest, Hummingbirds, Kingfishers, Waxwings
Spring Migration Bird Contest Grand Prize It is a typical Monday morning at work in mid-May. The weather has finally dried out following the wettest April on record, and the sun is trying to peak through the clouds. I am trimming and cabling a large Bloodgood maple in...
by Isaiah Wenger, 13 | Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 08 August, Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Flycatchers, Kingfishers, Owls, Warblers
Spring Migration Bird Contest Second Place Linville Creek. Photo © Dogwood Ridge. The clock read 11:30 a.m. I was curled up on the couch flipping through the latest issue of Nature Friend, when the Spring Migration Bird Contest caught my attention. Eagerly I read,...
by Karen Mast, 17 | Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 08 August, Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Herons, Egrets, & Bitterns, Nightjars, Shorebirds, Sparrows, Warblers, Woodpeckers
Spring Migration Bird Contest 1st Place
by Blake Zimmerman, 12 | May 1, 2022 | 2022, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Finches, Crossbills, & Grosbeaks, Story Contest, The Birders' Trail, Vultures
One warm summer day, my cousin and I had a contest to see who could find the most kinds of birds, animals, trees, plants, or leaves. We met at the trail that led into the woods. Our backpacks were full of field guides, binoculars, and lunch. Our plan was to stay in...
by Galen Williams, 17 | May 1, 2022 | 2022, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Shorebirds, Story Contest, Warblers
American Woodcock. Photo © Kevin Shank. The second week of May came, and so did the warblers and other migrating species. I had spring fever. Spring, Galen, warblers—all three—go hand in hand, so off I launched toward the closest woods. A good neighbor owned the woods...
by Galen Horning, 8 | May 1, 2022 | 2022, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Finches, Crossbills, & Grosbeaks, Story Contest
Common Redpoll. Photo © Dreamstime.com. My sister looked out the window and asked, “Is that a redpoll?”We all ran for the window. By then the birds had all flown away, so we had to go over to another window. Soon we saw the birds on a little snow pile.My sister said,...
by Alexa Miller | Apr 1, 2022 | 2022, 04 April, Articles & Stories, Birds, Blackbirds, Orioles, Meadowlarks, The Birders' Trail, Warblers
Yellow Warbler. Photo © Darren Shank. It was not a good day for birds, I decided. The trees swayed in a brisk spring breeze, and gray clouds scurried overhead. The birds were probably hunkered down. My brothers, ages thirteen and six, were begging me to go warbler...
by Seth Good, 8 | Mar 3, 2022 | Articles & Stories, Birds, Cardinals, Tanagers, & Allies, Nuthatches, Pigeons & Doves, Sparrows, Thrushes, Waterfowl - Geese, Swans, Ducks, Loons, Grebes, Woodpeckers, Wrens
Sunday dawned a beautiful morning. The first birds I saw were cardinals—male and female. There were Chipping, English, and House Sparrows at the feeder. Out the kitchen window I saw a Junco and a Mourning Dove. At the feeder there were now starlings and Brown-headed...
by Julian D. Kreider, 9 | Mar 2, 2022 | 2022, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Crows, Jays, & Magpies, Hawks, Eagles, & Kites, Sparrows, Thrushes, Woodpeckers, Wrens
Red-tailed Hawk. Photo © Julian Kreider. When I was looking through the September Nature Friend, I saw the Birding with Friends Contest. I thought it would be interesting to try. I decided to make my circle in a brushy place on our six-acre property. I picked Monday,...
by Kevin Shank | Mar 1, 2022 | 2022, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Contest, From the Editor's Quill
This was a fun issue to compile. To begin with, content came from an assortment of activities that you readers participated in. They included Birding With Friends, Nature Night, Creative Writing Contest, and a “Learning by Doing” going back to a Flower Planter contest...
by Marcia Schrock, 15 | Mar 1, 2022 | 2022, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Birds, Cardinals, Tanagers, & Allies, Chickadees & Titmice, Crows, Jays, & Magpies, Finches, Crossbills, & Grosbeaks, Hawks, Eagles, & Kites, Kinglets, Nuthatches, The Birders' Trail, Thrushes, Vultures, Woodpeckers
As I went about my morning work on November 17, the lovely day beckoned me outdoors. Why not do the Nature Friend bird circle project today? The thought niggled at the back of my mind. Why not? So it was that I launched into a day of bird watching.A flock of black...
by Kevin Shank | Feb 23, 2022
The spring bird migration is underway. Birders know the delight in a fallout of warbler s in their brightly-colored breeding plumage flitting here and there, looking for insects among the newly-emerging leaf canopy of the forest. And to all you non-birders, well, you...
by Eugene Martin | Feb 8, 2022 | 2022, 02 February, Articles & Stories, Birds, Chickadees & Titmice, Contest, Finches, Crossbills, & Grosbeaks, Hawks, Eagles, & Kites, Vireos
Sharp-shinned Hawk. Photo © Kevin Shank. Slowly I walked down beside the row of trees—binoculars, field guide, pen, and paper in my hand, drinking in the beauty of the predawn morning. A killdeer called even before I got to my secluded little circle beside the placid...
by Kenneth Gingerich, 11 | Feb 1, 2022 | Articles & Stories, Birds, Contest, Herons, Egrets, & Bitterns, Warblers
Hooded Warbler. Artwork © Kenneth Gingerich. The sun had not yet risen when my brother Jesse and I neared the circle. Suddenly a Green Heron flew out of the cattails. Desperately we ran with long strides toward our circle. It was a hopeless case, but we could try. It...
by Kevin Shank | Dec 8, 2021 | 2021, 12 December, Birds, Butterflies, Moths & Skippers, Insects & Arachnids, Mailbox, Mammals
