Marcia Bonta

  • Return of the Whip-poor-wills

    I remember 1976 and 1977 as whip-poor-will years. That was when a whip-poor-will adopted our home grounds as part of his territory, singing at dusk and dawn on our driveway and around both the guesthouse and main house. Several times our eldest son, Steve, and I sneaked down for a glimpse of him, but all…

  • Visitors from the River

    Occasionally we are reminded that the Little Juniata River flows past the northeast end of our mountain when unexpected visitors from the river appear here. Imagine, for instance, my husband Bruce’s surprise when driving down our narrow, gravel, wooded, hollow road one spring morning and encountering a large snapping turtle plodding up toward him. This…

  • Under the Spruce Grove

    Twenty-five years ago my husband Bruce and I planted 2000 Norway spruce seedlings at the top of First Field and 2000 red pine seedlings at the Far Field. The seedlings were courtesy of the Westvaco paper mill in Tyrone. The tree planter, which we hitched to our secondhand, Massey-Ferguson tractor, had been borrowed from the…

  • The Feeders at Night

    Every fall, in early November, I hang two bird feeders from our back porch latticework. One is an open, wooden platform feeder that has been batted apart at least three times by black bears and patiently repaired by my husband Bruce. That feeder is now almost 34 years old and has great sentimental value to…

  • South for the Winter

    Sometime in mid to late August, the first wave of migrating warblers moves through our yard. They come in early morning to feed after flying much of the night. Their appearance signals the passing of the first cold front with a north wind and clear skies that helps them fly more quickly and easily. This…

  • Minstrel of the Woods

    I don’t have to leave this planet to hear the music of the spheres. Surely, listening to wood thrushes singing is as ethereal an experience as any mortal can hope for on earth. Many evenings, when I step outside, wood thrush song envelops me and it seems as if all the world’s wood thrushes are…

  • Naming the Benches

    Getting older is not a condition I like to admit to. Putting benches beside our trails, as my husband Bruce wanted to do, struck me as an acknowledgment that time, for us, was marching on. I preferred to sit on a hot seat at the base of a tree at one with Nature. “Well, I…

  • Redtails in Love

    March is courtship time for red-tailed hawks. Most have spent their winters farther south, but for over a decade we have had at least one in residence throughout the winter months. We’re liable to hear its piercing whistle on even the coldest winter days or watch it being harassed by the local crow gang. Often…

  • Middle Creek Midwinter

    Two miles from Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, the sky suddenly filled up with skeins of greater snow geese. It was mid-February, just after a rainstorm, and my husband Bruce, my father and I had come to see the amazing spectacle of greater snow geese (Anser caerulescens atlantica) on State Game Lands 46 in Lancaster…

  • Arizona’s Passenger Pigeon

    Habitat loss is affecting wildlife populations worldwide. Although the loss of forests has received the most attention, the loss of native grasslands is even more devastating. Scientists estimate that 99% of our native prairie is gone. Here in Pennsylvania grassland bird populations have declined significantly in the southeast and south central parts of the state…

  • Early Sounds of Spring

    By early February, bird calls begin morphing into songs. In the “fee-bee” of black-capped chickadees, the “peter-peter” of tufted titmice, and the more complex, bright caroling of house finches, I hear the beginning sounds of spring. At first the resident birds seem unaffected by the weather. The overwintering song sparrow sings “hip, hip hoorah, boys,…

  • Superflight

    Last winter was the kind of winter birders dream of. Not only did we have a classic “irruption” of winter birds from the north but a “superflight” in which all the highly irruptive finches–pine grosbeak, purple finch, common redpoll, hoary redpoll, pine siskin, evening grosbeak, red crossbill, and white-winged crossbill, as well as the red-breasted…