Pennsylvania Game News - July 2021 - 62

began a career as a natural-history writer
based on my observations of our unique
property.
Our sons became amateur naturalists
and eager explorers of the woods, stream,
old fields, and even the rockslides on the
mountain.
Much has changed in 50 years, both
for us and our sons. We have grown old
and our sons middle-aged. They have
stayed in our guesthouse, sometimes
for months, and even years at a time. All
three have retained a love and interest
in the natural world wherever they have
lived.
Bruce retired from his librarian position
at Penn State more than two decades
ago, and much of the repairs and upkeep
of our home, property, and access road
are now done by our caretaker couple.
But I keep obsessively walking, recording
and observing the natural world
and the many changes I have seen here
over the last half century. I've kept a
nature journal, written innumerable columns
and articles in newspapers and
magazines and five books about our
mountain home. My sons and I have
lists of the plants and wildlife we have
observed on our square mile of land, and
just last year, Mark added considerably
to our bird list. Dave's specialties have
been trees and wild plants, and Steve's
have been birds and insects. Our caretakers,
with their trail cams and own observations,
also have added to our knowledge
of what is happening here.
During our first decade, our birdfeeders
attracted dozens of evening grosbeaks
and American tree sparrows, as
well as common winter birds such as
tufted titmice, black-capped chickadees,
and dark-eyed juncos, and one year we
even had an immature red-headed woodpecker
and a hen pheasant. Even though
62
folks all over Pennsylvania last fall reported
grosbeaks, not one came here.
Our tree sparrow numbers are now between
two and four for most of the winter,
and we've never seen another hen
pheasant or red-headed woodpecker at
our feeders.
But Mark established last year that
we continue to host most bird species we
recorded that first decade, although their
numbers have declined. Our wild turkey
numbers, however, have increased greatly
since then, and only a few years ago,
bald eagles became a common sight flying
above First Field.
That first decade we had many midsized
mammals - woodchucks, opossums,
raccoons, striped skunks, and red
and gray foxes. But in the 1980s the first
black bears arrived, followed by Eastern
coyotes in the 1990s and fishers in this
century. Our caretakers, a few of our
hunters, and our sons have seen bobcats,
but so far, I have not.
We always have had many eastern
cottontails and white-tailed deer; numerous
mouse, shrew, and vole species;
least, long-tailed and ermine weasels;
gray, fox and red squirrels; eastern chipmunks;
porcupines; and mink - altogether
more than 40 mammal species. But,
this century, white-nose syndrome has
killed most of our bat species.
Our greatest losses, in addition to the
bats, have been tree species. When we
first arrived here, a large butternut tree,
also known as " white walnut, " grew in
the guesthouse yard, and we found a
couple more scattered throughout our
forest. But after a few years, a non-native
fungus killed them. They produced nuts
consumed by both humans and wildlife
and they were tastier than their close
relation, the still-thriving black walnut
trees.
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2021

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