by Aden Troyer | Sep 1, 2023 | 2023, 09 September, Articles & Stories, Birds, The Birders' Trail, Wrens
View the September 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Rock Wren. Photo © Zack Abbey / CC-BY-4.0. The parking lot was full. People milled around, all carrying binoculars, spotting scopes, or cameras. We found another parking area nearby, grabbed our optics, and hiked along a...
by Kevin Shank | Aug 1, 2023 | 2023, 08 August, Articles & Stories, Birds, Butterflies, Moths & Skippers, Hummingbirds, Insects & Arachnids
View the August 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest. Photo © Kevin Shank. I perched on scaffolding, twenty feet above a quiet country road. Across the road, Roaring Creek slipped and slid, curved and churned its way to the Atlantic. Before me...
by Jessica Tschetter | Jul 1, 2023 | 2023, 07 July, Articles & Stories, Birds, Gamebirds, Sparrows, Waterfowl - Geese, Swans, Ducks, Loons, Grebes
View the July 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Spruce Grouse. Photo © Jessica Tschetter. It’s early May. Summer is now installed, and so is the itch to find and photograph summer wildlife—in me anyway. The sunny afternoon seemed an ideal time to go prowling around the...
by Aden Troyer | Jul 1, 2023 | 2023, 07 July, Articles & Stories, Birds, The Birders' Trail, Warblers
View the July 2023 Nature Friend Magazine By mid-June most of our warblers are feeding young, quietly flitting about gathering food. Except for early in the day, their songs are few and far between.The second week of June, a customer mentioned coming by a local...
by Kevin Shank | Jul 1, 2023 | 2023, 07 July, Astronomy, Birds, Mailbox, Satellites
View the July 2023 Nature Friend Magazine
by Josephine Dyck | Jun 1, 2023 | 2023, 06 June Readers' Issue, Articles & Stories, Birds, Flycatchers, Mockingbirds & Thrashers, The Birders' Trail, Woodpeckers
View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Ladder-backed Woodpecker. Photo © Josephine Dyck. Melodious notes herald the coming of spring at my home in western Texas. Doves, grackles, meadowlarks, Curve-billed Thrashers, mockingbirds, and nighthawks all come back to...
by Isaac J. Lengacher | Apr 1, 2023 | 2023, 04 April, Birds, Swallows
View the April 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Last year I enjoyed watching Barn Swallows nesting and hatching babies in our barn. I even got to watch a pair build a brand-new nest constructed of mud and straw.One steamy day I was outside when my mom asked me if I had...
by Lois Tschetter | Apr 1, 2023 | 2023, 04 April, Articles & Stories, Birds, The Birders' Trail, Woodpeckers
View the April 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Pileated Woodpecker. Photo © Lois Tschetter. Spring is returning to the North. We know because it’s April—late April, in fact. But the scene out the window doesn’t support the spring-is-coming theory much. A howling wind is...
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 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 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 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 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 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...
